Pacific Discovery is a small organization and is very personable. Our team takes an active interest in each student’s journey with Pacific Discovery. We deliberately use an overseas adventure travel environment to maximize the educational and life-skills potential for our students. Our programs are made up of six different but interrelated components – experiential education, service projects, cultural immersion, international travel, adventure education, and personal and leadership development. We facilitate these program elements to maximize the educational opportunities making our programs so much more than a travel or traditional study abroad experience.
Our programs are meticulously researched and individually designed by our Program Directors. We continually refine our programs so that they are cutting-edge in the field of experiential education. Every program is a very special and unique experience. We work directly with each individual student and family to ensure programs are a good fit and help students gain as much as they can from their program experience. The Program Directors and a small team of dedicated staff are involved in every aspect of the programs – from answering phone and email inquiries to developing and running our programs. As a small educational travel organization, we are able to offer some of the most affordable Gap Year programs while maintaining integrity and excellence. If you want to travel with a small organization offering 'real' unsantized experiences; if you want to travel with a group of like-minded people who become family; if you want your sides to hurt from laughing; if you want a program that's like a shot of adrenaline, snapping you into the present moment, engaging you, then holding your interest through a deliberate series of challenging and rewarding experiences, facilitated to enable learning and growth...then cool, join us!
We have undergone and maintain comprehensive accreditations with the Gap Year Association (USA), Year Out Group (UK), and OutdoorsMark (NZ). We have chosen to go through a rigorous accreditation process with these bodies to ensure that Pacific Discovery has cutting edge ‘best practice’ policies in the gap-year and outdoor education fields and to assure the students and families we work with that we maintain the highest safety and program standards in the industry.
Pacific Discovery has no religious affiliations and has no bias for or against any religion. We embrace diversity and are happy to have students of any faith join our programs and will happily accommodate religious students so long as their observances do not adversely impact their group mates.
Each program varies in physical challenge, wilderness expeditions, and service-learning projects; however, they all are designed to push your comfort zones and facilitate a meaningful experience. If you are unsure of which program you want to participate in, contact us and we will help you to find the right fit. You can also check out our program specific itineraries for a day-to-day schedule of each program, or take our gap semester and summer program quiz.
Our published age range is 17-22. We will also take participants up to 26 years of age if they are still a student or have recently graduated. In either case, we reserve the right to decline applicants outside the 17-22 age range and require those applying to contact us before registering.
Our minimum group size is 8 students and our maximum is either 12 or 14 (varies by program). Research into experiential education programs has found that the size of the group has a great deal of bearing on the success of the program. The ideal size being an interdependent peer group with between 7 - 15 participants.
Our programs are open to anyone, students and non-students, aged 17-22 years old. Anyone within this age range who meets our essential eligibility requirements may apply.
The majority of students come from North America (USA and Canada). Students regularly join us from Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. We have also had students from Bermuda, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, South Africa and South Korea. We enjoy having students from other countries and encourage you to join us.
