<p>If you are interested in Latin America, I've volunteered with a great organization in Guatemala that works with kids and families that live and work in the Guatemala City garbage dump: Safe Passage, or in Spanish Camino Seguro (I *think * I got the endings rights, but I've studied the language for a grand total of one week <g>). Safe Passage was started by a graduate of our local high school, and its US headquarters are in Yarmouth, Maine. The Guatemala HQ is in Antigua, Guatemala. It has volunteers from all over the world.</g></p>
<p>abroad programs cost a lot though.</p>
<p>Hence my local approach.</p>
<p>If I take a gap year, I'll be almost 20 when I start college... would that be a negative aspect?</p>
<p>Re cost: Safe Passage doesn't charge you to work for them. (They don't pay you, either. <g>) You have to pay your own expenses--which are very low in Guatemala. It is very feasible to get round trip airfare for about $500, and you can do a homestay--which includes 3 meals a day (except Sunday)--for about $70 per week. They may help you with accommodations if you are a long term volunteer. There are opportunities to travel around the country and area with other volunteers, also. The web site has more info, but if you do the math you are possibly looking at under $2000 for 3 months.</g></p>
<p>My youngest got a gap year all set up to go to Israel, working for 5 months living and working on an agricultural kibbutz where they also teach Hebrew (Ulpan) in an immersion approach. Google up Kibbutz Ulpan and research away. Not all kibbutzim (plural) have the language school, so that's something to check out. A kibbutz is a collective living arrangement, usually agricultural although now some are in cities as well.</p>
<p>Since his was a Fall birthday, the 5 months on kibbutz/ulpan would get him beyond his l8th birthday in December. After turning l8, he was eligible then to work as a volunteer on an ambulance for Magen David Adom, (Red Star of David) which is Israel's chapter of the International Red Cross. They train and assign you to an ambulance, where the ambulance driver has a second language to call out his orders to the volunteers (English, French are common second languages in Israel). These volunteers range in age from l8-65 and come from around the globe, living with host families in the town or city, but you can't choose your own city--the program assigns you. While many people want the bigger cities, the program also says it's sometimes cozier to live in a smaller community. Those volunteer sessions continue for 2 months apiece, and you can sign up again. I think there may also be firefighting programs, too. You volunteer in the station, but for the ambulance you actually work on the back of the ambulance
at a lower level than the paramedics, fetching and carrying. The training is 1 or 2 weeks, as I recall. </p>
<p>After that he was going to go on a hiking program. </p>
<p>There was funding from the government of Israel under the MASA organization for this type of volunteer help. Obviously, it isn't everyone's cup of tea. Kibbutz volunteers come from all over the world, and don't have to be Jewish although many are. </p>
<p>Sadly, he had to cancel the entire year because he got accepted into a college that didn't allow the gap year. Poor research on our part, really. We misunderstood when that school said they allow gap years, but they meant you had to put in a semester as a freshman and THEN could go take a gap. </p>
<p>Points out the importance of checking everything carefully by phone with the Admissions Department of any school you are considering. Anyone less than the Director of Admissions is not to be believed.</p>
<p>He's extremely happy at his university but would have preferred the gap year. His program was too competitive to give up the admission spot. Of course he had followed the wisdom to apply and get accepted before going to the gap year, since it would have been too hard to apply to 6 colleges from the back of an ambulance in Israel.</p>
<p>Passing along all of these ideas. I have no idea how it would have worked for him in actuality. We have relatives in that country so he would have someone to call upon if necessary. Certainly he'll get to Israel during his college years instead, but he wanted to go right then. I wish it had worked out for him. </p>
<p>He speaks a rocky Hebrew, but English is spoken very much in Israel, with every street sign in Hebrew, English and Arabic. So it's possible to manage there without any Hebrew, but the Ulpan programs really bring you up to speed in those 5 months.
