A Gap Year
This article appeared in the NY Times about a young woman who took a year off after high school. It was interesting because she first said she wanted it to concentrate on her studies senior year (and not trying to get into college) and also because she wanted to try two different things during her gap year. From the article,
"In the fall of my senior year, I contacted the Center for Interim Programs, a company that arranges gap-year programs for students.I knew I wanted to go to a country where I hadn’t been before, and I designed a program with its help. I spent the first half of that year helping villagers in Ghana and the second half studying art history in Italy. My four months in Ghana turned out to be a defining experience. It introduced me to the field of international development."
"In the fall of my senior year, I contacted the Center for Interim Programs, a company that arranges gap-year programs for students.I knew I wanted to go to a country where I hadn’t been before, and I designed a program with its help. I spent the first half of that year helping villagers in Ghana and the second half studying art history in Italy. My four months in Ghana turned out to be a defining experience. It introduced me to the field of international development."
"That experience was the biggest challenge I’d ever had — emotionally, intellectually and physically, but it was also the most rewarding.
After Ghana, I went home for a month and then studied art history in Venice for three months. I was glad for the opportunity, but art history was more an avocation. I wasn’t drawn to it the way I was to the work in Ghana."
There are other ways to take a gap year (this way, obviously has costs involved). AmeriCorp or the Peace Corps are others.
Comments
Personally, I don't think it needs to be some big enriching experience to be valueable. It's the same as letting your kids play in the back yard instead of going to a million different activities. Down time is good for people, especially kids.
Helen Schinske