Episode – Gap Year Radio: Recent Episodes
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Nancy hit pause on her engineering degree and found herself living solo in Palermo, Italy, caring for two kids and soaking in the rich, sensory experience of Sicilian life. In this episode, she shares what it’s really like to be an au pair abroad – from daily routines and bonding with her host family to solo adventures and personal reflection. She also discusses the process of finding a placement through Scotia Personnel, a Canadian agency that helps young people find vetted international opportunities.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- How Nancy found her au pair placement through a structured agency
- What daily life is like working with a host family in Palermo
- The joys of unstructured time, solo exploration, and personal growth
- Why a slower pace and cultural immersion can shift your mindset in powerful ways
- Honest advice for anyone considering working as an au pair
Resources and Links Mentioned:
- Learn more about au pair placements through Scotia Personnel: https://www.scotia-personnel-ltd.com/
- Want to plan your own intentional gap year? Visit enroutegapyear.com
Connect with Us:
Listen to more episodes: gapyearradiopodcast.com
Follow us on Instagram: @gapyearradio
Questions or comments? Email us: gapyearradio@gmail.com
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The post Aupair Life in Italy: Nancy’s Gap Year as a Nanny in Palermo appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
In this episode of Gap Year Radio, Julia talks with Dillon Sheekey, an alum who used his gap year to reconnect with his creativity and develop a deeper sense of presence and purpose. Through three distinct experiences: a semester in the Southwest with ARCC Programs, an immersive art residency at Cow House Studios in Ireland, and a summer job on Nantucket – Dillon explored what it means to live intentionally and grow as both an artist and a human being.
He shares how spending time in nature, disconnecting from technology, and living in a small creative community helped him understand himself in new ways. If you’re interested in using a gap year to explore your artistic side, connect with nature, or simply slow down and reflect, this is the episode for you.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode Why Dillon wanted to prioritize art and creative expression on his gap year
How his time in the Southwest with ARCC helped him disconnect from tech and reconnect with the natural world
What it’s like to live and create at Cow House Studios in rural Ireland
How darkroom photography and stop-motion film became new creative outlets
What Dillon learned about presence, purpose, and redefining education outside the classroom
Why the people and places you surround yourself with matter when you’re shaping your path
Resources and Links Mentioned Cow House Studios
A residential arts program in Wexford, Ireland
cowhousestudios.com | @cowhousestudios
ARCC Gap Year Programs
Outdoor, service-learning, and cultural immersion programs
arccprograms.com | @arcgap
EnRoute Consulting
Gap year counseling and planning support
enroutegapyear.com
Connect with Us More episodes at gapyearradiopodcast.com
Follow us on Instagram: @gapyearradio
Email your questions or comments: gapyearradio@gmail.com
Leave a review so others can discover Gap Year Radio
The post Cultivating Creativity: Dillon’s Gap Year Exploring Art, Place and Presence appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
Welcome back to another installment of our Frequently Wondered Questions series, where we answer some of the most common questions about gap years.
Today, we’re tackling one of the biggest ones: “Why should I take a gap year?”
But instead of hearing the answer from me, we’re handing the mic to the people who know best: gap year alumni. In this episode, you’ll hear from Aliza, Marco, Journey, Katarina, Andrew, and Luke—all sharing what they would say to someone considering taking a gap year.
These are real students who’ve hit pause, taken the leap, and gained perspective – whether they traveled, worked, volunteered, or just took time to grow. Their voices are a powerful reminder that there’s no one way to take a gap year, but plenty of reasons why you should.
If you’re a graduating senior wondering if now is the right time to do something different, this one’s for you.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode What past guests would tell anyone considering a gap year right now The diversity of gap year experiences – and what they have in common Why May is the perfect time to pause and ask yourself, “Is this what I really want next?”
Resources and Links Mentioned EnRoute Consulting: Need help planning your own gap year? Learn more about working with Julia:
enroutegapyear.com
Featured Guests’ Episodes: Catch the full stories of this episode’s alumni guests in our past interviews:
Aliza: Season 7, Episode 2
Marco: Season 3, Episode 5
Journey: Season 8, Episode 6
Katarina: Season 9, Episode 7
Andrew: Season 4, Episode 2
Luke: Season 7, Episode 4
Connect with Us Listen to more episodes of Gap Year Radio: gapyearradiopodcast.com
Follow us on Instagram: @gapyearradio
Email your gap year questions or comments to: gapyearradio@gmail.com
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review—it helps more people discover Gap Year Radio!
The post Frequently Wondered Questions: Why Should I Take a Gap Year [Alum Response Edition] appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
Not every gap year takes place before college – and not every gap experience involves travel. In this episode of Gap Year Radio, we explore what it looks like to bring intentionality into a mid-college gap year, through the lens of Connor’s experience with the College for Social Innovation’s Gap Semester in the City.
Like many students, Connor’s college journey hasn’t been a straight line. After stepping away from his four-year degree, his break left him feeling aimless after a while. He knew he needed something different – something more intentional. A friend led him to the College for Social Innovation’s Semester in the City, where he spent a semester living, interning, and learning in Boston.
In this conversation, Connor shares how this experience helped him reconnect with his values, gain confidence, and envision new possibilities for his academic and career journey. From learning how to navigate a new city to developing a deeper understanding of social impact work, Connor’s story is a powerful reminder that growth happens when we step outside of the expected path.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Why Connor hit pause on college to gain clarity and direction
What it’s like to live and work in Boston through the College for Social Innovation
How his internship with Boston Cares helped him build confidence and professional skills
The importance of community, mentorship, and values-driven learning
How a gap semester helped Connor reflect, recharge, and reimagine his next steps
Resources and Links Mentioned
College for Social Innovation – Semester in the City: Learn more about this fully accredited, experiential program:
College for Social Innovation
EnRoute Consulting: Need guidance designing a purposeful gap year or semester? Connect with Julia at enroutegapyear.com
Connect with Us
Listen to more episodes of Gap Year Radio: gapyearradiopodcast.com
Follow us on Instagram: @gapyearradio
Email your gap year questions or comments to: gapyearradio@gmail.com
If you have a moment, please leave us a review—so more people can discover Gap Year Radio!
Thank you to Kevin Macleod for the use of Quasi Motion in our intro and outro music :Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
The post A Purposeful Pause: Connor’s Internship Experience in Boston appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
It’s college decision season! If you’re considering a gap year but wondering how to fund it—or if colleges even support it—this episode is for you. Duke University is one of the few schools in the U.S. that doesn’t just allow students to take a gap year—it actually funds them.
Today, we’re diving into a firsthand account of what it’s like to participate in the Duke Gap Year Program, one of the most innovative university-supported gap year initiatives in the country.
My guest, Katarina, was accepted to Duke but decided to take advantage of the school’s gap year funding to design her own unique experience. What followed was a year of pivots, problem-solving, and unforgettable learning.
With Duke’s support, she:
– Backpacked through 15 countries
– Interned at the National Bank of Moldova (yes, she landed that job through a cold email!)
– Summited Mount Kilimanjaro on a last-minute adventure
– Built a global network of friends and mentors—all by staying flexible and open to change
In this episode, we’ll break down how the Duke Gap Year Program gave her the freedom to plan a meaningful year, the challenges she faced along the way, and how she leveraged creativity and adaptability to make it all happen.
If you’re curious about how to balance structure and flexibility in your gap year, or want to hear how Duke is leading the way in making gap years more accessible – this is the episode for you!
What You’ll Learn in This Episode How Duke’s Gap Year Program works & what it provides for students
How Katarina adapted when her original plans fell through
The reality of planning a last-minute, multi-country backpacking trip
How she landed an internship at the National Bank of Moldova—by sending a cold email
Why she said YES to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (even though it terrified her)
How she built a global network of friends & travel buddies along the way
Her advice for anyone considering a gap year but unsure where to start
Resources and Links Mentioned Duke Gap Year Program – Learn more about how Duke supports and funds gap years: dukegapyear.duke.edu
Eurail Pass – The train pass Katarina used for her 3-month backpacking trip: eurail.com
Hostelworld – The go-to site for booking hostels: hostelworld.com
Gap Year Planning Help – Need guidance in structuring your gap year? Work with Julia at EnRouteGapYear.com
Connect with Us Listen to more episodes of Gap Year Radio: gapyearradiopodcast.com
Follow us on Instagram: @gapyearradio
Email your gap year questions or comments at: gapyearradio@gmail.com
If you have a moment, please leave a review—it helps more people discover Gap Year Radio!
The post Duke’s Gap Year Program in Action: Katarina’s Adventures from Moldova to Mount Kilimanjaro appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
In this episode of Gap Year Radio, host Julia Rogers speaks with Ben, a gap year alum who integrated mindfulness practices into his varied experiences. Ben recounts his journey, highlighting his residency at Zen monasteries in the US and Japan, a farm stay in Costa Rica, and learning audio engineering. He shares insights into how these experiences enhanced his personal growth, creativity, and approach to college. Listen to Ben’s wisdom for advice on incorporating mindfulness into gap years and balancing diverse interests with intentionality and community support.
Transcript:
Julia: [00:00:00] Hey, Ben. Thank you so much for being here. How are you today?
Ben: I’m doing well. Thanks for having me, Julia.
Julia: Oh my gosh. I’m so excited for this conversation because, I hear from so many students now about how they want to, practice either more mindfulness or even get into meditation or yoga or other types of wellness practices on their gap year.
