<p>Any ideas for successful Gap years? I'm particularly interested in hearing about Gap years that were self-created as opposed to packaged ones.</p>
<p>What are the most original ideas you've heard of? How did it enrich the life of the student? </p>
<p>Thanks so much !!</p>
<p>andi</p>
<p>My employer who is British has sent two kids on very successful gap years. (I think they are more popular in the UK and Europe because of the timing of the college application system.) He says it's best to break the "year" -- which is really more like 15 months from June to September of the following year -- into 3 or 4 segments. </p>
<p>A common pattern is to vary the focus of the segments. Some ideas would be foreign travel or language study, employment or internship, adventure or sports activity, community service, arts study. If you try devote the whole 15 months to one event it can become daunting. If you break it down into shorter sectors, you'll find it more manageable. </p>
<p>For example, one boy we know studied Chinese in Beijing, took a menial job at the Sydney Olympics and interned at his hometown newpaper. This was a good balance of fun, work experience, travel and learning. All segments were also positive resume items.</p>
<p>You could consider using a packaged tour or volunteer program for one segment and work one to pay for it. I would highly recommend some foreign travel especially with a focused connection to his area(s) of interest. Budget travel does exist; you just have to have good planning. Colleges like to see international exposure especially when it is tied to language study, volunteer work, or the arts.</p>
<p>The complication for the American system is that you want to be able to research, visit, interview and apply to colleges in the fall. This is somewhat of a contradiction because you want to devote earlier part of the 15 months to the most interesting sector so you can get it on your resume, but at the same time you want to be close to home in order to do your best on the application. For example, you don't want to be climbing the Andes in November-December when applications are due.</p>
<p>I think the biggest drawback to gap years for Americans is that they are relatively rare and it takes a lot of initiative to go off on your own. Again, shorter segments help stave off loneliness. Organized programs that include groups of kids can be both fun and challenging.</p>
<p>Hi andi!
I replied to your post a while back about your son's situation, suggesting a gap year if he decided it is something he'd be interested in. I see you're looking for ideas, so I'd be happy to share what I've found :)</p>
<p>I have deferred enrollment to my college of choice and am beginning to sort out exactly what I'll be doing over the next 14 months. I'm planning on volunteering in my hometown while I plan the rest of the year. I believe (still nailing it down) I'll be heading off in August to Ecuador for a month of cultural and language immersion followed by 3 months volunteering in an orphanage through an organization called World Challenge (<a href="http://www.world-challenge.co.uk)%5B/url%5D">www.world-challenge.co.uk)</a>. I decided that for my first few months abroad I want to be around other volunteers my age, and I've found that the easiest/best way to do that is to go through an organization that places gappers where they're needed. I'm coming home in December (I think...may do some travelling in Latin America before flying home since World Challenge provides an open-ended ticket) to work for a couple months at home. I think I'll be glad to have some time with my friends while they're in town for Winter Break, and it will be a chance to make some money to help pay for my year. I don't know when I'll be leaving again or where I'll be going, but some of the options I'm looking into are volunteering with Habitat for Humanity (through a friend I have made contact with the director of Habitat in Romania), doing another placement teaching English or in an orphanage in Africa or Eastern Europe, or heading back to Latin America for more volunteer work there (probably Central America if I spend Fall in Ecuador...trying to mix things up a bit).</p>
<p>There are a ton of options for a gap year. I have talked to someone who worked full-time at home to make money for college, someone else who did an around-the-world backpacking trip and picked up work along the way (this is really tough if you're not accustomed to independent travel), someone who lived with his brother in an off-campus apartment at a state university and did research full-time with a professor...the list goes on. A great resource for diverse ideas is the book "Taking Time Off" by Colin Hall and Ron Lieber, but they are pretty specific ideas. <a href="http://www.gapyear.com%5B/url%5D">www.gapyear.com</a> is helpful if travelling/working/volunteering abroad is your focus. There are plenty of opportunities right here in the US (I found a lot when my parents tried to get me to stay here for the year...but it just isn't what I want to do) - Americorps, Habitat for Humanity, Internships, etc. One thing I've learned is that the best thing you and your son can do when looking for ideas is talk to everyone you know. It's amazing what surfaces when people hear that a capable young person is looking for something to do for a year. My aunt in Seattle invited me to stay with her for a few months while I worked there, and upon searching online for jobs and internships and volunteer positions in Seattle, I found a ton of stuff that interests me (but as I said, it's not what I want to do right now). I would never have thought to look for those opportunities had I not talked to my aunt about taking a year off.</p>
