Southeast Asia evokes converse images of palm-fringed rice paddies and the cacophony of tuk-tuks flying through the streets; the smells of food carts overloaded with sumptuous treats and hammocks strung on empty beaches; pious monks in orange, walking into ornate temples, clutching their iPhones. This is Southeast Asia.
We are often asked how ARCC’s summer community service programs for high school students and gap year programs for high school graduates were conceived and created. We’ve been running summer programs for teens for over three decades. When we were founded, in 1983…
We have been operating international service programs for teens in middle school and high school for the past 25 years. Although we’ve grown a successful business over that time, we are most proud of the profound impact our service travel programs have had on our students, often getting them to see the world–and themselves–through a different lens.
We often get calls asking which of our summer service travel programs are the best fit for middle school students. With tens-of-thousands of middle schoolers participating on ARCC programs over the past 3 decades, we have learned that travel is one of the best ways for young people to gain perspective, broaden their horizons, become more independent, and learn more about themselves… also, these trips are pretty darn fun! Here at ARCC Programs, we have 6 different middle school travel programs both in the United States and abroad that are a great fit for middle school students who are currently in 7th or 8th grade.
These reflections are written by ARCC Gap Semester students from the first month of ARCC’s Fall 2018 Gap Semester in Asia. This 90 day Gap program offers educational, volunteer, and community service opportunities as well as cultural immersion in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. The first month of this Gap Year Progam for these students was spent exploring the culture and history of China.
ARCC Summers are filled with adventure, discovery, and service, but most of all they are full of memories. There is no better way to capture these memories than with a picture. This year the theme of the ARCC Alumni Photo Contest is “What is your favorite ARCC memory?” and we are looking for pictures that represent the memorable adventures, impactful service projects and meaningful connections that make ARCC summers unforgettable.
After nearly 36 years in the industry, and our eighth year of running Gap Year programs, we are very excited to announce that we have recently received our accreditation through the Gap Year Association (formerly the American Gap Association).
The Gap Year Association (GYA) was founded in 2012 as a non-profit organization setting standards for organizations within the Gap Year industry and working to progress the Gap Year movement for high-schoolers around the country. Gap Year programs have been growing in popularity and acceptance for many decades. In recent years Gap Year programs like ours are seeing increasing participation from students in the United States and around the world.
ARCC programs are not so much trips, but rather, temporary portable universes. They are fleeting, unique, self-contained. Bonds are formed that belie the amount of time participants have spent together. Levels of depth and self-reflection and growth are reached that not easy to come by in regular daily life. The programs are this way by design, on purpose. They are this way because participants are encouraged to be present, to look…
We always love it when we hear from students after their summer adventure with ARCC has to come an end. Recently we caught up with Thailand: Hill Tribe Impact alumni Paige Dobrzynski to chat about her experience with, the memories that stay with her still today, and where her adventures might take her next! A North Carolina native…
In Thai, the word for river is Mae Nahm, which translates to “mother water.” Each river, then, is known first as mother, then as its specific name. This phrasing is no coincidence or happenstance of homonyms. Thai’s have one tone for mother and rivers are revered as that type of provider
