Cosmic Volunteers rented a booth at the recent Times Gap Year Show in London on Nov 17-18, 2006.

The show is one of the largest travel trade shows in the world. It gives students considering or planning a gap year abroad the opportunity to talk directly with organizations like Cosmic Volunteers for ideas about programs, preparations, support, etc.

The show took place at the London Excel exhibition center which will host several events for the 2012 Olympics.

The concept of the “gap year” is well-established in the UK and Australia, but in America the concept is not nearly as familiar. Gap years typically take place between high school and university, with students spending extended time abroad either working, volunteering, or simply sightseeing. They don’t always last a full year, sometimes only several months.

We do have alot of UK gap year students join Cosmic Volunteers’ program abroad each year. However in the UK we are not nearly as well-known as some other volunteer organizations.

That’s why I felt it was important to come to the 2-day show and get the word out about our programs abroad. In fact I was actually glad to hear visitors come up to our booth and say they had never heard of us. That’s exactly why we went there.

Most visitors wanted to know about the projects we offer, the length of stay, and of course about the cost. Most were surprised (and excited) to hear that the costs of our programs are much less than most other organizations, often by 50% or more.