Hi, looking for suggestions for specific organizations or programs that provide experiences for a kid who takes a gap year. Right now, just doing some initial research, and open to anything - internships, language immersion, volunteer experiences, etc. I know COVID complicates things, but right now just hoping to get a starting point for research, and will figure out how much COVID might effect these opportunities as a next step. Thanks!
My son spent the year in Granada Spain at a language school taking spanish classes for the year. We did have Spanish friends for him to live with but there are ways of finding roommates, etc. Basically study abroad for the year but as a direct admit to the program the whole year was around 10 k including living expenses so way cheaper than your typical study abroad program. Son went into college as a freshman here in the US when he came back. He deferred admission for one year.
That sounds amazing! How did you find the language school?
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If you are doing language immersion, make every attempt to avoid “programs” where they are most likely to spend at least some of their time speaking English with English-speaking companions. Search for opportunities for them to live exclusively with native speakers, and attend classes taught only in the target language, if they are already near-proficient in it, or in certain areas consider small intensive language schools where there are unlikely to be other English speakers.
There is tremendous need for certain languages in the US. Certainly, Spanish if one is going into a caring/serving profession where one would come into contact with clientele who speak only Spanish. But also consider defense-sensitive languages, such as Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Persian (although not possible to go to Iran, can go to Tajikistan). If you have a kid who loves learning foreign language, this can be an invaluable experience.
I can tell you that these specific language skills can lead to high paying employment with just a BA, with remuneration that rivals that offered for comp sci/math majors. That year of language immersion with no other English speakers around is a fantastic boost for language skills, and is highly valued by certain employers, if one follows it up with continuing to study the language in the US, and then summers abroad in that language, and then a year abroad not on an American program, but actually attending a local college/U in that country. Private message me if you would like more information.
Programs are nice, but expensive and do not lead to the same degree of self-sufficiency and maturity as independently arranged study abroad, which can be much cheaper, and lead to much more growth in foreign language and maturity.
My friend in Spain found it for me. I can send you the link if you want? But I agree it is not ideal to study the language with other foreigners which is what this school does. But we wanted Spain and didn’t know of any other options. Plus my son was living with Spanish kids so that helped a lot.