And I feel like you’re a student I know incorporate a lot of that. into your gap time. But I guess I’m curious, when you were first starting to think about taking a gap year, did you think about grounding yourself in those practices or in those types of experiences? Or was it a broader idea, when you started thinking about planning a gap year?
Ben: Yeah, it was for sure. I think honestly my main reason for wanting to take a gap year. was that I, wasn’t so sure what I wanted to do in college. And I thought that long term I did want to go to school, but that I was really trying to figure out like my place in the world. And I think that’s a very common thing for lots of students who take [00:01:00] gap years.
And so mindfulness, because I’d been practicing it before, seemed like a good answer to that uncertainty. And so I said to myself, I need to definitely try to integrate these practices more into my life over the next few years. And what a great opportunity to be able to intensify that in a gap year.
And yeah, I already had a lot of interest and a clear practice set out before the gap year. But it very much strengthened it and especially the experiences that I ended up having did that.
Julia: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Were there other things at the beginning that you can remember being like really important in your kind of overall what you got to do or experience on your gap year?
Ben: Yeah, the Japan was definitely the biggest part because I’d been taking Japanese in high school. And in normal times, one could expect to possibly take a trip to Japan through, the high school I go to, but because it was COVID, that option was pretty much off the table.
[00:02:00] I thought if I have this time, and the means to be able to go to Japan, Then I really want to. The mindfulness was the other really big driving force, and those met well together because the type of, Buddhism that I’m most interested in is Zen Buddhism, which is a Japanese thing.
But other than those two kind of anchors, in a sense, I didn’t have much. I was really just thinking, what are the things that I, can do with my free time and with my interests that I currently have, but I might not be able to do while I’m studying full time. And so I guess that was the kind of, I was very open to a lot of things.
And when you initially sent me the first list of proposals, I was like, Oh my gosh, all these things aren’t exactly like what I would have thought I wanted to do. But then when I was prompted to look into that, I was like, Oh my, I really want to do this.
I think having [00:03:00] openness and, A few anchors, but not too rigid an idea, was very important for me.
Julia: Yeah, I think that’s a really good point overall, is making sure that you’re not going in totally blind because then it can be really overwhelming,
so that’s a good point. So you participated in, two of these retreat experiences, I guess I would call them, but please adjust my language if I’m not using the terms properly, you did, you bookended your year with these longer. Time spent at these proper kind of, centers for, wellness slash meditation.
But why don’t you, I want you to take it from there and describe the differences between those centers, what you were able to do at them and How you chose them and I know that like I was involved in some of that choosing and advising But I feel like you did a good job actually isolating the ones that you actually ended up landing on doing so Walk us through the process because I think it would be really helpful for people who are interested in this type of thing To know how you found them and how you chose them and then what the Differences in those experiences ended up being
Ben: Yeah, I guess it’s funny looking back that I started with, a month of [00:04:00] residency, at a Zen monastery, But it’s funny to think that I started with a month of residency and then I ended with two weeks in Japan. And I think what was interesting to me, it was very illuminating in some ways. was, the stark contrast between them. The first monastery that I practiced at, was in the United States.
And so there’s a very distinct character that, Americans and Buddhism has. And it’s very much of the culture in a sense. It was adapted to the American mind in some sense. And was very interesting, but everyone there was American and was practicing and had priors or had the upbringing just like I had basically.
And so that was a very kind of. I don’t want to say rigid, but it was a very, regimented practice, so we had the schedule, for weeks in advance, I was just a one month resident, which is a program that this, monastery offered, but [00:05:00] there were monks who had been there for years, and we were basically just all practicing the same schedule, and those monks could expect to know what their life would be like in one year if they, obviously, Circumstances allowing them to be at the monastery for a year.
They could pretty much expect. Okay. I know what’s I’m gonna meditate at 5 a. m In one year from now because that’s what the schedule during this period is and I going into my experience in Japan, I thought it would be similar because I had associated that kind of regimentedness with zen, but then when I got there, I realized, Oh, it doesn’t have to be that way.
They pretty much just decided what they were going to do the morning of or even like a few hours before. sometimes we would have a tea service in the morning that we didn’t know we would be preparing for, until it was basically happening. And then we might meditate again in the evening [00:06:00] or just have a discussion or something like that.
And it felt in some sense, more, more just natural and flowing. But also there’s a sense of uncertainty. Cause it’s they called it like surprise practice. Like you’re just gonna not know what’s happening and that’s what you’re practicing. It’s not having this fixed sense of what’s going on.
But then I also, from the first experience realized how much structure and discipline and having. certain habits, can be helpful for me. And so I think both of them were clearly Zen practice. So at bottom, we practiced, Shikantaza, which is. Just the Zen meditation style for Soto Zen Buddhism.
in the fringe or really in the daily day to day stuff, it was very different. We chopped wood at both places, but the way we chopped wood was different and we cooked at both places, but it was very different. I think that was really, illuminating to have those two contrasting experiences.
Julia: Yeah, it is so fascinating. I can see how each of [00:07:00] them could have been a gift in different ways of, especially, I think that I don’t know if it’s the American mindset or if it’s the young adult American mindset of appreciating knowing what’s happening. I think that one of the reasons why we don’t see, 80 percent of young people taking a gap year is that it seems like such a scary unknown, comparatively to a culturally more known option, like a four year college experience or community college or something like that.
But at the same time, I think that, jumping into something that could be considered intense, like a, meditation or a yoga retreat knowing the schedule can make it seem almost less daunting in a way. So I can understand why the American system is set up like that, but the other option sounds so good for the, Unraveling of rigidity of mindset and schedule that we Hold so dearly here in the West that’s really interesting.
Yeah.
Ben: Yeah. It’s interesting that you say that and I think having that kind of Alternative view to a clear track of just right after high school. I’m gonna go into college I [00:08:00] think the fact that I allowed myself to not think that way and to take a gap year, I know this is the whole point your podcast and what you do, but I think that was so important to my growth and my understanding of myself, even now that I have started a school, and I think having both of those things is really important.
Julia: What else did you do during the day? Because I think that’s another kind of thing that people sometimes wonder is that if you have a couple sessions of, depending on the type of retreat, like meditation slash yoga slash, like you said, tea service, I know that some centers have, service to the community that you’re in and that kind of thing, as well as, quiet time or whatever.
So what did what did a daily, what did a. What did the average day look like?
Ben: Yeah, it was busy the whole time, basically. Especially at the first place. We would get up in the morning, to meditate. We would do two periods and then a service. So that’s, like about two hours or something.
And then we would have some type of work or [00:09:00] some type of movement. Then we would have breakfast, and then we would have work, so that’s because we were in this community with lots of, green space, and lots of plants, and all the, obviously, issues with needing to clean a large space that’s shared, and people using the bathrooms, and whatnot.
So we did all of that kind of stuff in between, breakfast and lunch, and then after lunch we also had, A five hour period of working as well. And so there was lots of stuff to take care of. Part of that work practice, at the monastery I went to in the United States was called caretaking practice.
I think it was a good way to frame it. It was taking care of the things we need to in a very clearly mindful way. So it’s taking that meditation that we would do in the morning. And integrating it into a more mundane kind of experience where one can be much more, susceptible being distracted and chit chatting and not really [00:10:00] paying attention to what experience is and so even though it was like, sometimes we would be weeding or chopping wood or, cleaning a toilet or something like that.
It was very clearly still in line with all the rest of the practice we were doing. And since it was I was practicing in October. And so it was the Ongo period, which in Buddhism is a more intense period. You have the whole year split up into four quarters and two of them are more intense.
And so we had lots of sitting. So after that five hours of work, we would sit again for an hour, then we would have supper and then sit again for two hours in the evening. So it was quite, quite an intense period. And then that was like the regular schedule for three weeks. And since I was there for a month, I completed, a Sashin at the end, which was, Sashin is just a universal Zen.
Julia: Thing which is a more intense one week, retreat and that’s pretty much you’re not going to be [00:11:00] doing any of that, caretaking practice and stuff because we’ve prepared for it so it’s easier and then you’re pretty much sitting the whole day, as long as you can. Wow. Yeah, that does sound, like full on and also just, such a skill building type of thing.
this is a perfect segue into kind of talking about the other pieces of your year that had different aspects of them. After that first experience, with your month long retreat, you then went to Costa Rica and did a farm stay. And so you were doing a lot of that type of caretaking practice types of things in your work on the farm, but also meeting people from all over the world and that kind of thing.
So how did you bring your learnings from your first experience into the farm experience? And just how did you enjoy being, doing like a work stay in Costa Rica?
Ben: Yeah. It’s nice to have this framing to think about, the ways that, my first experience interacted with the second one.
And I think my experience in Costa Rica would have been quite different had I not been participating in practice at the monastery. And like you said, it was a lot of, [00:12:00] caretaking in a sense, we would do a lot of, gardening and stuff, that was the main point, but also cooking maintenance, which I ended up really liking, I realized at the monastery and at Costa Rica, that I liked working with power tools and trying to build stuff and whatnot.
But I think the thing that was so interesting was that. I still felt incredibly integrated into a community when I was in Costa Rica, and I think that’s another aspect of being at the monastery that I really liked, was that there was this communal, responsibility that every individual had, and also a communal kind of feeling of support.
Even though in Costa Rica it was a lot more social, and so it was easier for me to get distracted and just, get into a more habitual kind of day to day, just like I might be at home, patterns of thought and things like that. I was still able to integrate, mindfulness into that experience.
