Delaying the Real World with a Volunteer Adventure

Volunteer Proposal Wins Fellowship

By Colleen Kinder

If someone offered you a couple of thousand dollars to decline a full-time job and go on an adventure instead, what would you do with the money? I just finished reading through 1,300 proposals written by twentysomethings who are desperate to trade their briefcases for backpacks and hit the open road. They were applicants for the first "Delay the Real World Fellowship," a $2,500 award inspired by my new book, Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething’s Guide to Seeking Adventure.

I wrote the book while I was volunteering in Cuba after graduating from college in the hopes that it would inspire more young people to take unconventional paths and live overseas.

I worked with my publishing company to create the unique fellowship. We intended the award as a ticket to adventure for a gusty young person who exemplified the spirit of Delaying the Real World. Now that I’ve weeded through the mile-high stack of adventure proposals, I can speak for the pipe dreams of my peers. Wanderlust is at an all-time high. Nowadays, young people want to be anywhere in the world but the office cubicle.

The fellowship contest drew the widest spectrum of applicants imaginable, from college seniors craving adventures in Thailand to overworked bankers eager to study yoga in India. We heard from returned soldiers from Iraq and best friends planning zany road trips. They wrote from Berea, Kentucky; Seoul, South Korea; and everywhere in between.

South Pacific a Magnet

A number of themes in our pool of proposals struck me. First of all, the South Pacific seems to have a magnetic pull on our generation. Australia is by far the most popular choice; New Zealand was a close runner up. Those looking to experience more exotic and budget-friendly lands proposed trips to Southeast Asia.

The lands of Latin America have a strong appeal, the focus of which is unquestionably Costa Rica, spreading out to Mexico and creeping into Brazil, where capoiera dancing has replaced Argentine tango as the new intrigue. Africa’s diverse nations are certainly on the radar of young Americans, particularly those interested in volunteer projects or educational work.

Europe Still Popular

While young people are looking far beyond their borders for adventure, they haven’t ruled out the classic travel experiences. Backpacking Europe is as popular as ever. In fact, judging from the number of graduating seniors who proposed sojourns through the “old country,” the European backpacking adventure has become the capstone of the college experience.

Our applicants proved that you can personalize this classic rite of passage to your liking. The diversity of their proposed itineraries goes to show that you can “do” Europe in an infinite number of ways.

Plenty of young people recognized the chance for adventure here in our own backyard. The most common adventure proposed for the Delay the Real World Fellowship was the classic American road trip. Whether doing a kind deed for a stranger in every destination or stopping at every Hooters from Savannah to Sacramento, the cross-country proposals were inventive to say the least.

One type of trip I was surprised to come across so frequently in the proposal pile was the heritage trip. A remarkable number of young people want to trace their roots back to the country of their parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents. These proposals often had a creative spin to them, like traveling to Sicily to write a children’s book about the Italian immigrant’s experience or making a documentary in Poland about an inspiring grandparent. Other heritage trips had an altruistic purpose, like traveling to Uganda to volunteer in the small town of one's origins.

Volunteer Proposal the Winner

In fact, it was the volunteer proposals that inspired our fellowship committee the most. It is hard to read through a pile of projects relating to AIDS relief, literacy campaigns, children’s health, education for the developmentally disabled, and so on, without believing in the compassion and vision of our generation. Ultimately, that was why we chose our winner, Alex Katona, a recent graduate of the Univ. of Michigan, who is fighting to bring equity to farmers and artisans in Ecuador. At age 22, Alex has already launched a nonprofit called Brewing Hope, www.javaforjustice.com, which sells fair trade coffee in the Ann Arbor region. Alex will use the Delay the Real World Fellowship to move to Ecuador and work at a farm cooperative.

Underlying every one of these 1,300 proposals was an aching for freedom and unscripted adventure. After years of full course loads, part-time jobs, and schedules that leave little room for the freespirit, twentysomethings want to take charge of their own educations for a couple of years and see as much of the world as a shoestring budget allows. In the case of one bold young idealist we plucked from the pile, her dream will come to fruition.

As for the rest, I’m optimistic. Where there’s a will to delay the real world, there’s always a way. Visit www.delayingtherealworld.com to hear about Alex Katona’s adventures in Ecuador.

Colleen Kinder graduated from Yale Univ. in 2003 and used a national fellowship to finance 10 months of volunteer service caring for the elderly in Havana, Cuba. During her time abroad, she traveled and jump-started her writing career. While living her adventure, Colleen finished writing Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething’s Guide to Seeking Adventure.