They were designed for new immigrant families, and have been ongoing for nearly 50 years now, so they know what they're doing with language training. It's very hands-on, not all textbook learning, so I hear. </p>
<p>In many ways there are more opportunities abroad for college students than post-h.s. students of age l7, as he was then. One could argue it makes more sense to stay stateside that young, but now I'm reading about people going to South America and China here, doing just great.</p>
<p>My son (now a student at Brown) found a wonderful little program called Accra Artisans Exchange, which promotes cultural exchange with Ghana. He worked for 1 month with a drum carver, took African dance lessons, lived with a family, was individually guided around the country by very good people. This is a small group-- You can find them on the internet if you are interested. This was only one part of his gap year, which also included time spent in Oxford, England with the Oxford Tutorial College, also easily found on the internet.</p>
<p>I was also interested in City Year. Can anyone tell me which locations are the most/least competetive. I really want to go to New York or Boston, but don't want to risk my chances by applying to the most competetive location.</p>
<p>My nephew did a gap year last and my neice is doing it this year, my dtr is considering it. Both kids did theirs in Israel throught the "YJ Year Course" through Young Judaea. Every year they introduce new programs depending on your interests. From what they have told me and the pictures and stories I have heard it is amazing. Social Studies isn't in the classroom, it's at the Pyramids (if you so choose); traveling through other European countries getting first hand knowledge and experience that a teacher can't teach. One has done hiking and the other chose something else. They DO have regular classes that you must attend and from what I understand, other than gym, the colleges/universities accept the credits. Come this Sept. they are introducing programs for those interested in medicine, culinary cooking, etc.. My nephew was not the best student prior to his gap year; he has since returned, doing well in a mediocre college (that was all that would take him) and will be applying for a transfer now that he has matured and proven himself scholastically. My sister tells me it has done them a world of good, and this is a once in a liftetime experience. You will find that life goes by and all the traveling you planned on putting off till tomorrow doesn't usally happen. I wish you the best of luck and hope that whatever you decide to do, you have a great time doing it and grow from it.
Oh and by the way, don't let anyone tell you those kids don't party, they do, so don't feel you will miss out on that.</p>
<p>"If I take a gap year, I'll be almost 20 when I start college... would that be a negative aspect?"</p>
<p>No. You'll be more mature and independent than most freshmen will be, and that will be an advantage that will be very useful to you. More than likely, you'll be more focused than most freshmen will be, and you'll be able to connect more easily with professors and responsible upperclassmen while avoiding the most immature freshmen.</p>
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Does anyone have any experience with Foundation Year offered by many UK universities? My daughter is thinking of one of these as an prep year for either getting into a UK university or as a Gap year. Would appreciate any information on experince with these. She is specifically lookint at Bath, Edinburh and Leicester.
[/QUOTE]
Don't know much about then but always got the impression that these were courses specifically designed for non-traditional students coming back to studying after a break. eg people who didn't finish high school and can therefore not enter a college by the normal route. There are w few subjects where foundation is compulsory, mainly art and design (you know in the UK you have to specify a major when you apply and cannot change) but on the whole I don't think they are aimed at traditional 18 year old students. The only people I know who have taken them are a couple of mature nursing students.</p>
<p>It is completely normal to take a gap year in the UK though. You don't have to spend a lot of money. Some people do go travelling but a lot of people take minimum wage jobs and save. There are also lots of work experiene schemes, since work experience is considered very important here.</p>
<p>I am planning on going on Young Judaea Year Course after I graduate this year. The program is great because it offers such a nice variety of experiences. Several of my relatives have been on it and all have loved it, hardcore Zionist or not (of which I belong to the former).</p>
<p>I saw this job through jobs4students.com where you can go work in a different country, get paid, and have room/meals/etc. paid for. I think that is amazing opportunity. I saw an option of being a swim instructor in France for five months. I think if that is still available whenever I get ready to find a job for my gap year I would take that if able.</p>
<p>I am currently in between the notion of gap year or no gap year. there is so much I want to do. Therefore, I really want to take one. But, everyone says that I shouldn't take a break and just continue right on. I want to be a doctor, and they say about how I already have enough school, etc. and shouldn't take more time off, etc. I know it is my life, etc. But, I still count their opinions.</p>
<p>For the college dorming life, how does that work? Do you dorm with freshman or sophomores? Or do you live on your own?</p>
<p>Some of the things you can do with a gap year sound like absolute dreams. (In a good way!)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, for those with little money, gap years tend not to be feasible. For me, if I took a gap year I would automatically lose the one scholarship I've won so far, and probably most of the scholarships I've applied for. Not to mention the fact that I probably wouldn't be able to support myself financially :-p</p>