<p>Is your son taking a year off for sure? If so, what are his interests? Does he want to go abroad? I'd be glad to help you find some opportunities if you'd like...but you and he know better than anyone what he will enjoy and benefit from. Good luck!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You can get a working holdiay visa for New Zealand and Australia for a year and combine travel with sheep shearing, grape harvesting etc...</p></li>
<li><p>A mate of S1's taught skiing in China for a year and now owns the most exclusive night club in Beijing.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.gapyear.com%5B/url%5D">www.gapyear.com</a> is a UK website. My S did one of the programs, <a href="http://www.madventurer.com%5B/url%5D">www.madventurer.com</a>. That program combines volunteer projects with low budget safari. The caliber of UK participant was impressive, (mainly girls).</p></li>
<li><p>A traditional Gap Year is a year spent as a tutor at one of the UK boarding schools. We know many boys who did that and enjoyed it thoroughly.</p></li>
<li><p>I also recommend three month stints, as momrath's friends did. madventurer offers a 3 month project in Tanzania building school facilities in small villages on the side of Mount Kilimanjaro, plus a six week low budget safari through East Africa. The (reasonable) fees buy the building materials. </p></li>
<li><p>I also recommend Ridley Scott's Escape Studios in lOndon for anyone with an interest in 3D animation. Students must organize their own room and board.</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, we were impressed with the CET immersive mandarin program in Beijing. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>S2 will probably do a very similar Gap Year to S1's--as he also graduates seven months early. </p>
<p>Not quite sure what you meant by unorganized Gap Years, but I agree with mini that American teenagers coudl do with more independence at an earlier age. I know I longed for 'freedom' when I was 15/16 and I loved reading that the majority of hobos in the Great Depression were, in fact, teenagers.</p>
<p>Good luck. I hope nopoisonivy checks in too.</p>
<p>I spent a gap year between college and law school studying and working in a foreign country. Even after the pasage of 25 years, I've maintained a fair degree of fluency in the language I studied (which has a reputation for being difficult). </p>
<p>In an entire year in a foreign country, (or 15 months, as someone else pointed out), you can learn to speak a langauge far better than you'd be likely to achieve in four years of college courses. It could also give your son something far more interesting to write about on his college applications than anything the typical high school senior has experienced.</p>
<p>Americorp is another option that might be good. Americorp has a tremendous variety of volunteer programs, most of which offer health care and a small stipend for expenses. If you use the search engine on the website, you could see what specific programs might be interesting to your son.</p>
<p>From following your son's story, he seems to be really passionate about classical music. Maybe he could do a postgrad year at Interlochen. Or, he could work for half a year use the proceeds to study the music of another country in that country: there's the Aarabhi School, which teaches Indian Classical Music to people of all ages(fascinating and very difficult: <a href="http://www.indian-music.com/institutes/aarabhi)%5B/url%5D">http://www.indian-music.com/institutes/aarabhi)</a>, Taller Flamenco School (Flamenco guitar and Spanish language, <a href="http://www.tallerflamenco.com/nueva_web/ingles/cursos/marco_cursos_ing.htm)%5B/url%5D">http://www.tallerflamenco.com/nueva_web/ingles/cursos/marco_cursos_ing.htm)</a>, and many others. The Met also offers internships for high schoolers and undergrads (<a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/education/general/internship_opportunities.aspx)%5B/url%5D">http://www.metoperafamily.org/education/general/internship_opportunities.aspx)</a>. Studying abroad with AFS (American Field Service: <a href="http://www.usa.afs.org/go.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.usa.afs.org/go.htm</a>) is also a wonderful option; an acquaintance of mine studied in Austria for a year, applied, and went on to Princeton. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>There is an organization that places American students in office jobs in England and Australia for varying amounts of times. My niece did it for a summer in London, but her friend did it during a gap year from college. If you're interested, I can ask the name.</p>
<p>Friend of my son's has spent this year with a combination of working around here to earn money, a service project on a monastery (Tibet?), and now is taking off for a few months of travel through South East Asia. </p>
<p>I know many people who have done Spanish courses in Latin American countries. (Guatemala in particular). Some arrange living with families, others have dorms.</p>
