Welcome to our forum for courses in the field. The Yak Board is a digital group journal where students and staff share photos, stories, reflections and group updates while on course. Check out our Featured Posts below or explore Yaks by program by clicking on the icons above.
We encourage friends and families to subscribe to get updates for courses that are in the field. Just click the SUBSCRIBE TO UPDATES button, enter your email, and confirm your subscription in your inbox.
Subscribe to Updates
Pick a program below to receive updates from the field. You will receive
one email a day if there is new content and can unsubscribe at any time.
The wood block art studio is a creative space on all its own. As you walk up a set of stone steps, the smell of mosquito incense and a faint hint of cigarette smoke greets you at the front door. If you turn back and look down the stairs, Ucup’s home village dots across a sprawling green space. The sounds of chickens, a screaming goat that sounds scarily human, and the shouts of children playing take up the audible space around us. Ucup, the instructor we worked with for the three weeks we spent in Jogja, stands up with an… Read More
On Tuesday, March 3rd, most of our group decides to explore one of the most powerful places in Jogjakarta: the Sultan’s southern square. The square is the final point in an ellipses punctuating the flow of power between the volcanically active......Read More
The following has been translated by the Instructor Team on behalf of Kat’s host mom, Ibu Suparmi Let me introduce myself, my name is Suparmi, I am 55 years old. My husband is Agus Hartono, he is 56 years old. I have two children,......Read More
If you had happened to be walking down 4th avenue in San Miguel Escobar last Saturday around noon, you would have seen me and my Spanish teacher Blanca carrying a massive, scalding frying pan in a Guatemalan swaddling cloth woven for newborn babies.......Read More
Every night, I set my alarm for 7:10 AM, but it never wakes me up. Instead, I am woken up around 6:30 AM by the various sounds of Patan: dogs barking, birds chirping, bells ringing, motorcycles honking, or my homestay brother blowing his nose. Then......Read More
We went to Prambanan temple for our second excursion day in Jogja and I’m so glad i didn’t miss this one. The main temples are so tall and are covered in incredible carvings. Some of them even tell fables and mythes from Hindu mythology.......Read More
A Mountain’s right to its own ecosystem, and the extension of a Mountain’s rights to all beings and things within its immediate ecosystem. A Mountain’s right to retain their natural structure. Freedom from excessive and destructive human......Read More
Sitting around our breakfast table on our last day in Panauti, we gave our student group 3 prompts to reflect on. Here are a selection of their answers (anonymous, and in a random order): My impressions of Panauti ‘’I’ve never been somewhere......Read More
This past weekend, I spent 3 days near Lake Atitlán, a Guatemalan treasure surrounded by three massive volcanos. I first caught site of the lake as my bus came over the rim of the steep caldera that holds the lake. As we inched down the road,......Read More
At home, in New York City, I drink at least one cup of coffee a day. Drip coffee with my dad in the morning, a mid-day paper cup at school, sometimes a 4 pm decaf cappuccino from the cafe at the top of my block; these moments are some of my favorite......Read More
Today marks the end of my very first week in Guatemala! ¡El tiempo vuela! The adventure began with my flight in to Guatemala City. After a long approach, our plane ended up taking a massive lap around the city, before descending. Just as we began......Read More
When I bike home, I anticipate not my building— a nondescript, seven story complex on top of convenience stores and massage parlors— but the building across from it. It towers over mine twenty-five stories high, and two looming characters......Read More
I groaned as we hit yet another bump that sent a jolt straight up my spine. I didn’t remember the road leading up to Krishna Ranch, the farm on the outskirts of Udaipur where we had spent our very first week in India, being quite so rough. But......Read More
Hola a todxs! Cómo están? I’m sure you’re all very excited, preparing to leave home and start this trip in South America. I’m Paola and I’ll be one of your instructors with Zack and Cat. I’m writing this from......Read More
Dear Lola, Only three months ago we were sitting at a café in Amsterdam, eating ‘bitterballen’ and sharing the limited amount of information we knew about a Dragons semester. This was when you first heard you’d be travelling with all your......Read More
Thursday, December 5, Jakarta “Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only......Read More
