Owen W, California, USA (2021)

Owen joined the VACorps program in Cape Town in January 2021 as part of his GAP year. He participated in a political science internship at an NGO that advocates for a number of important political issues in South Africa. Owen will be attending Georgetown University in the Fall of 2021, where he will be studying international politics. 

“Visiting Cape Town had always been on my bucket list, so I was ecstatic when I learned that I had the chance to live here for three months. Since the first half of my gap year had been mostly traveling for fun, I wanted to spend the second half doing something that would involve work and would help prepare me for college. Arriving in Cape Town I was both excited and apprehensive about what I would experience over the next three months. Any doubts I had quickly evaporated though, as I spent my orientation week meeting fellow interns and beginning to explore Cape Town. After living here for three months, I can definitely say that Cape Town is one of the coolest places I have ever been. The amount of activities that you can do here is insane, let alone the incredible food, culture, and scenery. My favorite times here were the weekends because we got chances to do fun activities like skydiving, sandboarding, wine tasting, hiking, and many other things. I particularly enjoyed the VACorps weekly activities because they allowed us to do things that would otherwise be difficult to organize, like visiting Cape Point. I am so grateful for my time in South Africa and I will miss it dearly once I am gone.”