Global Awareness with Carpe Diem Education

Carpe Diem International Education runs international academic programs that work with youth in an educational capacity to get them both out of the country and out of their comfort zones. We firmly believe that the greatest treasure in every being is their own self-reliance: the knowledge that "every student already has everything they could ever need." Throughout the course of our semesters, we focus much energy on helping students learn just what it means to take ownership of their lives.

Our semester programs have been running internationally since 1998 when we first launched a semester in Central America. Since then our programs have grown to include East Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia & the South Pacific, India, and South America. Our programs offer students an educational alternative to the classroom environment by making learning real and active. We fold volunteering, authentic cultural experience, travel, adventure, and language study and homestays (where appropriate) into educationally and safely structured programs.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions about our programs:
877-285-1808 or through email at info@carpediemeducation.org

Some Things Everyone Should Know About Us

  • We believe that we are the best at what we do and take pride in our ability to never settle for “good.”
  • We believe that volunteering is the best way to bridge the cultural divide; that by working side by side with the locals, something is exchanged that words simply cannot communicate.
  • We believe in the power of community. At the beginning of every semester we will sit down together and get clear about everyone’s individual reasons for doing this program. From those reasons we will design a set of agreements that we want to live with throughout the program. It is the power of the students to change those by consensus at any time.
  • We believe that everybody grows by having their comfort zones pushed in manageable amounts. Our leaders will at times push everyone’s comfort zones with assignments and activities that they believe will help each student grow.
  • We believe that the international experience is far more culturally authentic and safer without the use of drugs and alcohol.
  • We believe in the empowerment of each student. Our leaders will be asking students to organize their own portion of the program, complete with managing committees, budgets, travel, food, accommodation, and activities. Everyone will at some point work with the leaders to organize a portion of your own semester.

 

Carpe Diem Biographies

Ethan founded Carpe Diem in 2007 after a tenure as Assistant Director with its parent organization, LEAPNow, based in California. He attended Catlin Gabel, a private high school in Portland, and decided to "follow the herd" on to college for what was supposed to be an enlightening four years of higher education. However, after a disappointing freshman year for what he phrased a "lack of meaning" Ethan decided to take a leave-of-absence and travel throughout India, Nepal, Tibet and Thailand for a year that in its least was profound. Since that day, he has been a fervent advocate of the GAP Year and exploration of both the inner and outer worlds. Ethan has been a trip leader in Latin America as well as India and Asia and has traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, East Africa, and the Americas.

Ethan has been invited to speak at the City of Portland's Tri-County Diversity Conference, the International Baccaleureatte program for the state of Colorado, and many high schools and alternative education programs. He has led countless leadership training seminars, is the Executive Director of the International Carpe Diem Foundation (Carpe Diem's newest non-profit wing), and is on the board of trustees for Project Aasha (meaning "Hope" in Hindi). After taking his own "GAP Year", Ethan returned to University and quickly graduated from Willamette University in 2001 with a dual degree in English and Philosophy and a minor in Environmental Science. He reads, spends too much time contemplating the meaning of life, and holds certificates by the ManKind Project and Byron Katie, as well as having been trained in the works of Gary Zukov and Drs. Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks. Currently he is training in Aikido and working on his first novel.

To watch a you tube video of Ethan speaking at a Seattle GAP fair go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vRZ_1hyMjs

Amy Berg - Program Director. Amy is the daughter of a wildlife biologist, Amy moved around a lot as a child, but will tell you that she calls New Mexico the place where she grew up. It was there that she first began to appreciate the beauty of indigenous cultures and the natural world. She is most at home in her own skin when outside in the fresh air and taking in the wonder of the world around her. Thus her move to the Pacific Northwest.

Amy comes to Carpe Diem about 12 years after catching the international travel ‘bug’ which forever changed her. She led 2 successive groups to Kenya while a student leader at SMU after creating ‘SMU-RAW’ [Reaching Around the World] which exposed students to a developing country for the first time. After being led around a local village hospital by a small child who had fallen in love with her, she fell in love with Kenya. When she returned to the States, and after 6 months of soul-searching on the northern shores of Lake Superior in Minnesota, she altered her previous goals and became a paramedic specializing in acute care pediatric transport in Dallas, TX. She has since earned her RN and works as an emergency room nurse in Portland. Her favorite clientele are the children. Amy recently finished leading a Carpe Diem group to Fiji, New Zealand and Australia where they had a phenomenal group experience and learned everything there is to know about the Lord of the Rings.

Amy brings a wealth of enthusiasm to Carpe Diem, not to mention everything she does. She has seen and experienced first-hand the value of pushing the limits of one’s comfort zone and is happiest when challenged herself. To that end, she recently spent a month in India. It worked!

In her spare time, Amy is an avid backpacker, sport rock climber, skier, snowboarder, animal lover, Reiki practitioner, and self-proclaimed coffee snob among many other things. Some of her favorite readings include the works of the Dalai Lama, Caroline Myss, Thich Naht Hahn, and Thomas Moore.

Nannette Berg - Program Director. Though some would call it chance, anyone who knows Nannette would call it serendipity. Nannette, AKA Nannerz, came to Carpe Diem after a surprisingly meaningful rendezvous with Craig’s List. Nannerz is an avid motorcyclist and while in search of her next bike, came across Ethan Knight who just happened to be selling that classic BMW that she was looking for. Eight months later, and after a challenging and enlightening trip to India, she’s sharing her enthusiasm for personal challenge and empowerment with her work at Carpe Diem.