So a lot of the gardening that we did is Very compatible with mindfulness. And honestly, most of [00:13:00] the stuff that we did in Costa Rica, I had also done at the monastery. It was just not really, bookended with meditation, at least in a formal sense, but I still meditated while I was there.
that farm also had a yoga aspect to it. I. did some yoga at the beginning, like a more intense period of yoga practice. And then throughout, with some of the people that were there, we decided we all wanted to deepen our yoga practice.
And so in the morning before we started work, we all met in the common room and we’d do that together. I think both of them were very interesting experiences to have and made me realize that these are two aspects of myself, and of my life that I care about and want to nurture.
But they were also very distinct and it was nice.
Julia: Yeah. It’s almost like the Costa Rica experience was like the retreat the training wheels off Like you had to have the discipline to implement. Your own practice, [00:14:00] in a situation where it wasn’t going to be forced upon you scheduled for you.
Ben: Yeah, I do think, that one important aspect of, Buddhism is the Sangha, which is the community, and so regardless of whether, I don’t think it was only the augmentation of the schedule that was different, it was also the fact that not everyone who was there to meditate.
And so when you’re in a space with lots of people who are there for the express purpose of deepening their practice and answering the questions that, anyone might have around life and death and what is a good life. I think that wasn’t. incredibly strong in the monastery, whereas in Costa Rica, people were interested in those kinds of things, but that’s not the reason they went there.
And so that wasn’t the character of the experience.
Julia: I’m sorry,
Ben: no, I pretty much finished just to say that, Yeah, I think the community aspect of it, there was a very strong sense of community in both, but for different reasons, we were at [00:15:00] the place in Costa Rica to learn about other cultures and practice Spanish and have fun as well.
It was a lot of young people in Costa Rica and versus at the monastery, I was the youngest by far.
Julia: And so I guess for listeners, if anybody engages in this type of learning on their gap year, but then needs to take it back into the real world, whether it’s into other gap year experiences or, post gap year life, do you have tips for how to bring along, those practices and how to translate the full on experience into the real world experience?
Ben: That’s, like the biggest question I always ask myself, so I don’t think I’ll have a perfect answer, but, I think
meditation, for me at least, and the type of meditation that I am most attracted to, definitely. Compliments and creates space in life for everything that comes about and so When you have a [00:16:00] deep Practice for a few weeks if you go into a retreat setting What you realize is that meditation isn’t something that you’re adding Onto life or you’re not taking away from things that are happening.
You’re just Able to more clearly see what’s going on, in the rest of the time and to use that kind of frame of mind to come to things and experience them is incredibly powerful and difficult, as well. How to integrate that into day to day living is to continue your practice.
one has to sit they want to continue to cultivate the state of mind, that meditation brings about, but also to have a community and to have a clear intention. One thing we were talking about is the thread that links all of my, gap experiences and I think intentionality was that thread.
. It was the intention to learn about what kind of person I want to be in [00:17:00] the future, but also the intention to just explore the wide world around us and to be open and curious about new things. And to also live a good life and to be ethical and to care about the world that I’m in. And so that kind of common thread, that thing that was the basis for all my experiences in some sense, it was very helpful in linking this kind of intense period of practice with the more mundane things that I ended up doing, or even the, scholarly things I ended up doing. I, in the winter, I went to a place to learn about audio engineering. And that was very much of very mundane in a sense, like living in the real world, quote unquote, or the modern world.
It was, I was around technology all the time with a bunch of people who didn’t know anything about meditation, that wasn’t the reason they were there. We were there to learn a skill. But because I had framed this [00:18:00] skill as continuous with the rest of my gap year, all of those things blended in together and I still was mindful during that time, even though it was a very different thing.
Julia: No, I think that was great. I was going to ask about how the sound and audio engineering course wove into this. Cause I think that does bring in more of the creative mind into your gap experiences too. And did you did that experience or just playing with music throughout your gap year?
Did you discover anything about yourself as a creative during those experiences or through that intentional practice as well?
Ben: Yeah, I think,
Julia: it’s okay. If the answer is nah, not really. That’s fine too.
Ben: No, but Yeah. What did I learn about myself creatively? I think that through creative practice over my gap year, Which was most intense during the sound engineering portion of it.
I think I realized
how I would like to express myself. I was able to see the things that were hard for me to express or were stopping me [00:19:00] from being able to share myself with the world in a sense because that’s what you’re doing when you’re being creative, at least when I think about it, you’re showing a part of yourself to the world and to people around you if you’re vulnerable about something, I think it creates a better Experience because it’s more real to you and so That creativity that I had was an external aspect of myself.
It’s like, how do I want to show up in the world? And then the other parts of my gap year, especially like the monastery and stuff were almost reflecting on my internal dialogue and, my internal state of mind, but both of those come together really importantly, because if you’re, Not paying attention to what’s going on in your life and not being present, then you’re not going to really be able to express your feelings or your thoughts or be vulnerable, and create something, important, is what I would say.
Julia: That’s a really, I’m so glad that [00:20:00] I asked that question because I think that idea of the duality of the internal and the external exploration of Processing and expression is a really cool concept to think about. like big picture, you experience such a variety of these different experiences from the retreats to the farm stays to traveling in Japan to the sound recording course.
Overall, how do you feel when you think about, you touched on it a couple times, but that kind of what you gain from your gap year as far as your own personal growth, is there anything that you feel is the thesis statement of what you gained from the collection of these experiences and how they all interact?
Ben: Yeah, I wouldn’t be inclined to sum it up in one kind of phrase. But I guess what, I learned is that there are lots of things that I’m interested in, and all those things are worthwhile, in a sense. When I explored each of those things, I realized how deep each of them go.
[00:21:00] Part of what I realized is that I could, pursue music and try to make that my life, but I might not be as motivated to do that as I am with other things on the gap year that I explored. And I think it helped narrow down my interest to say, okay, these are the hobbies I want.
These are the things I want to pursue on the side. But not make my life revolve around them. And then it helped strengthen the things that I was already pretty sure I wanted to keep strong, like meditation and, intellectual stuff as well, like school. It made me realize, okay, I do want to pursue this stuff and having the gap year also helped me appreciate the opportunity that one has when they go to college.
This is something we touched on earlier, but when you have this clear path of, I’m just going to go to a four year university after high school or do something else, but when it’s a [00:22:00] clear idea that you feel like you have known that’s what you’re going to do since you were 12 years old, I think there’s some wonder and, Opportunity to really appreciate it that gets lost when that’s the case because it feels predictable and it feels like it’s set in stone, but there’s so much that college can offer, that is, you need to be ready for it in a sense, and I think I wasn’t ready for it before my gap year.
And after the gap year, I felt like I was more so able to appreciate that opportunity. I read a bunch of stuff over my gap year and especially was reading stuff about political science and philosophy and ethics and whatnot, which now is what I’m focusing on and what I’m studying.
Julia: I would be curious to hear about the three paths of Ben, like what [00:23:00] you feel like you would have done or what you would have been lost maybe about if you’d gone straight to college, because you had a college that you were, thinking about going to, and then.
During your gap year, you changed course and applied to a different school, which you are now at. So there’s like those three sliding door situations of not having taken the gap year, gone to original college, deferred, gone to original college, and then the path you’re on now. So yeah, I don’t know if you can predict like the kind of different, multi, the multiverse versions of yourself, but do you have any thoughts on like how.
I don’t know, like how things would have gone in a different way. Not that it would have been bad, but just most intentional version of you in that, sense.
Ben: Yeah. Honestly, I think if I had just gone to the original school without taking a gap year, I think I would have studied, Zen Buddhism and Taoist philosophy and stuff, which is what I’m most interested in.
I think I was going to risk the chance of being disenchanted with them because as I learned over my gap year, the best of those traditions [00:24:00] is not their intellectual character and Zen in particular emphasizes, direct experience versus, dogmatic belief.
And not practiced meditation in a deeper sense, I probably would have studied it and then gotten discouraged because that’s not the way, I want to practice those traditions. And I think, over the gap year, having learned that, if I had still gone to that same school, I probably would have studied some of those philosophical traditions, but then also more keen to focus on the social sciences and sociology and political science and whatnot, which is what I’m doing now.
And so I think I would have had some kind of mix of those things. But I also think I would have changed a lot over the years, especially because that school was the kind of school where you can really pick and choose what you want to do. now my current situation is that I’m on a track to [00:25:00] look at a bunch of different disciplines on a more surface level while still learning a lot this last semester I’ve never worked so hard in my life, to be honest, to learn a lot of different things and then decide to focus on one or two of them more next year.
And I’m in definitely more of a kind of pre professional kind of program in a sense, like I’m learning skills that will help me. With work in the future and also I decided to go somewhere that’s more recognized in a sense because, I realized how much, in some ways the brand kind of does matter.
So yeah that’s one thing, but also I wouldn’t have been in an international context. So now I’m going to college, abroad with a lot of international students and I definitely wouldn’t have met all these people. Had I gone to that first school that I deferred from.
Julia: Yeah.
Man. I think for everybody, do you have any other advice [00:26:00] for people who are right now, maybe senior year of high school, wavering on the idea of a gap year, trying to decide if it’s right for them, maybe feeling a little bit nervous about taking that leap.
What would you say to those people?
Ben: I would say if you have, a lot of ideas for what you might want to do and you’re really curious about things I think you feel that you can explore those things over a gap year And you think you can, if you think that you’d be just so excited to do so many different things, and you don’t know what to choose, then I think a gap year is a great choice.
Because college, in a sense, will always be there, or work will always be there, but having gap time can be really instructive to narrowing down, exploring new things. If you’re unsure whether you could even fill your time over a gap year and you really just like to read and debate with people and stuff, maybe [00:27:00] going to college right away is a better idea.