<p>There are, of course, all kinds of service organizations out there that provide great experiences and have ongoing projects in certain parts of the world. Some are religious based, and you might start looking that way. I think the important aspect is not to avoid the organized groups, but to find the ones that do real work and avoid the ones that just provide expensive trips with a quick shot of "service" for rich kid resume padding.</p>
<p>Oooh, that's what was meant by 'unorganized'. By all means, only do the very very best volunteer projects. There are so many 'bad' volunteer projects in the world. Avoid the ones with rich kids. That would be the most authentic experience.</p>
<p>I did a gap year-and-a-half <em>after</em> college. I moved to a foreign country, learned the language, and worked. Nothing set up per se, no program, but very enriching.</p>
<p>I have a young friend whom I interviewed for Brown. She was very young when she graduated HS (16?) and though she had a stellar record she was not admitted to Brown. So she took a gap year in Denmark (she's of Danish origin) and did a Danish "senior year." Reapplied and was admitted.</p>
<p>I don't think it needs to be a fancy program, just a place/endeavor that really feels fun and meaningful to the student.</p>
<p>Here is a link that might be useful since you are on the East Coast: <a href="http://www.interimprograms.com%5B/url%5D">www.interimprograms.com</a></p>
<p>Also two established programs with small group intensive studies in art/music:</p>
<p>Sienna Sojourn Led by David Denman <a href="http://www.sienasojourn.com%5B/url%5D">www.sienasojourn.com</a>
Aegean Center for the Arts Led by John Pack <a href="http://www.aegeancenter.org%5B/url%5D">http://www.aegeancenter.org</a></p>
<p>These are an investment comparable to college tuition, but have an excellent reputation and options for college credit. Aegean Center has some financial aid.</p>
<p>I have to say that I agree that if your son does a gap year it ought to move him out beyond his experience to date. Either a new place altogether or a new milieu. I don't mean just the Grand Tour, oh wasn't Milan lovely, but some time in some facet of life or the world that is new to him. I remember somewhere being taught that real learning happens when you experience something as new and different as you can possibly assimilate.</p>
<p>
[quote]
He says it's best to break the "year" -- which is really more like 15 months from June to September of the following year -- into 3 or 4 segments.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Thanks. Sometimes it's the general tips you glean from more specific ideas that can be the most helpful. That's a great idea and takes some of the pressure off. </p>
<p>
[quote]
The complication for the American system is that you want to be able to research, visit, interview and apply to colleges in the fall. This is somewhat of a contradiction because you want to devote earlier part of the 15 months to the most interesting sector so you can get it on your resume, but at the same time you want to be close to home in order to do your best on the application. For example, you don't want to be climbing the Andes in November-December when applications are due.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is something I've been wondering about. If s is going to re-apply to his first choice school, which is ED, he has to apply in the fall. If he starts on the essay with ample time to work on it and he only starts the gap year at the beginning of fall, there's not going to be much of a gap year to write about.</p>
<p>
[quote]
One thing I've learned is that the best thing you and your son can do when looking for ideas is talk to everyone you know. It's amazing what surfaces when people hear that a capable young person is looking for something to do for a year.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Good idea. S put your suggestion to work right away and established two contacts for employment the first night. Thanks for sharing your story too. I hope you have a fantastic year!!!!!</p>
<p>
[quote]
I have to say that I agree that if your son does a gap year it ought to move him out beyond his experience to date. Either a new place altogether or a new milieu. I don't mean just the Grand Tour, oh wasn't Milan lovely, but some time in some facet of life or the world that is new to him. I remember somewhere being taught that real learning happens when you experience something as new and different as you can possibly assimilate.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think this is one of our stumbling blocks. My older s would have been happy doing just about anything as long as it was in a far away land-- helping tsunami victims, working on a farm, whatever. However this s, confronted with a gap year that's being planned on very short notice, has things such as his piano playing that he doesn't necessarily want to interrupt. I think he'd be very happy staying here all year studying music, earning some money and tutoring kids in our own city. From what you're saying, that's not a different enough milieu. I asked him the other day if he were to go anywhere for a time, where would it be and his answer was Paris. </p>
<p>As he's just taken his last final exam and will be celebrating his graduation next weekend, he hasn't had much time to think about it. He has looked up some things on the internet and taken the advice given above, of talking to people. He should have more time in another week.</p>
<p>I appreciate all the suggestions!!!!!!!!!!
