Dylan Spivack

Dylan Spivack is a Humanities student at Oberlin College from Winwood, North Carolina. She joined VAC as part of her Gap Year and completed an internship with a Cape Town nonprofit supporting women and children affected by domestic violence and abuse. Her experience gave her the opportunity to observe the organisation’s work closely while learning an important lesson about the many different ways a person can contribute.

I loved my time in Cape Town. I stayed for two months, which felt like a great amount of time, although if I could do it again I would probably stay for two and a half or three months.

One of the things I appreciated most about VAC was the balance between structure and freedom. There was always support available when I needed it, but I still had the independence to make the experience my own. The orientation was a great way to settle in, and I made so many friends through the program. From the beginning, the VAC staff made me feel welcome and comfortable, which made arriving somewhere completely new much easier.

My internship also taught me something I wasn’t necessarily expecting. I learned a huge amount simply by observing the work happening around me. It made me realise that you do not always need to have the “big” role in something to learn from it or contribute to what is happening. At the same time, I learned how important it is to be intentional about asking for opportunities that relate to your own interests. That is something I would definitely encourage future interns to do: be curious, ask questions and communicate clearly about what you are hoping to learn.

I also really enjoyed living so close to the other participants. Having everyone nearby made it easy to spend time together and helped Cape Town begin to feel familiar surprisingly quickly.

Overall, I’m very grateful that I had the chance to spend this part of my Gap Year in Cape Town. I met wonderful people, had the freedom to explore, and came away having learned a lot about myself, the kind of experience I value, and how much you can learn simply by paying attention to the people and work around you.