originally published on the NANAC website by J. Gross; revised and edited for Steller by John Stahl

Maybe you’re tired of the academic grind. Maybe you’re not sure why you’re going to college or what you’ll do when you’re there. You might yearn to explore remote places or a career that interests you. If this sounds like you, perhaps now is the time to take a gap year between high school and college.

“While there is significant peer pressure, parental pressure, and school pressure to go right on to college, the adventurous few who take time off are richly rewarded,” said David Rynick, executive director of Dynamy Internship Year. “Taking time off before college gives you the gift of time to learn about two essential things: yourself and the world around you.”

Of course, if your time off consists of nothing but chilling on the sofa, watching Jerry Springer, and eating potato chips, all you’ll have at the end is a wasted year. But with research and planning, you can design a semester or year that is both a great learning experience and a lot of fun.

What Are Your Options?

There are thousands of options for time off, as well as infinite combinations of activities. Some students participate in year-long programs. Others may combine two or more short-term programs, or plan a trip on their own or with friends. Here are some common ways to spend your time off:

Travel: Many organizations offer programs with an emphasis on traveling or living abroad.  Planning you own adventure has its own rewards.

Internships: Spend some time working in a career field that interests you. If you enjoy it, you’ll have even more incentive to succeed in your chosen college major. If it ends up not being a good fit for you, you’ll still have plenty of time to explore other career opportunities.

Volunteer work: there are U.S and world-wide volunteer programs.  You can build houses, work with children, work on environmental projects, or a host of other activities.

Academics: If you’re are not pleased with your high school records you might consider a

postgraduate (PG) year. The goal is to strengthen academic records in the hope of gaining entry to a better college.  Use a local college for this to save money.

Work: Whether you find a job at home or away, a year of work will extra funds to pay for college, plus valuable, real-life experience that will represent you well on your applications.

If you choose to participate in an organized gap year program, investigate each one and find out what areas they specialize in. “On the surface they all look very similar, but there are some very key differences that are important to look at,” said Robin Pendoley, CEO and co-founder of Thinking Beyond Borders. Is their program going to help you get what you want accomplished?

Some organizations may advertise programs that focus on community service. Others promise a personal growth experience. There are that are very focused on education, making sure that the students have a very rigorous academic experience when they’re abroad.  Spend time researching your options and shop wisely.  You may want to go to YouTube where a number of students describe there good, and not so good, experiences.

What About College?

Once you’ve decided to take time off, it’s tempting to chuck the whole college search until next year; you probably already know that that’s not a good idea for a number of reasons.

First, the college search and application process is much easier while you’re still in high school. All of the resources are there…the guidance counselor is there, all of the people you want to get letters of recommendation from are there, students and teachers you can confer with are there.  You don’t want to be filling out applications and trying to get counselor recommendations while you’re in the rainforests of South America or on a train between villages in the south of Czechoslovakia..

Second, having your college plans in place can go a long way toward convincing your parents that you will go back to school after a gap year.  Parents will be scared that you will never actually enroll, but applying to a college may be what it takes to prove to them you’re serious about going in the future.

So go ahead and complete the college admission process. Then contact the college you plan to attend and ask that your admission be deferred for a semester or a year. Most colleges are very receptive to students who want to defer their admission. College Admissions departments people across the country encourage the idea of time out before matriculation; again, if its used productively.

Keep this in mind: taking a year off can actually be more work because while you’re applying and for scholarships and to colleges you are also figuring out and planning what you are doing for the next year; all of this can make you even busier than your classmates during your senior year.

The process may seem time consuming and a bit complicated….remember, time invested now will pay off handsomely in the future.

Where Do I Start?

The essential component of a successful gap year is careful planning. There are plenty of resources for students, including books, web sites, and your high school guidance counselor (see below). You can also find a wealth of good information at your school or public library; look through a guidebook or two on traveling, internships, volunteering and other opportunities for high school students.  The question you want to keep asking yourself is: what can I see myself really enjoying and being able to apply myself to for a year.

Once you have an idea of what opportunities are available, think about goals you should have for your time off.  Do you want to travel abroad?  Learn a new language or improve the language you have already been studying?  Do you have a heart to help others, either at home or abroad?  How about exploring career interests, maybe challenging yourself in the outdoors?

