In 2022, Lily Gooding spent a life-changing gap semester in Nepal with us. Four years later, she returned—not as a student, but as a summer intern collecting stories of impact from the global community. Through her project, Lily explored what makes the experience so powerful—and why it keeps calling people back. Here’s her reflection on a summer of storytelling, connection, and rediscovery.
This is Lily Gooding reporting live, fresh off my internship this summer with Dragons. I had a pretty cool experience, and I feel like I gotta tell you about it. This is a full circle moment for me. In 2022, I took a Gap Year after graduating high school, and spent the spring in Nepal with Dragons. Those short three months definitely left an impact on me… so much so that I’ve come back as an intern 4 years later.
My internship primarily focused on reaching out to alumni and connecting with them to tell a specific story from their programs. My official project was The Dragons Storytelling Series: Beyond The Map, which aims to collect stories of impact from alumni, instructors, parents, and admin, through in-person and Zoom meetings. I mean, that’s pretty cool. I was so impacted that 4 years later I came back to collect and share other stories of impact?! Now that’s impactful. Ahem, anyways. During these meetings, the interviewee and I would cultivate their memories into specific final stories, presented through a diversity of mediums (videos, essays, photos, collage, etc.). The final stories are to be used on social media and ultimately live in a virtual storybook, which will follow a journal-like format and live on this website.
In short, the goal of this initiative has been to try and capture the “magic sauce” of Dragons.
—Oh, what’s “magic sauce,” you ask? This is how I’ve been referring to the special something that makes a Dragons experience unique, impactful, and inspires alumni, like me, to come work for Dragons years after their program.
Now I can tell you, after conducting 60+ interviews, going to the Dragons Sierra’s Orientation, sifting through countless journals and photographs, even chatting with the executive director, I still have yet to be able to put my finger on exactly what’s in that magic sauce, but I think I’ve come close.
In all my work to showcase impact, here are some themes I’ve picked up that resonate with my interviewees:
Being an intern, I thought I would be more in the shadows and running around, trying to do quintessential tasks. However, I was so grateful to be really taken into the Dragons’ culture. I am introduced in every meeting and given a chance to explain my role and the project of the summer. My coworkers are constantly expressing gratitude and enthusiasm for me and my project, and seem genuine when they check in about my needs and how I’m doing. It’s been a really awesome experience to be a part of a culture that is so invested in people, and where each person’s contributions are important and passionately executed.