Ethical Engagement with Animals on Gap Year Experiences by Nora Livingstone, Animal Experience International (AEI) If your program connects with community-based organizations that work with animals, and you want to follow best practices and avoid common pitfalls to students volunteering with animals, please read on for some valuable resources. If you’re a potential gap year student interested in volunteering with animals and interested in ethical best practices for doing so, we hope that this blog will be a useful resource for you as well. While planning to work with animals, consider their wellbeing using the following framework. There are 5…
Mental Health and Gap Year Preparation at the Tail End of the Pandemic by Laura Thompson, Ph.D., LPC In many respects, life seems to be returning to some semblance of normality for the first time since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. While our routines may now resemble our pre-pandemic activities, the reality is that many of us are not the same. The past two years have changed us. They’ve taken a toll on our lives and our well being in countless ways. Mental health is one of them. A multitude of studies have addressed the negative impacts that the pandemic…
What the Pandemic has Taught Us About Resilience by Emily Rosser and Elizabeth Bezark, with commentary from the wider gap year community What is resilience? How do we achieve it and how do we use it? Individually and collectively. In Option B, Sheryl Sandberg writes about resilience in crisis situations and what people can do to manage our responses to crises. In an excerpt of that book, Sandberg says that: “Resilience doesn’t mean rejecting unpleasant emotions. And letting emotions in doesn’t give them power over us; rather, it gives them room to move through us. Sometimes voicing fear gives us…
Advice for Parents from Gap Year Parents by Julia Rogers As a GYA-Accredited Gap Year Consultant, I work closely with students to design meaningful plans for their year out. Whether a consultant is involved or not, parents play a pivotal role in their child’s gap year. They can help set reasonable boundaries, provide encouragement, and offer support during this transformative rite of passage. I always remind parents that a gap year is also a milestone in their lives – watching your child fledge is full of its own set of emotions. In many ways, gap year parents are asked to…
A Bite Into the Big Apple Our Food Justice Cookbook and Reflections on our Food and Sustainability Focused Gap Year Semester by Clara Pitt and Leila Tilin We chose to spend the first half of our gap year semester with the Living City Project (LCP) investigating the NYC food system, its inner workings, and the people and organizations that are fighting for justice and change within this system. We felt guided by one question specifically: How can we build a sustainable and equitable food system that respects our diversity, nourishes our citizens, and protects our planet? We chose to study…
Gap Year to College to Career by Holly Bull (originally published on the Center for Interim Programs Blog) Planning for, taking, and unpacking lessons from a gap year can impact a young person’s journey for the better. Students learn planning skills and languages, engage with global and domestic communities, and build resilience as they navigate uncertainty. Andrew, a 2017 gap year alum, landed a full-time position after completing a gap year and his undergraduate education. Below, Holly Bull, an Accredited Gap Year Consultant and Andrew’s advisor, shares about Andrew’s gap year win: Before Andrew graduated from his public high school…
Taking an Intentional Gap Year Through AmeriCorps Service by Ally Bush For some, taking a gap year can be intimidating. You’re just out of high school or a recent college graduate, unsure of where to take your next step. Travel is an option, but it can be expensive. Doing an internship is an alternative, but often, internships are unpaid and can be highly competitive. For Justin Harrison, an AmeriCorps service term seemed like the perfect fit. Justin was two years into a four-year degree at New York University, but he was stressed about his future. He had realized that engineering…
Holistic and Sustainable Travel by Sydney Yelton With gap years on the rise, and people becoming comfortable traveling across borders again, it’s time to seriously think about the way we traveled in the past, and how we want travel to look like today and in the future. The global pandemic has given travel a new platform. There has been an opportunity, just like every other industry and system within our world, for the people to re-evaluate our actions and ideas around travel. We can either treat this time as a reset, a chance to be better, or stick to old…
How a Gap Year Can Align With Your Career Goals by Adam Salzman, Adventure EXP It’s incredibly exciting to have the opportunity to take on a gap year, but even more thrilling is knowing it aligns with your personal and professional goals. Choosing an alternative path from the normal status quo of high school, college, and internships is a wonderful opportunity to challenge yourself in a way that others won’t experience, but it can be daunting. It goes deeper than just having an amazing experience. It’s a great first step in your career, but also for future opportunities, whether travel…
Raising Gap Year Alumni Voices by Jane Sarouhan of J2Guides I have spent 25 years touting the benefits of taking a gap year. From school auditoriums, conference podiums, press panels and zoom rooms I have delivered anecdotes, data and laughter to thousands of people who are looking to understand both the options and outcomes of a well-designed gap year. I hear: “I am afraid my child won’t go to college if they take a gap year.” And I reply: “In fact, 90% of gappers return to college after their gap year. And furthermore, gap year students on average graduate college…