The key is to have something meaningful that you want to pursue.

What Factors Should I Consider?

You may have a number of reasons for deciding to take a gap year.  Some students report that the decision to postpone her freshman year allowed them to take a step back from the rigorous demands of the college application process and collect their thought, mature a little (maybe a lot), have more life experience.  For a lot of students everything they do in high school is sort of geared at getting into college; a gap year was something that they could call their own and be really passionate about.

Before embarking on a gap year, let your expectations help you plan. Do you think a gap year involves relocating to a foreign city and studying a new culture? Or does it involve a survey of world cultures, as you travel around the globe engaging in community service projects? Only you can decide how your gap year will unfold.

As you research and plan, don’t limit yourself too much…take a risk.  Living outside of your comfort zone is an important factor in growth.  Let loose and allow yourself to enjoy the experience of being immersed in different cultures.; travel to a country where issues are relevant, live and work with the people where your efforts will have an impact, talk to the locals about their lives and perspective, explore beyond any boundaries that may exist…read articles and books about the issue.”

Plan, plan, plan, remember why you want to commit to a gap year and find a program that fits your unique needs.  Questions to consider when planning your year off:

* What do I want to learn?

* How much structure do I want or need?

* Where in the world do I want to be?

* What kinds of things do I want to do?

* What will I do when things get very difficult? What is my emergency plan?

* In the end what will be different about yourself that you will want other people to know?

Think about your budget.   Talk to your family about your plans and about what you can afford.  Be realistic, you’ll still need to pay for college some day, and while some programs cost very little; others can be very expensive. Don’t forget to plan for living and travel expenses in addition to program fees.  Students on a limited budget could consider working full-time for a summer or semester to pay for a semester-long program later in the year.

Keep in mind there are a multitude of opportunities that don’t cost anything: be active in a local Habitat for Humanity program, volunteer (intern) full time for a non-profit or hospital.  There is no limit to the possibilities if you apply yourself to exploring what’s out there.

Here is an example of what a gap year itinerary with various programs and multiple destinations may look like:

* two week orientation in Costa Rica

* a month in Ecuador studying clean water infrastructure and the economics of development

* a week in Peru, where she climbed Machu Pichu

* a month in China studying public education while teaching English in local schools

* a week in Cambodia, visiting Angkor Watt and learning about the genocide

* a month in Vietnam learning about waste management and the aftereffects of the war

* a month in Thailand learning about scuba diving and sustainable agriculture

*  a month in South Africa learning about health care and the HIV epidemic while shadowing home

based care workers in surrounding townships

All the issues were learning about were so loaded, and the whole experience would challenge most of anyone’s assumptions about different cultures and their daily experiences.

A year off is an adventure; don’t expect it to be easy.  Does a person really learn very much from easy tasks and things that require little effort? Welcome the new challenges you encounter as you enter into the ongoing process of creating the life you want to lead, the real questions are beyond college.

Resources for Planning Your Time Off

Books

* The Gap-Year Advantage: Helping Your Child Benefit from Time Off Before or During College by

Karl Haigler and Rae Nelson

* Taking Time Off by Gail Reardon

* Taking a Gap Year by Susan Griffith

* But What If I Don’t Want to Go to College? A Guide to Success Through Alternative Education

by Harlow G. Unger.

* The Back Door Guide to Short-Term Job Adventures: Internships, Extraordinary Experiences,

Seasonal Jobs, Volunteering, Work Abroad, Michael Landes (not just high-schoolers)

* Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Third World and U.S. Volunteer Opportunities

(9th Ed.) by Joan Powell (Editor)

Web Sites

* A school-counseling site, with a long list of program Web sites: www.andover.edu/summerops

* Whereyouheaded.com: A consulting firm for students planning time off.

* GapYear.com: A large site about time-off options, including students’ diaries about their year off.

This is from the perspective of the United Kingdom, where gap years are very popular.

Americans may need to “translate” a few things, such as references to money in British pounds.

* USAGapYearFairs.org: This site from Thinking Beyond Borders and Dynamic Internship Year

provides a directory of gap year programs and a list of 30 national gap year fairs.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact John Stahl, Guidance Counselor, Steller Secondary;

907-742-4950, stahl_john@asdk12.org