Benefits of a Gap Year
It is too easy to go from high school to college to graduation in a series of classrooms without learning how to live in the world or knowing what your education is supposed to lead to. Taking time off helps to give perspective, to get a sense of what life after college might look like, and what exactly you are preparing for. It also gives texture to your understanding of the social issues you will read about in college textbooks. Taking time off from schooling is not an alternative to education, it is an education in itself and it deepens your appreciation of the college experience. Indeed, Harvard’s website and its acceptance letter says it “encourages admitted students to defer enrollment for one year” because it knows that the student who has experienced life outside the classroom does better inside it. In addition to learning about the world, time off encourages you to learn about yourself, to develop the independence and self-confidence that will allow you to do your best in college and beyond.
The Brown Ledge Gap Year Program is designed to offer participants an array of life lessons. Through group living in a city, students will learn how to take care of themselves and those they live with, from the practical issues of how to prepare a meal for a large group to the larger questions of how to make responsible decisions in a community of other people. Through community service and internships, students will get a sense of the pleasures and challenges of different kinds of work and work environments to help clarify their long-term goals. Through documentary production, students will learn a technical skill and, more importantly, they will learn how to conceptualize a social issue, how to explore it through interviews, and how to make sense and order out of a host of competing voices. In short, they will learn how to be a citizen—interested, open, curious and ultimately committed.
Figure out the Best Way To Spend your Gap Year!
Taking a Gap Year should be carefully considered so do some research. Below you will find an array of articles, an audio clip and a blog all about students taking Gap Years in the U.S.
Look through our web-site, read up on Gap Year, and give us a call if you have any questions. 1-888-74-FOCUS.