This story originally appeared in the September 2020 Golden Eagle Talon Club Newsletter. For more information on the Golden Eagle Talon Club, click here.

A familiar concept in other countries, the United States has seen an increasing number of prospective college students taking a gap year between their high school graduation and enrollment in undergraduate studies. Proponents of the practice are quick to point out that it is not supposed to be a “year off” but a “year on,” a chance for the student to develop mentally and emotionally through activities such as travel and community service.

Savannah Buttery, a sophomore on the Golden Eagle tennis team, used her gap year to do just that. From swamps in the American Southeast to a fishing boat off the coast of The Netherlands, she gained an appreciation and understanding of other cultures that resonates with her still.

The daughter of a member of the United States Air Force, Buttery was already no stranger to travel at a young age.  She was born in Texas but also spent time in Missouri and Washington D.C. before her family permanently relocated to their current home of Brockway, Pennsylvania. Likewise, Buttery’s mother was at times stationed in Germany, Guam and Qatar, and her dispatches from these far-away places sparked an interest in other cultures in her daughter.

“It definitely had an influence on me wanting to travel as I got older,” Buttery said. “She would send us stuff from these places and tell us about everything, like the culture and people, and it was exciting.”

In fact, Buttery’s first trip abroad occurred when she was 15 years old, when she had the opportunity to take a sightseeing trip across Italy and Switzerland. The prospect of traveling with an unfamiliar group of teenagers seemed daunting at first, but at the encouragement of her parents, Buttery accepted the offer. It was a revelatory experience.

“I was nervous at first, but my parents explained this wasn’t something every 15-year-old kid gets to do,” Buttery said. “I was going to have the opportunity to experience new cultures and get a broader perspective on the world while I was in high school.”

As time went on, Buttery continued to travel, both at home and overseas. Now, though, her trips would take on a service component as well as cultural immersion. Not long after her trip to Europe, she traveled to the Dominican Republic with her church as part of a mission trip. Buttery knew she wanted to spend a year between her graduation and college enrollment helping others as well, and eventually settled on joining the AmeriCorps program.

“I knew that after high school I did not immediately want to go into college,” Buttery said. “I was actually originally thinking about joining the Peace Corps, but someone brought up AmeriCorps and it seemed like a really cool opportunity.”

A voluntary civil service program aimed at high school graduates, AmeriCorps members travel across the country and aid in assignments in fields like health care, environmental protection, education and safety. Buttery spent 10 months traveling mostly across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions. She built houses from the ground up with Habitat for Humanity in North Carolina, removed blighted trees in Delaware, and worked with the Tennessee Division of Natural Areas. While removing invasive species from a wilderness refuge in Florida, Buttery and her team stayed in a homeless shelter and assisted in handing out hot meals and toys during the holiday season. 

Rather than return home after 10 months serving others across the country, Buttery decided to make one more exotic jaunt before starting her college career. When a colleague of hers from AmeriCorps asked if she wanted to travel to the Netherlands… well, how could she say no?

“One of my best friends in the program said he was going to the Netherlands to work with World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), and he didn’t want to go alone. I think I left literally the day I got home.”

Buttery spent a month in the Netherlands, alternating her time between working on a fishing vessel in the Wadden Sea and a farm-to-table restaurant in Groningen. Most days started in the wee hours of the morning and involved collecting oysters and hauling in fishing nets, and weekends were spent working in the restaurant.

“I think we knew that we would be doing some oyster collecting, but they originally told us we would mostly be washing dishes in the restaurant,” Buttery said, laughing. “When we got there, we learned we were doing a lot more than washing dishes.”

The typical day started around 3 a.m. when Buttery’s ship embarked for its fishing territories. She spent those early hours untangling and removing crabs from nets. When the tide receded, Buttery and the others waded into the shallows and collected oysters before finally returning to their quarters to rest.

The benefit of enjoying these diverse experiences is not lost on Buttery. She feels they have given her a unique perspective on the world that has helped her in her college years.

“I thought I gained a larger perspective on differing things within the world, and experienced a lot of diversity through all of this,” Buttery said. “I think it gave me a better understanding of how the world works, compared to others who may never have the opportunity to leave their small towns.”