TAKING A GAP YEAR & STARTING A BLOG: THE 2 BEST DECISIONS I EVER MADE by [author] It was January 2020. My friend Caitlyn and I were enjoying a slow morning with a cup of coffee in our little Airbnb on the southern coast of Portugal. Just a few days ago, we had counted down to New Year’s in a crowd of thousands in Avenida dos Aliados in Porto; we then promptly packed up our backpacks and took a bus down to a little town called Lagos for some quiet and beautiful scenery. Although the sunny weather and azure waters…
Gap Year Benefits
Building Resilience: Misadventures on a Gap Year by Jonah Cedar For the last couple of months, I’m sure you’ve heard the new buzz word sweeping the nation and no, I am not talking about the C-word. I am talking about resilience. Every politician I listen to, every optimistic voice on a podcast, and even I in countless emails have proclaimed that in a few months time, we as a nation will come out of this new normal with a resilience we have never had before. But what is resilience really? How do we measure it and how do we achieve…
Bruce Palmer of NOLS: On the Value of a Gap Year At this year’s GYA Conference I caught up with Bruce Palmer, long time director of GYA Accredited Program, National Outdoor Leadership School director and father of a student who completed a NOLS program. We talked about the importance of outdoor education, Gap Years and the value of this kind of experience in the life of a young person. Please tell us a little bit about who you are I’m the Director of Admissions and Marketing at NOLS and have worked with the organization for over 26 years. Previously I…
Gap Year Alum: Kevin Hermann an interview Please tell us who you are, what you do, and how you got there. I’m Kevin Hermann, I’m 24 and living in Charlottesville, Virginia. I was born near Lagos, Portugal, and then grew up in the Charlottesville area. After high school, I took a gap year, traveling around the world to Oceania, South East Asia, South Asia, and Europe, where I spent my time backpacking, volunteering, and working. I returned to study English Literature at the University of Virginia, after which I ended up traveling for a bit in the Near East and…
Why My Child’s Gap Year is Vital by GYA Admin There are a lot of great arguments for the value of a Gap Year for young people. Chief among them seem to be the focus on a break from the long slog of 12 years of institutional schooling, the value of getting outside of a home culture and seeing from different perspectives, and the time to pursue passions in a way that might develop clarity on a professional path forward. These are great reasons, and I agree wholeheartedly, but they don’t apply to my kids. My kids didn’t attend a…
8 Reasons to Take a Gap Year by GYA Admin Taking a gap year in certain countries like the UK, Australia, and New Zealand is a right of passage that many teenage and early twenty somethings take advantage of. Taking that time to travel the world, volunteer, work, and have worldly experiences is said to prepare these young men and women for the rest of their lives. Gap years are highly misconstrued in other parts of the world though, in particular the United States. If you live in a country where a gap year is not part of the normal…
Developing a Gap Year Savings Timeline by GYA Admin You’re welcome. Here’s the most useful gap year financial planning guide on the internet. Happy saving (and spending – you earned it!). General Saving Tips For Your Gap Year This is probably one of the biggest purchases of your life – yikes! It can be challenging for high school students to reach their gap year savings goals particularly because there is no materialistic, tangible, physical, immediate gain from all of your work. Saving money to buy “experiences” later sounds so lame. But it isn’t. We promise. Your future self will thank…
Why Taking a Gap Year Matters by GYA Admin Why does taking a Gap Year Matter? The benefits of taking a Gap Year are many and blend together across multiple areas. Taking a structured Gap Year invariably serves to develop the individual into a more focused student with a better sense of purpose and engagement in the world. From Joe O’Shea’s book, Gap Year: How Delaying College Changes People in Ways the World Needs: “Some studies have looked at the academic performance of gap year students while in college. In Australia and the United Kingdom, economic researchers found that high…
Why a Gap Year is the Best Decision I’ve Ever Made. by Megan Lee I took a Gap Year after college (before jumping into the “real world”) and it was, truly, the best decision I’ve made (next to adopting my cat and downloading the Uber app). Traveling, for me, isn’t just for meeting people and taking cool pictures. It is preventative medicine for closed-mindedness and bigotry, and wholly challenges me to function at my greatest capacity as a heart-centered, human-oriented modern young adult. Gap year students who choose to pursue higher education after traveling oftentimes become campus leaders and star students….
Exploring the World & Myself: Why I’m Taking a Gap Year by Sophia de Bruin Everyone has different reasons for taking a gap year – whether it be simply a need for adventure and travel or a break from school. Preparing to begin my Gap Year has caused me to reflect on the reasons I decided to initially embark upon this crazy adventure. Like many things, my decision to take a Gap Year started with high school. I’ll be honest – high school was not at all an easy or enjoyable time in my life. While I did make some…