Student postpones studies for gap-year adventure
RFH grad embarks on year of environmental work and self-development
BY ANUM AZAM Correspondent

India Sparshatt

RUMSON - - While most 18-year-olds are preparing for their freshman year at college or heading off to orientation, India Sparshatt is packing her bags for a trip across four continents and a year of international charity work.

Sparshatt's gap year, during which she will work with Raleigh International Gap Year Youth Development Charity and other organizations, involves environmental and societal work.

"I just graduated from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School and rather than going straight to college, I decided to try something different. I'll be traveling for a year, also known as taking a gap year, and working with a couple of charities along the way," Sparshatt said.

"My first organization that I'll be working with is Raleigh International. It's a 10- week course in Malaysia. It's broken up into three phases; working with the local community, an environmental project, and at the end we are given an adventure phase to test our own physical strength," she explained.

Raleigh International is a UK-based nonprofit "committed to the personal growth and development of young people from all nationalities and backgrounds, including disadvantaged and 'at risk,' " according to the organization's Web site.

It was founded in 1984 and aims to help young people develop skills and selfconfidence in an out-of-classroom environment.

However, Sparshatt still has a lot of fundraising to do to meet the $6,000 budget.

She said, "I've been sending a pamphlet around to my friends and family that describes the charity and my goal of $6,000. People have been very generous, yet I still have a long way to go."

Sparshatt's stint with Raleigh will consist of a 10-week course in Malaysia, during which she hopes to help make "a positive and lasting contribution to local communities and the environment," according to her pamphlet.

"First, I'll be working with the community with locals and learning about the culture and helping to build a school. The environmental phase could be anything - it could involve scuba diving or an underwater study," she said.

"The adventure phase is designed to challenge yourself in Malaysia's natural environment, hiking and carrying your supplies," she added.

Her pamphlet describes the adventure phase as "an arduous challenge" involving teamwork and mutual support, which in Malaysia will come in useful in the jungle and while climbing Mount Kinabalu.

Sparshatt's reasons for taking the gap year are twofold.

"I wanted to help people and learn about environmental issues, help in charities," she said.

"A lot of people go to college straight away and change their majors. I'd rather travel and figure out what I'm interested in, and then go to school and study that," she added.

Sparshatt's travels post-Malaysia will include visits to India, Kenya and tentatively Australia and South America. She is working with a charity called Volunteer Kenya.

"A possibility in Kenya is teaching at children's schools. I'd be staying at a sugarcane farm," she said.

"Everything is very basic - there is no electricity," she said.

While working with Raleigh, Sparshatt will be joining a group of about 100 young people. According to her pamphlet, 70 percent of them will be, like her, self-funded volunteers from all over the world. Twenty percent of "young people who have not had such a great start to their life, for whatever reason," are sent by a charity called Motive8. The remaining 10 percent are Malaysian natives.

The pamphlet explains that the gap year is not a holiday, but rather "lots of physical manual work, very basic living accommodations and food, and there is also a no-alcohol policy."

"The program has been developed and proven successful over 21 years of Raleigh."

"I've always known I was going to do something different," Sparshatt said.

"I want to learn more about what I want to do in life," she added, "whether it be environmental or working with different cultures and experiencing different things. I hope to gain some personal growth from the experience."