Morgan Blanco – Getting the World

  When I started my journey abroad I had a vast amount of feelings, spreading from fear to excitement. I think I found that being a Boldleader allowed me to see that there is beauty in each of these feelings that I was having. My time abroad has been one filled with uncomfortable situations allowing for me to transform my perspectives about the world even more, and making me come alive! These feelings of vulnerability led to some of my greatest memories during my time abroad thus far. It has also allowed me to explore some of the basic human resources that I had lost, which were touch and voice. The relationships and friendships

Cody Broncucia – Navigating Challenges

Without a doubt, and without fear of overstating, the ideas and techniques that I learned from the facilitators at BoldLeaders are the reason why I decided to study abroad as a Rotary exchange student in high school and continue to travel extensively while in college. Looking back, BoldLeaders didn't just enable me to have the confidence to travel but gave me the ability to make my travel a positive experience, which has involved overcoming communication barriers, "culture-shock," a lack of infrastructure and an array of other challenging circumstances. What's kept me traveling is that fact that I love experiencing new cultures, meeting new people and experiencing new places in the not so traditional, sometimes

Savannah Ducharm – Letting Go of Bittersweet Defenses

My truth is that there are a lot of things you can say to convince yourself and other people of who you are. You can fill your lungs with what you think they want to hear. But if you do that, nothing comes back to you. You are left exasperated. Letting go isn’t comfortable, since these things become bittersweet defenses to things you feel you can’t change. In a new country, with these new people, you’ll want to hold onto these defenses more than ever. You’ll feel small at times and out of control. I used to criticize myself for holding on so tightly. You’ll see why it had to be that way. You were small

Hannah Urtz – Creation of the Self

When we set out to travel, it is often with a busy mind and a hopeful heart. Amidst the anticipation, guidebooks are consulted, weather reports are checked, and lovely screenshots of our destination begin to occupy our desktops. There is purpose in this, but this kind of preparation lacks the intention that has the power to transform a trip into a profound human experience. We travel, of course, to see new sights, taste new delicacies, and to be so deeply stirred that even our old lives may be seen through new lenses. Essentially, we look to gain vital global perspective and enjoy a respite from our regular routines. Yet, part of the beauty of leaping from one’s

Dana Mulligan – Discovering the World Within

My exchange history includes a single month in Uganda with BoldLeaders in 2013 and six months in Senegal with YES Abroad in 2015-2016. While I learned a great deal from both programs, I feel I grew far more during my month in Uganda than I did my six months in Senegal due to the BoldLeaders training, intention, and support I received before and during my time in Uganda. Traveling abroad is always a valuable experience, but there are great depths that may never be discovered if you are not actively searching for them. Being overseas can easily be a purely superficial experience. A new country has many fascinating sights, sounds, smells, and so on,

Izze Thieme – Creating Awe

I was once on a bus with two of my coaches from BoldLeaders, Michael and Charlie. We were in South Africa, finishing up our program there, when Charlie asked us this question: Can we create awe? Can we generate awe? Or is it something that simply happens to us? Throughout our travels, I thought a lot about this idea of awe and similar feelings. I experienced awe many times; as I was walking through Robben Island, as I was speaking to Dennis Goldberg, when we were running around on a beach, happy as crabs, and even when I was simply cooking food with the people I was with. Awe was around me often.  But how did it

By |2016-11-30T17:30:34-07:00March 16th, 2016|Alumni, Basic Human Resources, Participation|0 Comments

Caroline Meserve – Mind the Gap

London was great because every time I boarded the Tube I was reminded to "mind the gap" - (The motto of BoldLeaders). I minded the gap within the relationships I made there but most importantly I minded that gap between myself and my surroundings. I got to experience so much last year and it would have been a shame if I had not been truly present for it. I intentionally made choices that made me uncomfortable and more aware of these gaps. I know from my BoldLeaders training that there is so much to gain from doing what makes me uncomfortable, which is what led me to choose a year long study abroad program where I

Brian Winstanley – Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

The most impactful aspect of the BoldLeaders curriculum, for me, was the concept of becoming “comfortable being uncomfortable”. As a young high school student, this motto became a way of life for me, both in my travels through Kenya and my experiences since. The level of growth that a person experiences directly relates to their willingness to be vulnerable and learn to embrace uncomfortable, new situations because without these situations, people remain stagnant. I grew tremendously as a person throughout the BoldLeaders program because I consciously made an effort to avoid taking the easy route but instead take the more difficult, uncomfortable route that would develop me the most as a person. BoldLeaders taught

Natalie Walter – Expectations, Upset and Possibility

I traveled to Kenya in 2011 with Bold Leaders when I was 17, and I traveled to Nepal two years later. I called my BoldLeaders coach Michael a little bit before I left; I was nervous to be gone for two and a half months, with much of that time spent with no internet or phone service, no lights or plumbing. Over the phone, Michael guided me to take out a piece of paper and begin to draw. There were two paths in this drawing, starting on the left side of the paper. One started at the word “possibility,” and one started at the word “expectation.” Both paths went through an upset in the center of

Mikaela Lieb – Purposeful Participation

The opportunity to travel and practice something internal, in my experience, was a practice in consciousness-raising. It was finding something to focus and hone in on that was important to me, within myself, and to be able to practice and expand and explore it. It grew me immensely in many ways. At this point, for me, maybe even more importantly than the way it allowed me to change the way I related to myself, was how it altered the way I related to my surroundings, the country I was in, and the people around me. It created space for me to act and think in intentional ways I hadn’t considered before. I acted and thought from a

By |2017-01-25T18:56:13-07:00February 12th, 2016|Alumni, Vulnerability|0 Comments
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