The Voices Project: Parents on the Benefits of a Gap Year with gap year parents The Gap Year Association is excited to unveil the first in a series of written pieces and videos that we’re calling “The Voices Project.” The goal of this project is to amplify the voices of people impacted by Gap Years. The impact of a Gap Year reaches far beyond the student. In this piece, parents share their thoughts on the Gap Year experience of their students. If you’re a parent who’s been wondering whether the investment in a Gap Year would be “worth it” for…
Learning & Reflection
Building Gap Year Skills Before You Go by Hannah Miller Most students think that their gap year starts the day they board their flight. In reality, your gap year starts the day you commit to taking it. From there on, the entire planning process is a skill-building opportunity that regularly pushes gappers out of their comfort zones. For perhaps the first time in your life, you’ll be managing a budget, researching destinations, signing up for gap year programs, and sorting out the minor details of the adventure ahead. It’s a lot to process, isn’t it? To get the most out…
Oliver Crane, a Rower on his Gap Year, Becomes Youngest Man to Row the Atlantic This post tells the story of Oliver’s journey from the planning phase to his ultimate success! Nineteen-year-old Oliver Crane is preparing to row 3,000 nautical miles across the Atlantic – which will make him the youngest person ever to row solo across any ocean. Ollie is taking part in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, billed as the world’s toughest row, not only to push himself while on his gap year but to raise funds for marine conservation. The challenge, which starts in the Canary Islands…
How a Gap Year Benefits University Life by Melanie Russo Last year was a year of adventure. I lived abroad for 10 months and consequently got to experience foreign worlds first hand, work unique jobs, and learn a lot about myself. Soon enough, my blissful Gap Year came to an end and I rejoined “real life” when I arrived here in California to start my astrophysics career at UC Berkeley. It has now been a couple months since I’ve arrived and so far, so great. I’m thoroughly enjoying my classes and my new friends, and my experience has overall been…
An Educational Gap Year: What the World Taught Me by Melanie Russo, who worked with Taylor the Gap to plan and prepare for her independent Gap Year. I started my 14-month long summer vacation with utter excitement. I signed up for things left and right, knowing exactly what I wanted to learn, what insights I wanted to seek, and more so what I wanted escape from back at home. Coming from a high society of lost individuals, I setout to see other worlds and finally feel at home somewhere. So, I packed my things and journeyed to volunteer in Costa…
International Experience and University by Hannah Miller How many extra credits can I pack in? Will this essay work for my college admissions? Which school is going to be the best for me? Will I make friends? What if we’ve been asking ourselves the wrong questions all along? What would happen if we stopped focusing on how to “make college work” and instead focused on personal goals for the college experience and the years beyond? Setting those personal goals begins with a deep understanding of what we want. Unfortunately, most of us truly don’t know what we want from the…
Taking a Gap Year After College by Raquel WHY I OPTED FOR A GAP YEAR ABROAD AFTER COLLEGE Due to scholarship requirements and an eagerness to launch my undergraduate career, taking off for a year after high school wasn’t in the cards for me. However, that didn’t mean I was going to pass up a Gap Year all together, and four years later I found myself face to face with the invaluable opportunity to live abroad for a year. In March of my senior year of college, I received a long-awaited email with a few short sentences informing me that…
Making Meaningful Connections Through Language Barriers by Sophia De Bruin Every part of traveling somewhere new presents it’s own challenges, whether it be understanding the local custom of haggling in markets in Morocco or distinguishing between local dialects in India. One of the most exciting, and arguably the most challenging, parts of traveling to different places around the world is learning how to communicate and make connections with people who don’t speak the same language. For some, this means relying on the power a game of soccer can have in making new friends, for others it means connecting through different…
My Gap Year Hasn’t Opened My Eyes to the World by Prathana Shrestha, Winterline Alum Finding Acceptance My Gap Year has felt more like a holiday, getting to travel for a short vacation away from my reality that is home in Nepal and the struggles that I can see and feel there. Finding My Comfort Zone I’ve always been out of place, a stray puzzle piece that doesn’t really fit in anywhere. Back in Nepal, boarding school in India – it didn’t matter where I went, there was always someone who didn’t like what I wore or what I represented….
Carpe Diem Education: Six Months in Ecuador, Peru, and Tanzania by Jack D, shared with us by Carpe Diem Education. You can read the original here. “So, how was your year abroad?” It’s a loaded question, and one that I still – three months after landing back in New Orleans – struggle to answer adequately. I haven’t given up, though; whenever it comes up, I sing the year’s praises as loudly as possible. “It was absolutely phenomenal. I’d recommend it to anyone. Complete game-changer. The greatest year of my life.” But really – how do you describe an experience like this?…