Outdoor Adventure: Welcome to your Classroom

We believe that time spent in nature is good for the body, mind and soul. 

Here in the sun, rain, hail, snow and under rainbows you’ll explore and connect with Ireland’s natural wonders while challenging yourself to push past your perceived limitations. 

We will make full use of the superb natural resources that we have on our doorstep and enjoy daily, instructed adventures in:  

• Hiking
• Surfing
• Kayaking
• Cliff Jumping
• Camping
• Climbing

Our outdoor adventures are nearly all a ½ day in length, meaning no gruelling multi-day hikes or shower-less weeks! And you don’t have to be a super-adventurer, hiker, surfer, outdoors-person to LOVE the Outdoor Adventure aspect of this program. In fact, many of our gappers have never been on a ‘proper’ hike in their lives previous to the program while others will have completed outdoor programs in the past. 

Whatever your level of experience, the goal is for each student is to progress in the outdoor adventure activities from their own starting point to a new personal best throughout the program. All that’s required to achieve this is an open mind, a decent set of water-proofs and a determined spirit! 

Leadership Skills

Leadership is about enhancing one’s personal strengths, working effectively within a team and developing the characteristics of a leader best suited to your personality type.
To achieve these goals we interweave a combination of leadership workshops, group projects, team-building games, student leaders, role modelling and reflective practices.

Leadership Workshops

Our Leadership Workshops are taught in our outdoor classroom at Castle Park (perhaps the world’s most scenic classroom!?). They are conversation and experience-based workshops that are broken up with games, challenges and journaling designed to get students thinking about new concepts and examine themselves on a deeper level. The leadership workshops are taught by Irish Gap Year Directors Ryan Allen and Killian O’Kelly as well as Irish Gap Year Program Leaders. Some of the topics include: 

Principles of Personal Leadership: Personal leadership vs. personal management and knowing the difference. Developing a compass of values and principles to navigate the map of life. 

Circle of Influence & Personal Mission Statement: Where and how to we develop identity and what are the contributing factors? What type of person do you want to be? What would you like to accomplish or contribute to the world? What values are these based on? In this workshop we will identify our circle of influence and create a Personal Mission Statement. 

What Makes a Great Leader? Who are great leaders you’ve known and what are their qualities? How did it feel to be around these people? Identifying the main types of leadership and completing a leadership self-assessment. 

Deciphering team dynamics: What makes for a successful team? What are the key personalities and traits? How do we define and measure the success of a team? 

Communication Skills: What messages are we sending and are these intended? What ways do we communicate non-verbally and how can we tap into the power of non-verbal communication?

Problem Solving: How we can think outside the box and work as a team to solve complex problems by breaking them down.

Group Projects: 

Group projects are used to create a strong bond and healthy group-dynamic throughout the program. They are also an excellent way to put into practice the topics covered in our leadership workshops and develop self-governance and personal responsibility amongst our students. 

At the outset tasks set in the group projects are small in scale and achievable, however as the program progresses students will be challenged to set broader goals for themselves and the group.

Some of our Group Projects: 

• Mountain Rescue Challenge: Through our mountain skills workshops we will teach you how to navigate your way through the mountains and forests of the northwest of Ireland. Then you’ll have to locate a mock-casualty deep in the mountains and bring them back to safety. 
• Lough Erne Challenge: A scavenger hunt by boat of one of Ireland’s largest and most scenic waterways, you’ll be competing against one another in small teams to locate castles and other iconic historical locations on the lake. 
• Wild Ireland Challenge: This challenge is the capstone project of our ‘Wilderness Skills’ series of workshops and involves ‘Bear Gryllsing’ it with your cohort for three days in Northern Ireland’s largest forest. 
• Student-led Trip: This four-day expedition around Ireland gives students free-rein to choose their own adventure (as a group of course!) and develop a travel itinerary anywhere in Ireland. The students will budget, plan, book and execute the entire expedition themselves with the support of their program leaders. 

Student Leaders

Time as a student leader allows you to play an active role in the development of your own education. When an experience is earned, it is more meaningful and beneficial. This process is known as self-governance and is a valuable life skill that you’ll take away from the Adventure & Leadership Program. 

You will have multiple opportunities to play the role of student leader, which sees each student in a leadership role, revolving every three days. As we progress through the program a student’s leadership style and their role within the team will evolve and grow offering invaluable applied leadership practice.  After your time as student leader, you’ll self-evaluate your leadership skills and reflect on the experience with your program leader, identifying both strengths and areas to improve. 

Your time as a student leader will be fun, challenging and constructive. As many have said in the past, there is no substitute for learning by doing!

Example Student Leader Roles: 

• Assisting Program Leaders on activities 
• Preparing the group for expeditions and outdoor adventures
• Day-to-day management of the household (house chores!) 
• Designing and executing projects in the areas of volunteering, outdoor adventure and cultural outings
• Small presentations on Irish history. On-site and brief, they are great peer-to-peer learning opportunities. 

Cultural Immersion: Live like locals

We believe that becoming deeply involved in another culture challenges students to expand their world view, while developing empathy for other cultures and people.

Students on our Adventure & Leadership Gap Year Program are going to have the opportunity to really delve into Irish culture by living and volunteering within our local community (by the way, Bundoran is one of one of Ireland’s coolest small towns!) and exploring the world famous cultural and heritage sites that tell the story of Ireland.

As with all of our cornerstones, cultural immersion is entwined within the larger framework of the program. For example, while volunteering with Liquid Therapy you’ll spend time getting close with a local family, getting to know them and their children on a deeper level. While adventuring and kayaking around the Irish coast students will learn the history of many castles that dot the coastline, telling their portion of Ireland’s long history. During your free time you may even venture to the world-famous Irish pubs, experiencing the epicentre of modern Irish culture while sharing a pint with the locals!

Ultimately our students will come away from this program with a unique experience of Irish culture that few visitors are afforded and memories of Ireland that will last a lifetime.