<p>Rotary is done by region, and I believe the deadline for applications is very soon. You can go to their website and find who the contact is for your region. Lots of kids from our area have had a great PG year abroad through Rotary. AFS is another program I have heard of, but unlike Rotary, it is very expensive.</p>
<p>kaku, my son is taking a gap year but it is doing things independently. He was 60% high school 40% home school and graduated from the high school last spring (they ended up giving him credit for some of the home school English courses, which we didn't expect). He's always been focused on learning. He knew that he needed to do well in school so he jumped through all hoops as required, but found doing well was often not highly correlated with deep thinking, which was part of the reason for home-schooling. He's trying to do some less structured things during the gap year, which can be seen as an extension of the home schooling.</p>
<p>He's applying to college, trying to complete his novel, working on a research project at a nearby university, and will do some traveling in the spring to do immersion Spanish. I'm doing a little work with him on game theory and economics. I have a friend whose son is in Israel for the year. The first 3 months involved doing basic training for the Israeli Defense Forces and then social service projects and then I think a sobering visit to concentration camps and a bunch of stuff, all highly organized. My son did not want or need that kind of organization, although there aren't that many kids at home. With a little bit of structure (but not with no structure), he can learn on his own.</p>
<p>Three very reputable programs for international student exchange are:</p>
<p>AFS</a> Intercultural Programs</p>
<p>Youth</a> For Understanding</p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://www.rotary.org%5DRotary.org:%5B/url">http://www.rotary.org]Rotary.org:[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Each of these organizations has been doing student exchange for something like 60 years so they have solid track records. I am most familiar with AFS. AFS has year long, semester long, and summer vacation exchanges. Almost all involve home-stays. Some gap year students do community service projects rather than attend school. Each program has its own requirements for student age at start of program. This might be more appealing to your daughter if she's feeling a bit burned out right now!</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>The program I went to was this one: INSTITUT</a> DE TOURAINE Both my brothers also went. I was sixteen when I graduated from high school - which was part of the reason my parents encouraged me to do something else before starting college. BTW my Dad did his senior year at Exeter. I also know kids who have had great experiences with Rotary Fellowships - but it may be too late to apply.</p>
<p>happymomof1 beat me to it but I was going to recommend the 13th year abroad program with Youth For Understanding.
In Spain.</p>
<p>My 17-year-old S went through the interview process for City Year Chicago but is on the wait list (no position available). That was his first choice and he still wants to be in Chicago, where “Mine the Gap” operates a program that sounds interesting. Have any of you participated in or heard comments about it?</p>
<p>AK mom,
Good luck to your son. One of my young friends, who graduated from college this year, was accepted to City Year Chicago, and starts in Aug.</p>
<p>Good to hear–I imagine they accepted more college grads than high school grads, and after paying for four years of college they probably deserve the positions that offer some support while volunteering.</p>
<p>I was going to suggest AFS and Youth for Understanding too.</p>
<p>I know lots of people who took gap years for all kinds of reasons. Some needed another year of academic work to get into the schools they wanted to attend. Some did PG years strictly for athletics for better recruiting. I know some who have to play a year of junior hockey so the school itself has pushed for the deferral (this seems pretty common in both hockey and lacrosse). I know other kids who really needed to learn independent skills and time management without a parent hovering but shouldn’t have carte blanche of college. I wish we had sent our daughter to a gap/pg year. She could have used to year to mature.</p>
<p>And no, this is not why you go to college. If I didn’t think my son was ready and capable for everything that college life entails, I’d be hard pressed to pony up the $+50K to send him!</p>
<p>My daughter has been accepted to the ESU exchange program and will be attending a school in the northwest of England for her gap year. Your high school must be a member of the ESU in order for you to be eligible to apply. There is a list on the ESU website.</p>