Why a Passion for Learning is Your Best Gap Year Souvenir by Megan Lee There’s that pair of comfy traveler pants – wild patterns with cinched waists and ankles. Or the prints of beautiful artwork made by a local you conversed briefly with. There’s the magnet for mom, the T-shirt for baby bro, and the precious charm bracelet you mentally commit to never losing. While all of these mementos have value and – hopefully won’t end up in the bottom of a dusty box in the attic as their fate – there’s one incredibly powerful souvenir that your Gap Year…
Learning & Reflection
How to Bootstrap a Solo Gap Year by Blake Boles If you have almost no money, how can you fund a self-designed Gap Year experience? Most give up. Some get really creative. Victor Saad was 25 years old and seriously considering MBA programs when he decided that he could get a better learning experience—and spend much less money—by designing his own professional gap year, or in his words, a “self-made master’s degree.” He made plans to quit his job and take 12 business apprenticeships over the course of 12 months. But he had one big problem: money. Victor’s adventures would…
Letting Your Child Take a Gap Year: Overcoming Fears for Parents by Megan Lee Letting Kids Go is Hard Especially when they’re off to do things that we have not done ourselves.If you took a gap year when you were young, then it’s likely that you able to see this adventure from your child’s perspective (maybe better than they are!) Even so, you have worries, it’s natural. If you haven’t traveled, then those fears will be magnified and the unknown will seem scarier than it really is. The best thing you can do in the face of your fears is…
Prompts to Find Your Passions Before your Gap Year by GYA Admin Let me open with a question: What are you passionate about? Don’t rush on to the next sentence to find out what I’m going to say about that. Stop. Think. Give your mind and your heart a few minutes to whisper in the corner about that. What are you passionate about? Our passions are the things that drive us (or should!) They are the things that we are most interested in. The things that we feel most strongly about. The causes that we feel compelled to support. Too…
Preparing Students for a Gap Year: Pre-Departure Skill Building by GYA Admin My friend tells the story of going on a college visit to NYC with her, then, 17 year old daughter. The first night in the city her daughter and a friend announced that they wanted to take off on the subway to go to dinner and have an adventure. My friend’s instinct was to say, “What? No way! You’re country mouse girls and this is your first day in the city!” But then, she realized, that in just a few months, her daughter would be living in Manhattan,…
Voices Project Video: Matthew Kenny on the moment he knew he had to go home… and why with Matthew Kenny Often, the lessons in gap year come with going. But, sometimes, the greatest lessons are in coming home. Matthew Kenny took a gap year before he applied to Harvard Graduate School of Education in Human Development. Watch as he talks about the pressing need to go, and to explore, as well as the moment he knew it was time to come home. Watch all the way to the end, because his “why” moment of realization is a breathtaking one. Share…
The Voices Project: Ronen on Challenging Beliefs & Abilities on a Gap Year With Ronen S Ronen’s Gap Year Overview High School: Trinity School, New York City University: University of Chicago 2020 May-August: Worked as busboy at pizza and Greek food restaurant September-December: Did work for room and board in France, Italy, and Germany through Workaway January-February: Worked as delivery boy at same restaurant in New York March-August: Thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, 2189 miles from Georgia to Maine Memorable Moment I’ll never forget the breeze on my face as I biked home from the restaurant every night at 1am. I…
The Voices Project: Lindsay Foreman-Murray on the space and time to appreciate what life has to offer with Lindsay Foreman-Murray Thinking about starting this piece, I am torn between two equally representative moments from my Gap Year: the first, waking up in a hostel in Ireland, surrounded by sleeping strangers who had become my new best friends in the last 24 hours, listening to the sounds of the sheep outside the windows, the snores of the other people in my bunk room, and the happy clank of other residents making breakfast in the old stone kitchen next door. This moment…
The Voices Project: Nan on Growing Up and Overcoming Hardship on a Gap Year with Nan, gap year alum Nan’s Gap Year Overview High school: Saint Ann’s School, Brooklyn, NY University: Stanford 2020 September-December: Ballymaloe Cookery School 12-week intensive course December-January: Hung out at home January-May: ISA Spring 4 Semester in Spain at the University of Salamanca Memorable Moment Taking a road trip to a food festival in Dingle, Ireland with two of my friends from cooking school. We pulled up to the beach in the dark and slept there in the car, and when we woke up everything was…
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…