If the usual path taken from high school straight to college doesn’t seem sensible to you, believe me, you are not alone. There are thousands of students out there who don’t really like the idea, but too often we go along with this forced transition from one environment full of academic pressure to another just[…]
Yes it is true, the road less traveled is hard to walk. So often the unpaved roads are the paths that we may not want, but certainly become the ones we need, and because of that the experience is not only worth it, but becomes a road you would choose to take all over again.[…]
For the last month I have been volunteering in South Africa at the DAKTARI Bush School and Wildlife Orphanage. It has been a wonderful experience here working with children and animals. Each week a new group of eight children, usually four girls and four boys, come to stay at DAKTARI from the surrounding low income[…]
Before starting the main part of my gap experience in Puerto Rico, I got an amazing opportunity to travel to Japan (this would not have been possible if I hadn’t had the time off for my already planned gap!) Earlier in the summer I was lucky to be on an expense paid for conference in[…]
We’re very excited to present our first blog post from a 2018 TAP Grant recipient. Quynh lives in Vietnam and is spending her gap year traveling in Southeast Asia and working with an independent learning center to further her education through travel. English is her second language, and rather than edit her words for standard[…]
My name is Katarina Ashour, I’m 22 years old and I grew up in a small town in New England. There, I spent the vast majority of my younger years dreaming of the day I would finally be able to move to Africa to work with lions. This past May I graduated from University with[…]
Eva Earlyta is an Indonesian woman, writing in English as her second language. We’ve decided to leave this in her voice, even though the English isn’t perfectly standard. Part of the joy of travel is interacting across language and culture barriers, and we’re so happy to be sponsoring Eva’s growth through her gap year! I[…]
As we’re ramping up with the 2018 Travel Access Project Grant recipients, planning away for their adventures next year, we’re simultaneously winding down with last year’s students who are finishing up their travels. Michelle Zhang recorded this video for us as part of the Gap Year Association Voices Project. As she’s recording it, she’s chugging[…]
When my parents were still skeptical about the idea of a gap year, they would ask me, “What do you want to gain from it?” I told them I wanted to learn from real life what a classroom couldn’t teach me. They asked, “What are you going to learn?” I couldn’t answer. You don’t know[…]
Antony is nearing the end of his Gap Year in Ecuador and looking forward to what’s next. He shared this video… a window into his experience in Ecuador, the things he loves and the people he will miss. Check it out: