SYA as a gap year program?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
1

<p>I have a senior graduating next June, and he is all set for his gap year experience (wish I could say the same for where he will attend college when he returns!). He is pretty independent, and this gap year has been planned for a while to have a good mix of travel/work/education.</p>

<p>However - I have a daughter who is currently a sophomore, and as she is extremely young for her grade we have started to discuss her potential gap year. She would, ideally, like to spend a year in France or Italy honing her language skills and studying art history. She would be most interested in a well supervised program, and would not want to be completely on her own in a foreign country. </p>

<p>I am passingly familiar with SYA, but I have to assume it's for students that have not graduated yet. While in Italy for work a few years back, I saw throngs of college students descending on museums as part of their university programming. I guess I am looking for something in-between - if such an animal exists. </p>

<p>She has absolutely no interest in a PG year - and I agree. I am very familiar with the PG idea - it is absolutely not for us.</p>

2

<p>SYA is almost entirely made up of juniors and seniors. It may have PG students, but I haven’t seen it mentioned in general literature. Although there is substantial travel built into the program, the program centers heavily around high school courses - the first semester taught in English, the second semester taught entirely in the host language.</p>

<p>If she’s looking for a gap year without high school course requirements, the SYA program is probably not what she’s looking for.</p>

3

<p>SYA Vietnam has a gap year program that is more service oriented. It’s not France or Italy-- it’s a very good program and well run.</p>

4

<p>Nice. I just passed that info on to someone.</p>