And you can always take a gap year after you graduate college or take, a semester abroad or some colleges are fine with taking a semester off So I think making it all or nothing decision, puts a lot more pressure than is needed on the decision because you can change your mind and pivot later.
I think with regards to mindfulness over the gap year, if you’re interested in mindfulness and you haven’t practiced before, I’d say before you decide to go do something really intense, like what I did, try to find a community that practices meditation where you live, and sit with them and see what you think about it.
And there’s also a lot of different like levels of practice or, experiences you can have, you can do something like a yoga retreat or a meditation session, or just like a weekend retreat. They offered those at the monastery that I was at, and that could be a good way to, to start.
I think starting with a one month long residency Was [00:28:00] good for me because I had been practicing for two years, but it was still incredibly intense. And I don’t think I could have done it had I just started, right away. And so I think, meditation is a lifelong kind of practice and journey.
And so if you’re interested in it, Try to see what are the ways you can plant some seeds over your gap year, explore some things that will help you to see what kind of practice you’re interested in, why you’re interested in that practice, and then move on from there.
Julia: It’s really good advice and there are so many different ways to explore this both, like you said, starter, intermediate, advanced settings, even structured gap year programs often have a couple of days or a week long.
Meditation or yoga, component as part of it. So that’s like a little bit of a a testing ground for those experiences. So well said ben and thank you so much for being here and Sharing this with us and thank you everyone out there for listening as well yeah, thank you Yeah, thanks, So thank you again for listening today.
[00:29:00] You can find us at gap, your radio on Instagram or Facebook at gap, your radio, or online at gap, your radio podcast. com. You can email us your gap, your questions or comments at gap, your radio at gmail. com. And lastly, you can download the show wherever you find your favorite podcasts. And if you have a moment, we’d love for you to leave us a review on Apple podcasts, so more people can discover gap, your radio.
Ben: Merci pour avoir écouté, bonne journée, arigato gozaimasu.
Julia: Ooh, we got a combo there. France for where you’re going to school and Japanese.
Ben: That’s it. Yeah. Yeah. Gracias. Gracias. Ben.
Julia: Bye.
Ben: Thanks.
The post Mindfulness, Music & Monasteries: Getting Zen with Ben appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
One of the biggest myths about gap years? That they’re only for certain types of students. In this episode, host Julia Rogers breaks down this misconception and explores how gap time can benefit students from all backgrounds and academic paths.
From high achievers on the brink of burnout to hands-on learners seeking real-world experience, Julia shares key student profiles that thrive on a gap year, offering insight into why intentional time off can lead to greater success -whether that’s in college, career training, or another post-secondary pathway.
If you’ve ever wondered who actually takes a gap year and why, this episode will challenge conventional wisdom’s outdated assumptions about life after high school.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Why the traditional “straight to college” model doesn’t work for everyone.
- Six key student profiles that thrive on a gap year:
- How a gap year can make the transition to college easier, not harder.
- Why students who take gap time feel more confident and intentional about their next steps.
Resources and Links Mentioned
- Gap Year Radio Instagram – Follow for more gap year insights and stories.
- Gap Year Radio Website – Explore past episodes and resources.
- EnRoute Consulting – Learn more about working with Julia as a gap year counselor.
Connect with Us
Listen to more episodes of Gap Year Radio wherever you find your favorite pods
Follow us on Instagram: @gapyearradio
Email us your gap year questions: gapyearradio@gmail.com
If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate, review, and share—it helps more people discover the power of gap time!
The post Frequently Wondered Questions: FWQ: Who Takes a Gap Year? appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
Join Julia as she dives into the transformative gap year journey of Abby, an aerospace engineering student, and her mom, Elena, from Portland, Oregon. From bathing elephants in Thailand with Pacific Discovery to navigating East Africa’s rugged terrain with ARCC and road tripping and living independently in New York City. Abby’s year of exploration, growth, and independence shaped her into a confident, resourceful college student.
Elena shares her perspective as a supportive parent, offering tips on researching programs, addressing common concerns, and empowering independence. This episode is packed with insights on scaffolding gap year experiences, overcoming challenges, and embracing unexpected growth. Whether you’re considering a gap year or supporting someone who is, this conversation will inspire and guide you.
Transcript:
Thank you so much for being here. I’m really excited to have a mother daughter duo on the podcast. So Abby, I wanted to start with you. When did you decide to take a gap year and what were you hoping to get out of it?
What were some of your motivations?
Yeah, so I knew I wanted to take a gap year since my freshman year of high school, so this was not a decision I made because of COVID or anything like that. I knew that I was going to be doing a challenging curriculum in high school and then an even more challenging curriculum in college and I knew that I would want some time to focus on other parts of life outside of academics for a year in between.
I also know that I want to go to graduate school and so I’m in it for the long haul in terms of school and this felt like a really unique time to enjoy some time away from responsibilities, and learn about myself, gain confidence and independence. I definitely would have been fine if I went straight to college, but this experience
developed me and helped me thrive in college in ways that I never expected before I took my gap year. I also wanted to immerse myself in different cultures, explore things outside of the classroom and cultivate a curiosity outside of school. I wanted to take a break from being online and staring at a screen.
I wanted to learn in a hands on way. Explore new interests and gain a new perspective and learn to adapt and step outside my comfort zone.
You’re listing off, like, all the benefits you get from gap time, too. So I can’t wait to dig into that as we kind of progress in this conversation. But I also wanted to kind of ask your mom, Alina, you know, as a parent, what was your reaction when Abby first mentioned taking a gap year?
How did you feel about it? Was kind of travel and exploration this type of opportunity familiar to your family? Or did this feel different?
I was totally supportive and we sort of came to this idea together. And so, you know, I did a lot of the research on options and different organizations.
So I was absolutely on board from the beginning. That’s amazing.
Did you do any type of similar travel when you were young?
My family is very outdoorsy and has traveled a lot. So not specifically a gap year, but we’ve done quite a lot around the world. My mother’s career was leading outdoor trips and our whole family has been very outdoorsy from the beginning.
So there’s kind of like a culture of exploration baked into the family DNA.
And there were these couple of concerns, that many parents may have. For example, in a STEM field, some people said, well, you can’t take a year off from math. So we had to address some of those things, but that was, that was really not a major concern for me.
I definitely want to loop back to some of that vice sharing for, the brain trust that we have here. But I also wanted to share with the listeners, what Abby actually did on your gap year. So you spent 10 weeks in Thailand, through Pacific Discovery, as I understand it.
And then you also spent time with family in New York City. You also travel with ARC to East Africa, and then you did an epic road trip through the National Parks. So, that is a very cool gap year set of, activities, but, you know, for you, of all those different experiences, you know, is there any kind of top level surprising or unexpected takeaways that you, you know, you go in, you’re, you had all these amazing reasons and motivations for taking gap time, but what surprised you about having that set of experiences that were so different from each other?
That’s a great question. I think the way I sometimes describe it is that my first semester in Thailand taught me about myself and my second semester in East Africa taught me about my place in the world, to sort of give a high level answer. But then the thing that surprised me the most and that has benefited me maybe the most is that I basically spent a year being bad at things.
Like, we were doing things like rock climbing, which I had no idea what to do and I got a scuba diving certification and I can barely swim and I had to be the one who was asking questions and who was learning and school in high school was never easy for me, but I thrive in a traditional school setting.
So I have always been quote unquote good at school. And so, basically, having to be the humble one who is learning from everyone else for a year has benefited me. So much. I now can ask questions and I ask for help and I have this like new energy and purpose behind making mistakes and I like really value that in my learning in college and in my day to day life.
And that has just, opened up so many experiences that I don’t think I would have been willing to try necessarily if I hadn’t experienced it. Being bad at things but like in a really good way because it was fun and I was learning.
Yeah, and you know, you mentioned in our pre call that you are, you’re an engineering major, is that right?
What was the exact, what’s the specific, line within engineering?
I’m in aerospace engineering.
Right. So, as I understand it, all these kinds of STEM fields, especially something like that, hinges on collaborative thinking, teamwork, all those kinds of things. So, I imagine that what you just described is incredibly applicable, because once you’re doing team problem solving and also, Hypothesizing, testing things out, making mistakes, admitting when you maybe made a misstep, and then learning and growing from it.
I think that there can sometimes be a lot of rigidity in how we learn about the sciences, especially hard sciences. And so, I think that that’s a really cool observation of yourself, and I imagine that’s just so helpful now that you’re, a couple years into college
Absolutely, and I’m not the smartest person in the room in these classes and in these projects.
But now I approach that with Like, that’s a good thing. It means that I’m being challenged and that I can have these really fascinating discussions with my peers and my classmates and then I’m growing and I’m learning all the time from these people who I really admire and I’m not afraid to be wrong in that sense.
So everything that you’ve described is exactly what I’ve experienced.
Yeah, yeah. I think that that’s like, we can kind of shout it louder for the STEM kids in the back, you know, along the lines of what your mom said about, you know, it’s not that big a deal. You know, there’s things that you can do to compensate for the.
year that you might miss in hard science learning if you take a gap year, but what you gain, I think, is so much more exponentially helpful as far as when you’re looking at the long view of the, you know, college education and then the career afterwards. Lena, do you have anything to add to that just from, again, from your perspective, as a parent?
