Supported Internships - Program Summary

We travel initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves … We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate … We travel, in essence, to become young fools again—to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more. ----- Pico Iyer

Create an amazing and very affordable semester of "out-of-the-box" learning for yourself with a supported internship.  This could be for a gap semester, or study abroad semester in college, as part of a gap year, or as time "on" at any point in your life.   

With a Supported Internship you can choose from LEAPNOW's unparalleled database of over 6,000 internship, work exchange, apprenticeships and study options.    (See a general list of internship options below.)

A Supported Internship gives a personal growth context to your self-designed experiential semester with a pre- and post-internship retreat.   The retreats give you time and guidance to orient yourself fully to independent travel and your internship, then time to learn from the experience, then integrate it into your life or course of study.

The Supported Internship is the only way other than LEAPYEAR where you can access the full database of 6,000 options in 126 countries to:  

The Supported Internship is a simple, inexpensive, and creative way of learning for anyone who would like to enhance their connection to the world and themselves. It is a way of learning what you want to know that puts YOU and your unique life path at the center of your education - where the context for learning is your inner journey and life purpose in a learning environment of YOUR choice.

Supported Internships at a Glance

Supported Internships Program Map

Program Overview

Pre-Retreat

Internship Placement Process: Choose an internship from a database of over 6,000 options. Dream big and act globally.

Once accepted into the program, each participant will go through a guided internship placement process in the weeks leading up to the Supported Internship. Students are able to tailor their interests and passions into a self-designed and self-selected semester of hands-on learning and cultural immersion. With an amazing and unparalleled database of over 6,000 individual internships – we offer the possibility of traveling to one of 126 countries throughout the world to do three months of service, apprenticeship, and skill building. See below for a more detailed list of possible internships.

Retreat 1

Held at our Northern California campus, 4 days long, 8-12 participants

Each Supported Internship semester starts when a group of individuals meet for the first time at our residential retreat center in rural northern California. During this first retreat, participants have an opportunity to become quiet and focus inward in order to be able to hear and move with the deeper currents of their lives. We will take time to set intentions and goals for the semester and build a framework for using the internship as a pathway for discovering more about ourselves and the world. The first retreat will also logistically prepare students for international travel.

Travel Preparation:  Learn invaluable travel tips as you participate in workshops on health and safety, packing, hygiene and food/water issues. Exchange cultural presentations with fellow travelers and learn about cultural norms.
Intentions and Purpose: Look closely at your strengths and challenges and spend time setting intentions and goals for your journey.
Movement: Learn movement and yoga practices to build more awareness to how you move through the world. Learn practices to help you embody experience and stay present and healthy while you travel.
Build Community: Build the foundations for a supportive traveling community by developing conscious communication skills, participating in workshops, movement classes and cooking organic meals from scratch together.
The Golden Thread:  Slow down and learn how to use this travel experience to identify the Golden Thread of your life - your life’s purpose.

Solo Internship
After four days of preparation, participants will embark on an independent journey to their chosen destination.

This internship is a primary focal point of the Supported Internship learning journey. It is chosen from over 6,000 options in 126 countries. We have amassed this database through travel, networking and research since 1977, and it is one of the largest of its kind in the world.  During the internship, Supported Internship students live, study and travel in a region of their choice for up to 12 weeks. Internships include the following and much, much more:

Living and travel expenses during the internship are paid by the participant and vary widely. Many organizations offer a room and board exchange for volunteers or have a minimal food cost to participants. In general, service-based internships are significantly less expensive than those where students “consume“ traditional education (ex. taking classes).  It also might be possible to get a paid internship, if you have experience in a specific field, or are willing to stay in the U.S.

Although they travel alone to individual internships, participants can enjoy the benefits of being supported by their newly formed traveling community. Connected to each other and LEAPNOW staff through an email list-serve, they are able to maintain the context for their journey, even amidst the newness and challenge of living and working in a new culture. The curriculum continues with optional bi-weekly readings and students are encouraged to share stories, challenges, fears and important milestones in their solo-adventure.

Retreat 2
Held at our Northern California campus, 4 days long

At the end of the internship, students return to our California retreat center to digest and integrate their experience. By reconnecting to the group and taking time to listen and reflect, students are able to more effectively integrate their experience into the bigger context of their lives and educational paths. It is this reflective process that completes the experiential learning cycle. Often, this is when the greatest learning occurs – lessons which are often missed if there is no time set aside for digestion. This retreat also aims to work as a catalyst, providing space for the student to envision their next steps using their new skills and awareness.

Preparation for Return Home:  Prepare for reverse-culture shock, and get support to creatively and consciously re-enter your community back home. Learn about alternative educational opportunities and get resources to create lifelong pathways for learning.
Intentions and Purpose: Review your intentions and goals. Celebrate successes, harvest the learning in a conscious community. Participate in a workshop to create a purpose to guide your life. Set intentions for the next phase.
Movement: Participate in daily movement and yoga practices to connect you to your body as you make your re-entry into you ‘old life’ as a ‘new person.’
Build Community: Deepen your relationships with your travel community. Share pictures, stories, challenges, and adventures with the group that has helped support and guide you through your journey. Connect through movement, workshops and cooking.
The Golden Thread:  The quiet of our rural retreat center will allow you to slow down and give yourself space to integrate the experience for yourself before you go back to your friends and family. Here you will use your reflection and intention setting as a way to find clarity and help define the Golden Thread of your life's purpose.

How to use Supported Internships

Whatever its destination, what sets a sacred journey apart from an everyday walk, an adventure, or a tourist trip is the spirit in which it is undertaken. It is sacred if it sensitizes the individual to the deeper realities of his own being and of the world about him – if it brings together the inner and outer worlds, the physical landscape serving as a mirror for the inner one.
Roger Housden – Sacred Journeys in the Modern World

 

Supported Internships are a life-sized chunk of education that is truly meaningful, flexible, self-directed and focused, and that can be naturally "plugged" into many stages of the adult life journey:

LEAPNOW, 11640 Hwy 128, Calistoga, CA 94515  |  Phone (888) 424-5327  |  Fax (707) 431-8479  |