Celtic Catalyst: Skills and Cultural Immersion

Europe Gap Year was an absolutely worthwhile experience for me. It had everything I was looking for in a gap year programme: an internship that provided me with work experience, the chance to travel and explore a new country, collaborating and living with others my own age, and the opportunity to live independently and learn to cook and clean for myself. The internship helped me to develop important skills for the future, including time/project management, different writing styles, and photography. It was a wonderful programme, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a way to spend their gap year.

I think Europe gap year was an amazing experience and I can’t believe its over its been such a blessing and I’m so lucky I’ve found it. I’ve met so many amazing people and have had so many once in a lifetime experiences and I’ve gained so much it , from learning to plan projects how to communicate better, how to live independently, how to manage time and money. The reason i picked it was because i didn’t really know if i wanted to go straight into college and have to do school for another four years. But its really opened my eyes to so many new things. I loved being able to experience all the different cultures we came into contact with. A huge passion of mine is skateboarding and one of my main dreams is to travel and skate the whole world and Europe gap year has already given me a big taste of that dream from being able to skate both main city’s of Scotland Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Have you ever had a moment in your life where you know what you're doing is important? That is- important for yourself, and the person you're becoming? For me, this was the moment I first arrived in Dublin. And the feeling only grew the longer the internship went on. From experiencing living away from my parents with two flatmates, to getting to explore the town on my own, I got a taste for what life as an adult will be like. All while having the comfort of knowing the program coordinators were right there whenever we grew unsure of something. I can confidently say that by the time I returned to Dublin airport- this time to leave the country; I had a new perspective for what it meant to live life as an individual, and how much effort it took to do so on top of whatever aspiration or dream one may follow. It is an appreciation I doubt I could have so easily gained without embarking on my own for a bit.