Yes, and specifically about math. So she was in, the highest level IB calculus, took the IB calc exam, and also took the AP calc exam. And had dual credits. So she actually went into school with a huge number of credits, but specifically in math, she had credits that could have gotten her out of that first semester of math in college.
And she decided to not take those credits and to take the class in college instead. And that was a really, really smart choice because she had had online learning during COVID, which is more difficult for a lot of students. She had then had the year off from math. And then also, high level math at a high level institution is just a whole different ballgame even than IB Math or AP Calc.
So to retake that class was a really smart choice for her to do.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I also have had students, take even just like a kind of refresher course over the summer before they start freshman year, as well as just, kind of getting that part of your brain activated again, which can be also a nice way of doing it if you are in a different kind of academic situation.
Absolutely. A lot of parents feel like they, have to have their student just get as many credits as possible and test out of as many things as possible. And that’s not always a good choice. Even if the student would do fine, you don’t really want to do fine. And this was a class where she didn’t need to just check the box for taking calculus.
She needs to really, really have a strong foundation of calculus for her career. And likewise, she’s not a history major, so she took that AP history credit and Just move forward.
Yep. That’s, that’s well done. Exactly. To look back again at some of like these amazing activities and programs and places that you were able to explore in your gap time, what were some of the favorite spots, you know, of the places you visited or just even days or moments of your gap time?
What now, a few years later, kind of still sticks out in your memory as really special from that year? This might be the hardest question I ask you.
Yeah, this is such a hard question because every day was the best day. I could have pulled any story from any of these days. So I think one of my favorite stories is the first time that I ever went scuba diving because the way the training works is you get your certification in the pool they have this practice in and then you actually get to, go out into the ocean.
And the first day I ended up, I mean, it’s just beautiful. First of all, it’s just spectacular. And you’re in this world that’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. And then I got in the middle of this swarm of these silver colored fish, and they were just moving all around me, and it was this incredible array of colors.
And then, from the, depths of the ocean, these barracuda came and, swam at the group of fish that was around me, and so the fish, split around me, and I just saw this beautiful, rainbow of color moving past me, and it was really spectacular. And then another story from Thailand is we spent a week at an elephant rescue facility and we got to bathe the elephants and the way that they did that at this facility is the elephants get in a big pool, and then we were kind of sitting by the side of the pool going, How are we going to bathe them if they’re swimming?
And then the guides were like, All right, get in. And so we got to get in and swim with these elephants and then bathe them that way. And that was an incredible experience. Those are really magnificent animals and that was just a really magical experience.
Yeah, I love hearing these anecdotes because I think that again, it’s, a time of life where whatever you decide to do, there’s going to be these kind of glimmers, you know, that end up being.
the things that you daydream about, you know, in class or something like that and you want to be somewhere else, you’re going to be thinking about bathing that elephant.
Yeah, exactly. My friends and I, from my gap year, call them snow globe moments that we wish we could just capture and keep in a snow globe.
I love that image. That’s perfect. So you had these, Two separate types of opportunities that you did. You did structured experiences, which were Pacific Discovery and ARC. And those are experiences where you’re with a cohort, you have leaders, the logistics are more managed than other types of gap year experiences.
So those are, amazing because oftentimes you get to do things that would just be extremely hard to plan on your own. And plus you get that amazing friendship group that you get to bond with. But then you also did these more independent things, like when you stayed in New York and when you we’re road tripping and things like that.
So, how did that independence piece play in? How did you feel? How did you build that confidence towards those more independent pieces? How did you use your resources that you gained on maybe more of the structured experiences to leverage in those more independent experiences?
Yeah, absolutely. So I think the way that I ended up setting up the year was really effective. One thing that was important to me was when all my friends were leaving for college in September, I also wanted to be leaving to go do something, more structured. And so I’m really happy that I picked a program for the fall specifically.
And the program in the fall was, very structured, but we were like staying in hotels and mostly eating out and things like that. And then staying in New York, it was nice because I was with my family in the evenings, but I was out on my own. During the day, just exploring, but it was a city where I spoke the language and I sort of knew how to get around, but I had to learn how to use the subway and stuff.
I do joke that once you use public transport in Bangkok, where we ended our Thailand program, you can use it anywhere in the world. And so New York felt like nothing after that. And then my program in the spring was structured but much rougher in terms of travel. We traveled by overland truck and basically camped and cooked for ourselves the whole time, which was very different than the way the Thailand program was set up.
And that set me up well to then go on my gap year road trip where I wasn’t with family and was just totally independent, basically, for those two months. And I was with other people, but I was in charge of the food and the solar equipment on the truck and the directions and the reservations and the hiking plans and all that.
But I felt super comfortable in my own skin by then, and I was able to use the skills that I had gained, like, budgeting and cooking skills and organizational skills to then basically almost demonstrate them on this two month road trip. And that was really satisfying for me because it sort of showed to myself what I had learned throughout the year also in a cumulative way there at the end.
Yeah, I describe that with my students as kind of scaffolding your year. You know, you want to take on the right amount of challenge as the year progresses and I think that that’s one of the reasons why gap year students grow so much and develop so much independence and self confidence is because you’re in the course of, you know, nine to 12 months, you’re taking on all these different levels of, challenge.
It’s so satisfying to see how fast that can happen. What was seemingly very intimidating in the fall would no longer seem that way when you did it, the following June or whatever.
Absolutely. Even just thinking about planning my road trip in the fall felt. Like, an insane task.
And then I got back from that Thailand program and I was like, Oh, I can do this. Like, I can plan a trip. This is very doable. And then by the time I actually did it, I was nervous at the beginning, but then I just fell into this groove that I had developed from traveling for this whole year that would have been really challenging if I had just left for a road trip in September, I think.
I really want to hear about how you thought about your time in New York, because I think a lot of students want to maybe go someplace where they have family, they can stay for free, maybe it’s interesting, or at least not their childhood bedroom, but if they’re not doing a program or activity or course or working, they really get anxious about how to fill that time, and I think that part of your gap year is learning how to be comfortable with something that’s unstructured, but how did you go about planning that time in New York?
Did you make a list? Did you have a spreadsheet? Did you have something to anchor yourself to your days, or how did you think about that?
That’s a great question, and that definitely is something that I could see one struggle with if you don’t do some advanced planning. My mom helped me out a lot with this, so she, is a genius when it comes to coming up with lists of things to do in cities.
She helped me. Brainstorm ideas, and the great thing about going to a city like New York is you could fill every day for a year and not go through everything there is to do in that city. And so I used resources like my mom and then also my family there gave me some great advice about things to do.
And the way I structured it was My aunt and uncle both work, but they had a little toddler at the time, and so I would try to basically be gone doing something during the day when all three of them were out doing their own things, and then when everybody came back in the evening, I tried to be home, and I would hang out with their toddler while they made dinner or worked a little more, and then on weekends, we would do things together,
I should go there next week and then sort of adapt my plan. But I made sure that I went out and did something every day. That was really important. I think if I had just sat in their apartment, that would have been a very different experience. A couple of weeks there. And then my mom also came to stay with me, and the family in New York for a week, which was super fun.
So we went around together for a part of that time.
And did you mostly, were you seeing, were you going to museums or exhibitions or what were specifically some things that you were enjoying about exploring in New York? Like you said, you could do endless number of things and you would never run out of things.
I loved Doing stuff like I walked down to and then took the boat to see this Statue of Liberty and I love Going to museums. So I went to a bunch of museums. I went to some shows I saw the Lion King on Broadway, which was super fun and I went to art museums I did a lot of walking because I love just exploring a city in that way, but I think museums and shows were my, were my big ones.
So fun. I grew up outside New York, so I have like a special place in my heart for just wandering around New York without much plan at all. So that resonates.
Absolutely,
a hundred
percent. But even that, if you think about a young adult.
going to New York and wandering around by themselves all day. That seemed a lot less scary after she had been away in Thailand for three months. So again, I don’t think that should have been the first thing that she did.
Yeah. And you know, Elena, what advice do you have for parents who are listening, who want to understand how you were able to balance that?
Offering of help and using your own skill set to help Abby while also allowing her to make choices and cultivate independence and, tackle some of those opportunities for growth.
Yeah, I definitely think going from more structure to less structure is really important. We’ve talked about how even the Africa trip, if that had been first, because it was much more difficult physically and mentally and much grittier, that would have been really tough if that was the first trip.
So it’s really good that it wound up in the order that it did. And in terms of providing resources, I just did a lot of the legwork of initial research, but not the decisions. The decisions were hers. I just did a lot of the research, reading reviews, googling things, looking at different itineraries, figuring out what would work.
So there was a smaller range of choices than just googling. What do I do on my gap year?
That can be the biggest stumbling block for I think a lot of people who would otherwise be interested in taking a gap year is the kind of where to begin. Did you have resources, Elena, that you were feeling really comfortable with or that you really appreciated in that initial research?
I did use the Gap Year Association and we went to a gap year fair. And other than that, it was just, just reading online, reading blogs, reading about these different organizations. We also pretty quickly zeroed in on a number of things that Abby did not want to do. So she did not want to do a program where it was all in one place.
Like some things are, oh, do a homestay for nine months in one country. Or live in one city and do an internship. That was off the table. Also, anything that was intense language study. There are some programs which are, you know, you do four hours of language class in the morning and then you explore in the afternoon.
She did not want to do that. Nothing that was sort of classroom based was of interest to her. So that eliminated a lot of choices right off the bat, which was really helpful.
And that’s a good thing to kind of just note, you know, as far as a tactic that you can take is, you know, a brainstorming exercise that a student can do alone or even better if a parent or caregiver can be a part of it, but that, you know, the what, what do you want to do versus the what don’t you want to do?
