How to Write a College Deferral Letter for a Gap Year by GYA admin Photo: Where There Be Dragons With college decisions looming, many high school seniors are weighing their options and trying to decide what their post-graduation life will look like. Let’s start this conversation by talking about some numbers from GYA’s 2020 National Alumni Survey, which analyzed responses from 1,190 gap year alumni across the United States: 97% of gap year alumni reported an increase in maturity and self-confidence as a result of their gap year experience 84% of gap year alumni reported an increase in academic motivation…
Planning
Gap Year Affordability by GYA admin Photo: Global Citizen Year offers a variety of scholarships for funding gap year students’ experiences In our attempts to spread the word about gap years and to encourage the gap year option for more students, we run into a lot of gap year myths. Much of our gap year advocacy involves debunking those myths in order to get more people thinking about realistic gap year possibilities. A common example: GAP YEARS ARE EXPENSIVE. Let’s bust this myth, shall we? First and foremost, we must acknowledge that yes, the idea of a gap year—an opportunity…
An essential and holistic best practice for study abroad and gap year programming includes staff training about the life stage of Emerging Adulthood. Understanding the gifts and challenges of 18-25 year-olds is key. Knowing who our students are broadens professional skill sets for preparing students and staff for successful learning experiences in new and different contexts. Characteristics of Emerging Adulthood (J. Arnett. 2004) include a long period for exploring a wide range of possibilities for career choices and relationships. Of particular note is that Emerging Adulthood is a stage of optimism and possibilities.
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…
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…
Insetting vs Offsetting Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Daniel Ponce-Taylor Students that participate in gap year programs can emit more CO2 than some of the communities in which they engage emit in an entire year. There is no way around the fact that our field activities emit a lot of carbon when traveling to remote locations. As an industry, we must do something about that! 2020 and 2021 have seen an increase in climate change-related disasters; climate change is real, is here, and it affects all communities, affluent and low-income alike. California saw the largest wildfire season in modern history in…
Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Gap Year: The Active Learning Process by Elizabeth Bezark Ever since I started curating and editing the GYA blog, the rest of the GYA team has heard time and time again my obsession with the active voice. Action verbs produce strong writing. If my bio on the GYA website didn’t focus on my work in global education and Fair Trade Learning, it would express my strong desire to make the world a better-written place. What does this have to do with experiential education? Keep reading, you’ll see! The terms experiential education, comfort…