@aboveaverage I think a lot of the competitive programs had deadlines that already passed. We were thinking of NSLY and it had a December deadline, but they also have just a summer programs which you might qualify for summer 2019. You might be able to combine that with 9 months of working (either in another country or here) and could end up with an interesting year. I know a lot of US resorts hire foreign students for their resort season and would imagine other countries do this too; how cool would it be to work at a ski resort in Chile, for example. You just have to dig around.