And if you have a little bit in each of those categories, that gives you more of a jumping off point because it can get a little much when you start just blindly googling and hoping that you throw a dart at something that’s going to work.
Yes, exactly. So I just did a lot of that initial stuff, and I would come to her and say, Oh, you know, I’ve read about these four or five things this week, and this, this one focuses on this, and this one focuses on that.
And she would say, Oh, that doesn’t sound interesting at all. Or, Oh, this one does sound interesting. And then we just started to put these pieces together.
That’s
great.
And, Elena, was there a moment when you saw Abby handle a challenge or seek out an opportunity that made you think, Wow, this is what I was hoping for.
This is what the gap year is all about. Kind of that proud parent moment.
There was. So my most extraordinary piece of that was that when she set off for her independent road trip, she left in early spring and just went off, drove away out of the driveway. And then our family, the mom, dad and sister, flew to meet her and then spent the last.
Two weeks of her road trip with her. So we had a long period of not seeing her and then got to see her again. And my goodness, I mean, she had been mature before, but there was just this new found confidence about her. She just knew how to take care of business. If something was broken, she just figured out a way to fix it.
She had her whole system for the camp kitchen and what went where. And it was just beautiful to watch. She just managed everything. And on that road trip, she had to deal with issues. For example, she was traveling with a companion for a week or so, who was type 1 diabetic, and ran out of insulin.
And they had to figure out how to get insulin in the middle of nowhere. And, you know, they could have some advice by phone, but we couldn’t really do much other than try to give them some advice. And there were times when she was completely out of touch and we didn’t know where she was because she was, she didn’t have cell service.
So I couldn’t be doing, tracking her or anything like that. And so to have that couple of months and then to see her again with just this beautiful confidence about her was really amazing.
Yeah. And to be able to take that with you, day one of college is so amazing. Abby, for you, how do you feel like your gap year helped shape you and how, I mean, you’ve said a couple of times now in our own correspondence that you felt like a gap year was a really good decision and it’s helped set you up really well for college, but can you articulate that a little bit more and how you felt, like how you think Abby 2.
0, you know, was a better college student as a result of this gap time? Absolutely.
Yeah, I always say that I think taking a gap year was the best decision I ever made, both for me personally and then also professionally and academically in college. I think I’m, More disciplined and more competent at handling small day to day challenges, even something as small as my freshman year, I became known as like the girl who takes care of spiders on our dorm floor.
Everyone else would was like, Oh, my God, there’s a spider in my room and they would text in the. floor group chat, and I’d be like, be right there, and I would go and like, put the spider in a cup and take it outside, and just small day to day things like that. And then I’m also not afraid to do things by myself, which was a huge change and a huge benefit in college.
Even something like, I joined the swing dancing club my freshman year, and I didn’t know how to dance and didn’t know anyone in the club, and I just went to this first meeting and was like, this sounds fun, I’m gonna go try it, and none of my friends wanted to go with me. So I went. I’m not afraid to try new things or get involved in things really early, which, if you get involved early, then your involvement can deepen over time.
And I’ve seen that I can be much more involved than, even in the same organization, than maybe some peers who didn’t get involved as early. And that’s opened doors later on professionally. I also now know that I can learn from everyone I meet. I. really believe that college is a place to be physically safe, but a place to have your intellectual beliefs challenged.
I really embraced that process after my gap year, and I think that made me a much better student. And it also just made me comfortable talking to anyone and having conversation in any setting, which helps even at things like career fairs. Like I have the two programs that I did at the top of my resume, and they’re an immediate conversation starter at any career or recruiting event.
Suddenly I’m like the girl who took a gap year rather than the 70th aerospace engineer they’ve talked to in the last 40 minutes. I really hit the
nail on the head on that one I feel like that is one of the unsung benefits of gap time is that people want to hear about it They see it and they’re like wait tell me about You, like, were tranquilizing rhinoceroses in East Africa?
What? So, yeah,
exactly. And then finally, one thing that was, a specific growth area for me was, I specifically in East Africa saw how women and girls are treated in some other countries, and I’m now a woman entering a male dominated field, and I honestly mostly just feel gratitude for my opportunities here, and it’s made me really unafraid to kind of make the most of the opportunities that I have, basically just because of the place that I was born.
And so I think that that gratitude and respect for the opportunities that I have. here, even as a woman in a male dominated field, has, propelled me to leadership roles and to opportunities with just a new perspective.
Yeah, that’s, I mean, I was going to ask you more about that kind of connection between your gap year and your career path, but how sure were you about your trajectory before you took your gap year and was there any experiences that you did have on it that helped clarify things or just help you feel a little bit more prepared in that way as far as like what’s out there to do with your hands and with your brain once you’re actually in your career?
Yeah, so for a lot of people that, gap years could maybe change their career trajectory. But for me, I was like, since I was a little kid, I was like, I am going to be an aerospace engineer. I was the kid who wanted to go to NASA when my family went to Texas and waited all day to see mission control.
And then had my nose pushed up against the glass looking at the flight controllers in the room. So my specific broad interests didn’t change, but, I’ve recently become really interested in basically human factors and that side of aerospace, anything that has to do with human spaceflight.
And I do think that a little bit of that comes from my gap year, I just sort of became very interested in the way people interact psychologically and so translating that into my career path.
And so I’m currently like noodling on the idea of becoming a professor, and I think that is definitely an impact from my gap year. So not necessarily my main trajectory, but just additional interests and kind of side passions that can help weave a really meaningful career for me.
As she was leaving on her gap year, we as her parents very explicitly gave her permission to change her mind.
And we said, yes, we know that you have been accepted to this school in their College of Engineering in this major and that that is what is the intention for you to do. But if you discover something on this year that changes your path, that is okay. So we were very direct about giving her permission to not just be on that path and think that, you know, to please us she had to stay on it even if she changed her mind.
Yeah, that freedom is really important and I think that, like you said, it’s okay to take a gap year. I think there’s loads and loads of students who take a gap year because they don’t really know why they want to use their college experience or in what way they’re going to benefit from it.
But I think that it’s just a matter of how you’re going to develop rather than if it’s appropriate or not for you to take a gap year based on your supposed, you know, ambitions and things like that,
oh, a hundred percent. Yeah, I don’t think that there’s, I can’t think of anything that should keep you from doing a gap year even if you, like, know what you, want to do.
I think it only makes you grow, only makes you thrive even more in college, even if it’s in the major that you expected to go into. So.
So, you know, the way that we all connected was that Elena is a gap year advocate. You’re both are gap year advocates now as a result of this amazing experience.
I think that’s really cool that you all have teamed up and have given presentations and shared resources. And I’m curious how that all Came about Elena. Do you want to kick us off with just kind of how did you all decide to not just? You know, call it a day on having a great gap experience, but start to share resources and try to create more knowledge around this.
So Abby has stayed in touch with a number of her teachers at her high school where her younger sister also attends and her first time back at home after her gap year and after she’d been in school, we sort of got this idea to talk to some of the junior classes about her gap year.
So she contacted one of her beloved teachers, and they set up a time for Abby to come in and talk. And it was just a really great experience for her to come in and share with these students, with her fresh off this experience.
Yeah. And Abby, have you done anything since to kind of help share this information or maybe encourage other people to take gap time?
Yeah, I’ve continued to go back and give presentations, and I think every year, even that I, get further from when I took my gap year, I think I just have more perspective on why it’s been useful. So, like, after I was done with my freshman year, I came back and talked to school again, and now I could both talk about what I gained from my gap year, but then also talk about how it impacted me in college and how I saw those benefits.
So I’ve continued to do that, my mom has done more of this than I have, but, I’ve also just been a resource for students who are considering doing the programs that I’m interested in. So, when you finish a GAP program, sometimes they ask like, oh, if a student has questions about the student experience, can we direct them to you?
So I, of course, said yes. And so I’ve been contacted by a couple of students to talk specifically about. the programs that I did. But other than that, just continuing to share with the juniors at school, I end up coming home around the time that they’re doing all of their post secondary exploration. So there’s people from colleges coming in and from the trades.
And so I just like to come in as basically another example of what you can do after high school.
100%. And if anyone out there who’s an alum is listening and wants to do something similar, the Gap Year Association has a bunch of resources for alums who want to go back to their high school. They have handouts and like a powerpoint that people can use and stuff like that.
So you can reach out to the podcast if you want to get connected with that. But that is, I think, a really great kind of like taking responsibility for for sharing that information because I think that that’s one of the biggest factors as to why we’re not seeing most students taking a gap year is a lack of knowledge and a lack of people who are trailblazing this this opportunity and kind of showing how how it can be so impactful.
So it’s really cool that you’re you’re you’re doing that work in real time.
I find that much of the dialogue around gap years is things like, well, a lot of people aren’t quite ready for college, they’re not mature enough, they don’t know what they want to do, maybe they’re floundering, they need more direction, find themselves, and that is not who Abby was at all.
And so I also want to sort of change that narrative for high achieving students and students who do know exactly what they want to do, that this can also be a very deliberate part of the plan.
Yeah. And Alina, what would you say to a parent who’s hesitant about supporting? A kid’s decision to take a gap year, especially if it’s coming from the student, like, I want to take a gap year, and the parent is the one who’s concerned.
So I think there is truly no downside, and that the concerns that people have are far outweighed by all of the incredible benefits. So I just really think that there’s, there’s no downside to doing this. There may be, a scenario here or two where a student has a very specific situation where it doesn’t work.
