The Gap Year...Part Four (series)

Just as deciding upon the Gap Year is a personal choice, so too are the benefits that a student can garner during their year away from the classroom. Taking the Gap Year, albeit time off from formal schooling in most cases, is not simply a substitute to education. In fact, in many instances, it is an education in and of itself and it frequently serves to intensify students' appreciation of the college experience when they are ready to enroll. The Gap Year has proven to encourage students to learn about themselves and to develop independence and self-confidence, traits that are not always inherent in a high school senior or a traditional college freshman. Some students find the need to learn how to live in our world or to determine what their education is supposed to lead to before transitioning from the high school classroom to the college lecture hall. In addition, taking time off during the Gap Year usually provides a bit of perspective toward what life after college might look like. Depending upon how the Gap Year is spent, but especially if cultural immersion is part of it, the Gap Year gives understanding and a unique viewpoint to some of the social issues that students learn about in their college textbooks and their classroom discussions. Again, depending upon the route a student takes during the Gap Year, they are likely to obtain a bevy of life lessons such as living in a large city, money management, living and working in a group setting, preparing meals for themselves or for a large group, and even making critical decisions that may impact a community. Students might also learn different work opportunities through a variety of service projects or job internships, which hopefully will help solidify, or even appropriately modify, long term goals.