Many thanks to Jack who visited Sidcot last week to share a report on his recent travel experiences in Mexico. Below is an overview of his presentation to our Upper Sixth students.

"I applied for the Travel Award in 2020 and secured £850 from the Sidcot Education Trust to support my travel plans. I knew that I wanted to work in marine conservation and I found an agency called Global Vision International (GVI) following some online research. I opted for a three-month expedition that was focused on marine conservation in Mexico.

"It was a fantastic experience and something I would recommend to everyone. I left Sidcot in 2020 during Covid, having secured a place at Manchester University to study Zoology with Spanish. I decided to take a year out before commencing my degree and my aim was to use some of that year to work abroad in conservation, Covid-permitting.

"I worked during lockdown to help support the cost of my trip. With savings, work income and the Travel Award, I was able to travel to Mexico for five months in total, three of which I was volunteering with GVI and the rest was independent travel around Mexico - also good fun. I got to know the local public transport quite well! I went as a solo traveller, which I would highly recommend as it takes you out of your comfort zone, encourages you to stretch yourself and you are more likely to make new friends rather than sticking with a select few mates. I met lots of new people at GVI, who I then went on to travel with around Mexico and who are still good friends now. 

"Global Vision International is an international volunteering agency specialising in conservation and community. They are great to work with but I would recommend choosing a volunteering project that fits with something you are passionate about. 

"For my volunteering project I was based at the Puerto Morelos centre in Mexico, 30 mins from Cancun. There were 40-80 people on the same project as me depending on the time; all lovely people who shared the same passion as me. The staff were amazing, helping all the volunteers who were all at different levels of diving competency.

"There was a great community spirit on camp. A typical day would start with duties, breakfast and a base clean followed by a briefing, Spanish class, staying connected and a dive before lunch. There were up to three dives in any one day and the English students would teach English to the Spanish students and vice versa. The days usually ended with a BBQ in the evening. 

"Our volunteer aims were to observe fish, coral and invertebrates. We were monitoring an array of different things – population, health, age, population spread, as well as looking at Fish Spots and numbers of families. The purpose of Coral Watch was to monitor and check up on the effects of coral bleaching.

"During my volunteering, I also gained five new qualifications as I completed my Advanced Open Water Diving, CRRD (Coral Reef Research Diver), a Rescue qualification, Emergency First Responder and I had the opportunity to improve my Spanish language skills, all of which were really valuable additions to my CV and supported my future studies. 

"In summary, I would recommend to everyone to take a gap year. My advice would be to travel solo as it opens you up to new experiences, to find voluntary work that suits you and you will find yourself surrounded by like-minded people. Marine conservation was great for me but you might be better suited to something creative, practical or teaching.  Go for it, and if you have a trip planned, I would highly recommend applying for the Travel Award as it's a huge help towards what are increasingly expensive flight and travel costs. My thanks to the Sidcot Education Trust for enabling my adventure!"