Maybe they’re a highly recruited athlete or something like that. And, that doesn’t fit with playing a high level sport in college. But for the overwhelming majority of students, Stripes everything from, don’t know what they want to do to a very, very clear direction. I think this absolutely fits in.
Yeah. And likewise, Abby, one of the things that I hear a lot from students is there. There’s anxiety around going off the track, you know, and that’s not just for the high achievers, but I think that’s for people who make an assumption and who will live in communities where there’s a presumption that you should know exactly what you want after high school or that, you know, if you don’t go straight to college, something is good.
Something’s amiss. Or they just feel, like it’s just not done, right? There’s just some of these misconceptions. What do you say to students when you hear that? Or what would you say to a student who was like, I don’t think that I should do a gap year. A gap year is great for you, but not for me.
Yeah, so some of the concerns that I hear are similar to what you just said, like, oh, when I get to college, like, maybe I won’t make friends because I’m a year older, or like, people are going to think it’s weird. Most of the time for me, when I meet people and tell them that I went on a gap year, they’re like, oh, dang, I wish I had done that.
Like, it’s never like, oh, you didn’t know what you wanted to do. It’s all like, Oh, that’s awesome. Like, what the heck? That’s so cool. I wish I had done that or tell me more about this experience you had or give me recommendations about where I can travel in this country that you’ve been to.
And so it’s all like incredibly positive. And then in terms of like transitioning to college afterwards, it really had. No negative impacts. I mean, I just arrived and did the orientation program like any other freshman and made friends and built this great community and I have friends who are graduate students.
I have friends who are years younger or older than me. And so really doesn’t have the impact that I think is the negative impact that I think is imagined when high schoolers are thinking about taking a year to do something different or off the beaten path. And I really think that everyone has been incredibly supportive in my life, and if people don’t know you before you take a gap year, their response is always, oh my gosh, that’s amazing.
Yeah, I mean, I would say I’m 15 plus years out from my own gap time, and I still hear that, or when people find out that I’m a gap year counselor, they’re like, oh, I wish I had taken a gap year, or I did take a gap year and here’s what I did. It’s very rare that I ever get someone who pooh poohs it or thinks that that’s a silly idea.
I think that a lot of people are really open to it.
I’ve genuinely never had anyone be negative about it. Ever.
That’s great. Well, I really want to thank you both for making the time to be here and share this amazing wisdom with listeners because I think that this is going to be very inspirational and comforting to people who are planning a gap year, thinking about a gap year.
Or people who are in the camp of the lucky few who’ve done a gap year. So thank you so much for being here.
Thank you. It was lovely. Thank you so much for having us.
The post Abby & Elena: Student and Parent Perspectives on Gapping appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
Welcome back to Gap Year Radio! After a 2024 hiatus, we’re thrilled to kick off Season 9 with a very special episode. Big changes are in the air, and we’re sharing all the updates, memories, and excitement for what’s ahead!
Life Updates
- Margo tied the knot!
- Julia welcomed a golden retriever puppy to her family!
Reliving Podcast Memories
This episode is bittersweet as we celebrate Margo’s incredible contributions to Gap Year Radio. She’s stepping away from the mic to focus on new adventures, but not before reminiscing about her favorite podcast moments.
Exciting Updates & What’s Next
- The USA Gap Year Fairs are happening NOW, and we’re talking all things gap year planning! Whether you’re exploring programs, looking for advice, or ready to take the leap, we’ve got you covered.
- Julia is taking the reins as your solo host, and we can’t wait to share what’s in store for Season 9. Expect inspiring stories, fresh perspectives, and a brand-new short-format series to answer all your FAQs!
Join us for this heartfelt and fun episode as we embrace new beginnings, celebrate our journey, and get excited for what’s ahead. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and follow us on social media for updates, behind-the-scenes content, and more!
The post Season 9 Opener: Looking Back, Looking Forward appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
This episode we are super excited to welcome two more guests for our Mindful Volunteering Part 2 episode, Emily and Andrei. These two are former students of Claire Bennet from our Mindful Volunteering Part 1 episode and are currently in the midst of their gap year through the Princeton Novogratz Bridge Year Program in Udaipur, India. They spend some time telling us about the Novogratz Program and how their long-term service/work sites have been set up. Additionally, they reflect upon their perspectives on service, both before their gap year as well as how their time in India has changed their perspectives, and they also give some great advice for things that you can do to make a shorter-term service placement effective if you only have a bit of time.
“I remember being kind of confused by this at the beginning, like how could service possibly do more harm than good when the intention is to contribute and help people? But I think through the examples in the book it’s pretty clear that not having that local context and not caring enough to learn about it can really result in harm that comes from either pushing your ideas on an organization or just doing things that you may not realize will have an impact on the people that you are interacting with” – Emily
“Overall, I think a lot of people say this but being open-minded and willing to go out of your way and do things that you wouldn’t usually be comfortable with or familiar with, usually brings you down a path where there’s a lot of learning” – Andrei
If you want to learn more about Princeton Novogratz Bridge Year program you can find them only at oip.princeton.edu/our-programs/novogratz-bridge-year or on Instagram @novogratzbridgeyear.
The post Ep. 809 Mindful Volunteering Part II: Student Voices appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
On this episode of Gap Year Radio we are so excited to welcome Claire Bennet, co-author of the book Learning Service: The Essential Guide to Volunteering Abroad. In addition to being a writer, Claire also owns a training company in Nepal and works for Where There Be Dragons, a semester-long gap year program based in the US. In addition, she freelances as a development education consultant evaluating development projects. On this episode, she discusses with us the many nuances of international service, aid and development, voluntourism, and other topics related to volunteering abroad. She reframes for us what is often referred to as “Service Learning”, to describe this restructuring of the ideology into “Learning Service”, where learning really is prioritized before everything else.
You can follow along on the principles from Learning Service on Instagram @learning.service and on their website https://learningservice.info.
The post Ep. 808 Mindful Volunteering: All About “Learning Service” with Claire Bennett author of Learning Service: The Essential Guide to Volunteering Abroad appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
On today’s pod we are excited to welcome Nora Livingstone, the cofounder and volunteer coordinator of Animal Experience International, which is an organization that offers ethical and life-changing trips for students, professionals, and animal lovers to volunteer around the world with organizations that are working ethically and sustainability for animal conservation. Nora is a Nature Canada Woman for Nature and is on the advisory board of the Orangutan Project and the Women’s Advisory Council of JourneyWoman. Nora holds FEMA certifications for volunteering, leadership, and deployment during natural disasters, and has volunteered with animals all over the world. This episode discusses some of the ethics around volunteering with animals and pitfalls to look out for as you are looking at your own potential volunteering experience, as well as the five freedoms of animal welfare and how those fit into the Fair Trade Learning Standards for the Gap Year Association.
You can learn more about Animal Experience International online at https://www.animalexperienceinternational.com/.
Specifically, you can reference Animal Experience International’s extensive Code of Ethics HERE.
Check out Nora’s article on the Gap Year Association blog! Ethical Volunteering with Animals on Gap Year Experiences
“We were trying to decolonize travel. We were trying to think more about equity, think more about entitlement, and travel and where its roots really are in white supremacy and in entitlement.” – Nora Livingstone
“When we look at travel ethics, if we think about it through a lens of consent it’s a really accessible way. You may not know why you think something is unethical, why something doesn’t feel good, but you know that it doesn’t.” – Nora Livingstone
You can find Nora and the folks at Animal Experience International on Instagram @animalinternational or online at www.animalexperienceinternational.com
The post Ep. 807 Ethical Animal Volunteering with Nora Livingstone of Animal Experience International appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
In this special before-and-after episode of Gap Year Radio, we embark on an awe-inspiring conversation with Journey Fleishman, a remarkable gap year student who undertook the incredible feat of hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in the Western US. Part I was recorded before she hit the trail and Part II was recorded after she finished the hike: In both conversations, Julia and Journey take a deep dive into the challenges, triumphs, and transformative experiences that Journey encountered during her epic adventure.
Journey takes us through her decision to embark on this ambitious journey, discussing her motivations, preparations, and the support network that helped her along the way. We delve into the physical and mental challenges of hiking over 2,650 miles, from the southern border of California to the northern border of Washington, experiencing the diverse landscapes and climates that the PCT offers.
The episode explores the personal growth and self-discovery that Journey experienced during her time on the trail, shedding light on how this epic adventure transformed her perspective on life, nature, and her own capabilities. Journey shares anecdotes of encounters with fellow hikers, illustrating the strong sense of community that exists within the PCT hiking culture.
Listeners will gain insights into the practical aspects of long-distance hiking, including gear choices and the daily rhythm of a thru-hiker’s life. By the way, her top gear choices are the REI Magma 15 sleeping bag, her ULA Circuit pack, and her trusty ground pad!
Whether you’re an experienced hiker, aspiring adventurer, or simply someone looking for inspiration, this episode of Gap Year Radio is a captivating and motivational exploration of an extraordinary gap year experience. Journey Fleishman’s Pacific Crest Trail adventure reminds us all that the path less traveled can lead to remarkable personal growth and unforgettable adventures.
Read Journey’s blog posts on the Trek
Find Journey’s Instagram page
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Happy October, and welcome to Gap Year Exploration Month! Julia and Margo are excited to chat with the listeners this episode about the many opportunities coming up this month to #explorethegapyear. October is an exciting time for high school juniors and seniors as they begin to look ahead to what the next steps after high school might look like. All doors are open, and there are so may options to choose from! If a gap year is on your radar, or even if it is something you are just becoming familiar with, October is an amazing time to learn more about the many options available during a gap year. You can learn more about Gap Year Exploration Month, or GYEM, online at https://www.gapyearassociation.org/gap-year-exploration-month/. Follow along on social media by searching the gap #explorethegapyear!
