Voices Project: Maddy B: On the Growth During a Gap Year with Maddy Bazil Maddy Bazil Gap Year Overview Highschool: Walter Johnson HS, Bethesda MD University: University of St. Andrews 2018 August-October: Córdoba, Argentina – Volunteered with Projects Abroad Human Rights office October-December: Worked in retail at home in Washington DC January-March: Travelled around Israel and surrounding places (10 day Birthright trip, then independently backpacked around Tel Aviv, Haifa, the Galilee (3 weeks spent WWOOFing on a goat farm), Negev Desert (hiked in the desert and travelled to Jordan), West Bank March-April: Studied French at L’Institut de Touraine in Tours,…
Why we Discourage Orphanage Volunteering and What to do Instead by GYA Admin Last month World Nomads published an excellent article about orphanage tourism and why it should be avoided. At the GYA we are heavily invested in raising the ethical bar on service learning, across the board for gap year programs and students. That’s one of the primary goals of our accreditation process and one of the reasons that we encourage gap year counselors and students to thoroughly vet the organizations they choose to partner with around the world. Having good intentions is not enough. We are responsible for…
Voices Project: A Gap Year to Focus on Golf by Jordan Fuller The thought of taking a gap year started with an idea I stumbled upon in a book during my studies. I had been reading a great deal on the topic of “redesigning your life” when I found Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of several books including the Four Hour Workweek. In the Four Hour Workweek, Ferriss argues that we spend the best years of our life working ourselves into exhaustion in order to one day retire during the twilight of our lives hoping we’ve saved enough to enjoy the…
Voices Project: Jordan Ricker on Gap Year as the First Step with Jordan Ricker Jordan Ricker grew up in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington DC, and never considered a gap year. College was the expected path and a good state school seemed to be the obvious choice. It was his grandfather who first opened his eyes to the possibility of going further afield for university, encouraging him to come to California and tour several schools. After his college tour with his grandfather, Jordan began to think a little outside the box and applied to a number of schools, both in…
Voices Project Video: Alison Sever on the Big Questions & Gap Year with Alison Sever Alison is a gap year alumna (’09) and served as chair of the GYA Alumni Committee until 2019. She has mentored dozens of gap students on diverse gap experiences all over the world. Alison’s facilitation style is largely influenced by her background in outdoor education and her training in contemplative practices including yoga instruction (RYT-200, Yoga Alliance) and the Buddhism-inspired eco-philosophy The Work That Reconnects. Most recently she is growing her edge as a gardener, herbalist, and fermenter as means of revitalizing the human-Earth relationship….
GapYearly: Necessity is the Mother of Invention Sasha Landauer and Jiyoung Jeong SASHA:It was noon on a Tuesday in February. I wasn’t in my second hour of an organic chemistry lab. Nor was I napping after a particularly gruesome history midterm. I was whooping while throwing a 100lb tree down a hillside near Mount Everest. To my right was a ten-year-old monk sliding down the mountain on a wooden plank, holding a teapot on his head and an axe in his hand. We were on our way to rebuild Pema Choling Monastery’s Buddha statue, which had been destroyed in the…
Voices Project: Michelle Zhang on the Life Changing Power of Gap Year with Michelle Zhang Meet Michelle Zhang, a Travel Access Project 2017 Grant recipient. She’s currently on her Gap Year and recorded this for us on a slow boat chugging up the Amazon River in Peru. How cool is that? She’s not even done with her Gap Year but she’s quite sure it has changed the course of her life. Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on linkedin Share on pinterest Share on reddit Share on google
Student’s Guide to Voting From Abroad by GYA Admin For most Gap Year travelers and study abroad participants from the States, this November’s Midterm Elections will be the first they’ve been eligible to vote in. Becoming a voting member of one’s country of citizenship is a rite of passage and an important step into participation in the adult community. In spite of the growing disillusionment with the political process, voting remains the most significant way “we the people” have to make our voices heard and have a hand in the direction our country takes, both domestically and within the international…
Voices Project: Acceptance, Flexibility, and the Lessons of a Gap Year with Cecilia Polanco I could write a book on my gap year, what it meant to me, and what I have learned and applied since then; in fact I plan to because I learned on my gap year that writing is a way I can preserve for myself and share with others at the same time. My gap year taught me a few major lessons: Accepting Things Out of my Control In planning my gap year, I struggled to find opportunities in Italy, where communication with folks via email…
Voices Project: Kevin Hermann on connecting with being alive with Kevin Hermann When I first met Kevin he appeared as a volunteer at the Gap Year Association annual conference in Boston. From the first moment I was impressed by his peaceful center, joyful effervescence, and deeply compassionate way of walking through the world and interacting with other humans. As the mother of four teenagers, at the time, one of whom was preparing for a Gap Year and another who had recently finished her first major trip abroad, he gave me hope. In him I saw a reflection of everything I…