andi</p>
<p>I have lots of ideas, not related to colleges particularly in the least, but a good place to start (from my homeschooling world) is to give him a copy of Grace Llewellyn's "Teenage Liberation Handbook".</p>
<p>mini,
I think that book, which I've only read excerpts from, would be interesting to many who will benefit from reading this thread about gap years. I also think kids who are disfranchised with schooling would relate well to the author's point of view, which seems to be that school is not 'real life' and that 'real' learning takes place outside of the confines of school. </p>
<p>However, there are indeed kids who love school, and s happens to be one of them. He loves classroom discussions and activities. He spends more time than actually necessary, doing his homework assignments because he finds the work interesting. I feel that the book implies that there's something 'wrong' with being a scholarly type person. There's room for all types in this world, not just people who want to go out in the field.</p>
<p>If he wants to continue to study music performance, I'm not going to discourage him.</p>
<p>Yup. No disagreement about where Grace is coming from. But she has a wealth of terrific ideas.</p>
<p>Anyhow, although we were not in a similar position to yours (my kid, a bit to our surprise, won the college and financial aid lotto), we encouraged her to take a gap year. Besides spending time in India, we encouraged her to continue work on the botanical medicine demonstration project she had been working on at the Skokomish Reservation, and to learn the language. Also, to help refurbish and renovate an opera house for our local opera company. Write more music. Do tracking studies with the Wilderness Awareness School. But....she felt like she had been waiting to study music with other composers for more than 3 years, and was not to be put off. And instead of a gap year in the middle of college (which we would also encourage), she's planned her junior year in Florence.</p>
<p>By the way, folks who have followed our sage should know that she flew off to Siem Reap in Cambodia on Thursday, and has sent us her first two e-mails from Angkor Wat. From there, she will travel back to India to build houses with flood and tsunami victims and learn Tamil. Folks can follow her work at shantinik.blogspot.com</p>
<p>My younger one, the pianist, has just received a scholarship to the Mannes International Keyboard Institute in New York this summer. Most of the participants are adults in their 20s, but she's pumped! (<a href="http://www.ikif.org%5B/url%5D">www.ikif.org</a>) I'm wondering whether there are opportunities like that which exist during the year (outside of college admissions - Mannes is a great place, but without scholarship aid costs a small fortune.)</p>
<p>mini, I'll look forward to following your older d's expedition. </p>
<p>s studied piano at chamber music camp for 3 yrs with a teacher from Mannes. He thought she was great. I'm sure your d will grow so much from her studies there.</p>
<p>On his next round of applications or in interviews, he'll probably be asked why he took a gap year. And I think he needs to be able to say it's because he passionately wanted to do xyz. I don't think it matters all that much what xyz is, and if he would, in fact, be staying close to home, I don't think he has to force himself to do something different. But I do think when he does his next round of applications, he prob. wouldn't want to say that he took a gap year because he didn't get into the school he wanted. And whatever he does end up doing, it should be something he feels really good about. In the end, I think that's what will matter.</p>
<p>(Still, I will be surprised if he doesn't get accepted into one of his schools within the next few weeks.)</p>
<p>Andi - I don't think he has to go to Paris. Sometimes the most different milieu is across the highway or over the lake. Well, I guess Angkor Wat is still the most different...Anyway, my D worked last summer for a program tutoring mostly Latino kids from middle schools in the area. The program is set up to get kids prepared to take the college prep path in high school. She loved it and is doing it again this summer. I am sure those kinds of programs exist where you live and your son could expand his music interest into that different milieu.</p>
<p>And of course still crossing fingers and toes.</p>
<p>Andi, unless a great idea or opportunity falls into his lap, there is no reason to dedicate the year to one project. Many kids who do gap years do a number of things, from being a volunteer fireman, joining the coast guard reserve unit, taking a minimum wage job, to taking classes at the Harvard extension school, working on an independent project, doing communty theatre, concerts, doing a community service project. The best gap years are ones stitched together to make a quilt of what you son is and with a myriad of experiences. If you call Ohio Wesleyan college, they do have some internship programs that also give you college credit, and they look pretty interesting. But you can just use their ideas as a another resource for your own ideas instead of buying into their program.</p>