Nannerz grew up in Minnesota as a nature child with her best friends: the animals and her cross country skis. Spending so much time on her own, she began reading at age 3 and thus traveled in her minds eye everywhere National Geographic would take her. However, once school started, that Mid Western work ethic and traditional career expectation took over and she followed the herds through school, marriage and even the military, (not necessarily in that order). In her quest for meaning and truth, she ventured to the Pacific NW sought a degree in biblical studies, spent 5 frigid years in Alaska and has returned home to Portland where she has invested the last 13 years as a registered nurse assisting patients through the spectrum of the life span, from a dignified death on the oncology floor, to the fight for life in the emergency room.

In all of her “spare” time, Nannerz dabbles in the ‘arts’: motorcycle riding and repair, quantum physics, and energy work. As a Reiki master, she is constantly contributing to healing and empowering individuals and community. She has an affinity for anything outdoors from backpacking and rock climbing to snowboarding and mountain biking. Though she is most zen while riding her ’95 r1100r BMW, she continues her mindfulness training by enjoying the works of Carolyn Myss, Ken Wilbur, the Dalai Lama and of course Harry Potter. She will one day retreat with Thich Naht Hahn at Plum Village.

Heather Diamond - Latitudes Program Director

Heather grew up in a small town outside Chicago. When she graduated from high school, she didn’t know about gap years, so she went straight to the University of Colorado to try and figure out what she wanted to do. While she loved the outdoor activities and music scene that Boulder, CO offered, by her sophomore year she felt she needed a break from academia. She spent a semester in South America, primarily in Chile and Argentina. While the program she went on was more of a traditional academic study abroad, she felt she learned and grew more in that semester than any previous semester. Living with host families, immersing herself in a new language and culture, and studying topics that really interested her opened her eyes to the world in a whole new way. She returned to Boulder with a new passion for travel and learning. So much so, that she quickly began looking for other ways to go abroad.

Her first program had been in the company of a group of other American students – the next time she wanted something that would both challenge her in new ways and allow her more independence. She ended up finding an internship at an English language immersion school in India. Working as a “cultural exchange teacher”, she taught English, music, dance, and drama to Indian students from pre-school to high school. With few other foreigners in the Punjabi city she worked in, she made friends mostly with the Indian teachers and students at the school. Practicing English and Hindi, celebrating holidays and festivals, and also taking time to travel through India thoroughly convinced her of the transformative potential of cultural exchange.

Heather returned to Boulder to complete her BA in International Affairs. She knew she wanted to keep exploring the world after graduation, but also realized she knew little of her own country. So the summer after she graduated, she joined a group bicycling across the USA fundraising for environmental and experiential education programs. Moving slowly across the country, seeing new places and talking to people about environmental issues fueled her interest in alternative education.

She worked briefly as an aide in Special Education classrooms back in IL before deciding to move to Costa Rica, where she spent a year working with Costa Rica high school students, coordinating scholarships and Environmental Education workshops. She spent another 6 months working at a small hotel in Costa Rica before heading back to the states to study Environmental Education at University of Washington. Observing her interests in both travel and experiential education, one of her mentors encouraged her to apply to lead volunteer programs abroad. She started by leading a high school summer program to Costa Rica and loved being able to share her passions with others. She applied to lead semester programs with Carpe Diem and has had the amazing opportunities to lead in Central and South America, India, and the South Pacific, as well as a summer program in East Africa. While she knows she will always have a passion for travel, Heather is thrilled to have the chance to work with Latitudes students and help others find opportunities to go abroad.

Drew Edwards - Latitudes Program Director

Five years ago Drew decided that he was ready for something different in his life; something really different. After growing up in the suburbs of Chicago and spending the majority of his life in the Midwest always teetering on the edge of the box but never exploring too far outside of it, he decided to pick up and hit the road; having no idea that he would not get off it for a long time to come.

The journey has taken him all over the world. Starting as a rock climbing instructor and high ropes course supervisor in Wisconsin, Drew was able to explore the beauty of the glacial carved Midwest while enjoying one of his biggest passions. Moving on from there Drew began to work as a Trip Leader for international travelers keen on traveling through the United States. His summers then consisted of traveling, camping, and hiking through out the US and Canada while leading a group of eager international travelers through our majestic country. Dabbling in rock climbing, mountain biking, white water rafting, trekking, snow boarding, and just spending almost every night under the stars in State and National parks cultivated within himself a deep love and connection with nature which continues to serve as the basis for his spirituality today.

Because of a desire to deeply serve the world and its people as well as his love for the outdoors, Drew began to work as a Wilderness therapist for Alternative Youth Adventures in the back country of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. Leading 60 day intensive backpacking trips for at risk adolescents transformed his life, he learned as many lessons from his students as they did from him. Drew’s hope and intention was to provide them with a set of soft and hard skills that would help them to fulfill their own purpose in life. The work was some of the most rewarding and challenging of his life at that point and he is eternally grateful for the experience.

Drew began leading trips for Carpe Diem Education in the Fall of 2008. To date Drew has led four amazing trips to the South Pacific, South America and India.While working for Carpe Diem Drew and his students have volunteered all over the world, including in a small village in Fiji where a baby was named after him; contributed to conservation and eco projects in New Zealand and Australia; explored Buddhism in various monasteries, ashrams and sacred sites throughout the world; crossed a mountain pass at 5,400 meters trekking through the Himalayas; and experienced first hand the power of learning from and with foreign cultures.

Truly feeling like a product of all the cultures he has had the fortune to be a part of he is thrilled to bring his passion and love of life to the Latitudes Program of Carpe Diem. As he transitions into a slightly less nomadic life he looks forward to making use of the lessons he has learned to make the program the best it can be while continuing to learn and grow surrounded by people he loves, delicious coffee, and all the wonderful outdoor opportunities that abound in this very green part of the country.