As we all know, Julia and Margo get very excited about discussing travel. Whether that be fun destinations we’ve been to, ones we want to go to, and everything in between! We take some time in this episode to discuss trends we are seeing in gap year planning and where it seems people want to go these days, as well as what we think are going to continue to be hot spots for 2024.
If you are interested in a low-cost gap year, stick around for our section about working holiday visas and how you can get paid while living abroad with these unique opportunities.
Heading to Europe in 2024? Make sure you understand the requirements of the new ETIAS travel authorization to visit Europe. You can learn more at https://travel-europe.europa.eu/etias_en.
Interested in other helpful travel apps? Check out those mentioned on the show such as Skyscanner, Google Translate, WhatsApp, and Rome2Rio.
We also discuss important topics such as sustainability, slow travel, and other ways to really get the most out of your gap year travels and beyond.
The post Ep. 805 Talking Gap Year Exploration Month & Where to Travel in 2024 with Julia & Margo appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
Join us as traveler and disability advocate Johileny Meran shares invaluable insights on how to empower students with disabilities to explore the world. We discuss her study abroad experience in London, receive tips for creating more inclusive gap year experiences and feel reaffirmed in the transformative impact of international experiences for all. Johileny is a graduate of NYU’s College of Arts and Science, having received a bachelor’s of Arts in Global Public Health/Sociology with a minor in Disabilities Studies.
Johileny Travel tips:
Take photos of any equipment that gets loaded on the plane in case it is damaged out of your sight.
Go on short trips to get used to navigating travel with your equipment and luggage.
Get to know your equipment inside and out in order to make your own repairs and make sure your travel/medical insurance covers your equipment.
Enjoy your travels! It is so worth it.
Resources for Gap Year and College Aged Travelers with Disabilities:
Mobility USA library of resources for people traveling with a disability.
NYU Accessibility in Study Abroad is a resource for NYU students traveling abroad and features
4 Takeaways from my Study Abroad Experience for Exchange Professionals: https://www.miusa.org/blog/takeaways/
Finding Strength in Identity: https://www.miusa.org/resource/personal-stories/finding-strength-in-identity/
AccessibleGO is a full-service travel platform dedicated to helping people with disabilities make the most out of their travels. They offer articles written by community members who all have first-hand experience traveling with a disability.
Google maps Accessibility function:
- On your computer, open Google Maps.
- In the search bar, enter your destination.
- In the list of results, click the location you want.
- Click Directions Transit .
- Click Options.
- Under “Routes,” click Wheelchair accessible.
- Choose your route.
NYU-London-Access-Culture-Guide-FinalDownloadEPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
- forthcoming! Stay tuned for full text of this episode
The post #804 Gap Year Accessibility with Johileny Meran: Empowering Students with Disabilities to Travel the World appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
We are thrilled to have Sarah Byrden of the Elemental Self on this episode to discuss sexual education, emerging sexuality and healthy relationships to self and others with emerging adults and gap year students in mind.
For gap year students themselves, we will discuss how to frame your sexual health in the context of you gap year experience; Sarah will share some wisdom about how to frame sexuality in your gap experiences. For parents, caregivers and educators, Sarah highlights some important reminders about having open and honest conversations about these topics to ensure that young adults are equipped with the knowledge and tools they need to navigate their relationships safely and with confidence. Join us for this enlightening discussion!
Resources:
Sarah’s TEDx Talk: Sex On Campus: How We’re Missing The Mark
Sarah’s Other TEDx Talk: Good sex isn’t about knowing what you’re doing
Sarah’s Bio: Sarah Byrden is a somatic practitioner, educator and wilderness guide and has been facilitating in these mediums for over 20 years. She has dedicated over 2 decades to deep study and apprenticeship in western and non-western modalities, and teaches from her own life-long journey in the realms that she offers. Her 2nd TEDx talk, based on the perspective and approach shared in this podcast, has garnered nearly 3 million views. Along with her company The Elemental Self, Sarah is the founder of The Body of Sex, a sex-education and empowerment mission for college-aged students and adults of all ages. She lives in the unceded Tewa territory of Santa Fe, NM.
The post Ep. 803 The Gap Year Sex Talk with Sarah Byrden of The Elemental Self appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
Today on the pod we have Dave Dennis joining us from Cornerstone Safety Group. Dave is co-founder and Executive Director of Cornerstone Safety Group, a risk management services company supporting travel and experiential education organizations. With a master’s degree in risk management and 27 years of experience in domestic and international operations, Dave has been the Vice President of Risk Management at some of the industry’s largest companies, responded to thousands of incidents, and consulted for more than 60 organizations developing customized risk management systems.
This episode provides an overview of how to look at personal safety when it comes to a gap year experience. Whether you are considering going with a structured program provider for your gap time or venturing out on a more independent or self-designed experience, this episode will provide you with resources and food for thought as you go about assessing these potential experiences. Additionally, we discuss mental, physical, and emotional health when it comes to a gap year and how to plan ahead to ensure that you are taking care of yourself to the best of your ability during this time.
Dave brings with him to the pod nearly three decades of experience working in the travel/experiential education realm and provides some invaluable resources and insights to the listeners!
If you are interested in some of the further resources mentioned in this episode, you can find them here:
- Safe Traveler Enrollment Program (US Dept. of State)
- Travel Advisories and US Embassy locations (by region)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- World Health Organization
- Allergy Cards (locally translated)
- General Information
- Equal Eats (printed cards)
- Select Wisely (printed cards)
- G3 Visa Services
- Travel Insurance (some trusted providers)
- Battleface Insurance (purchase only what you need)
- Cultural Insurance Services International (trusted by Gap Year programs & Universities)
- World Nomads
You can find Dave and the folks at Cornerstone Safety Group online at cornerstonesafetygroup.org and on LinkedIn as well as by email at info@cornerstonesafetygroup.org.
The post Ep. 802 Managing Personal Safety on Your Gap Year with Dave Dennis of Cornerstone Safety Group appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
Happy Earth Month! There’s no better way to honor Earth Month by bringing back the podcast with a topic that the gap year industry cares deeply about: sustainability and especially thinking about our impact as travelers in the era of climate change.
As we navigate the era of climate change, it’s become increasingly crucial for us to consider the impact of our travel on the environment. With this in mind, let’s delve into the world of sustainable travel and explore why it matters now more than ever before. Our guests Daniel Ponce-Taylor and Arantxa López Martínez are both world travelers, program directors and sustainability experts. This is a great episode to jump start your sustainable gap year thinking!
Guest Bios:
Daniel Ponce-Taylor is the Sustainability & Strategic Partnerships Director at Intercultural Outreach Initiative (IOI). Daniel received his MSc in Sustainable Management of Coastal and Marine Ecosystems from the University of Cadiz. For over 15 years, Daniel has been developing and managing overseas operations in more than 15 countries, tackling key local and global conservation and development focuses and objectives. Recently his work has been focusing on increasing the impact and contribution that these partnerships have on the Agenda 2030 and UN Sustainable Development Goals, whilst developing strategies to go beyond sustainability and move towards regenerative practices. Daniel has been co-chairing the Sustainability SIG for the past 4 years, and was part of the team who drafted the Forum on Education Abroad Guidelines on Advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals through Education Abroad. Daniel is also a member of the CANIE Europe chapter leadership team and is a regular speaker and presenter at conferences and provides coaching and training on sustainability and climate action strategy and implementation plans.
Arantxa López Martínez is a co-founder of ID Languages and the program director of Spanish Gap Year. Hailing from Vitoria-Gasteiz, where she grew up bilingual (Spanish/Basque) and developed a love for languages, she has lived in Ireland for ten years and travelled all around Europe and the American continent. Arantxa holds a BA in Education and an MA in Language acquisition in multilingual settings, as well as Diplomas in TEFL, SFL, CLIL & Bilingualism.
She is also one of the founding members of Green Education Ireland, a collaborative platform created to promote sustainable education in Bundoran, Co. Donegal (home to her language school in Ireland). Arantxa is a long-time volunteer with different organisations that foster sustainability through climate action, equal opportunities and quality education, and the experiential learning programs she leads in Spain and Ireland are aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Defining key concepts:
First things first, let’s define sustainability. Simply put, sustainability refers to the ability to meet our present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In other words, it’s all about finding a balance between social, economic, and environmental factors, so that we can live in harmony with the planet and each other.
Now, you may have heard of regenerative travel, a term that’s gaining popularity in the sustainable travel sphere. Regenerative travel goes beyond merely minimizing our impact on the environment, it focuses on actively restoring and regenerating ecosystems and communities. It’s about leaving a positive impact on the places we visit, rather than just leaving them as we found them.
But how do we achieve this? One way is through a process called insetting. Insetting is a form of carbon offsetting, but with a twist. Instead of simply investing in projects that reduce carbon emissions elsewhere, insetting involves investing in local projects that directly benefit the communities we visit. This creates a positive feedback loop, where the benefits of our travel are felt both locally and globally.
However, it’s essential to be aware of green washing, a term used to describe companies or individuals who make misleading claims about their environmental practices. It’s easy to get caught up in marketing speak and feel like we’re making a difference, when in reality, we’re not. So, it’s important to do our research and support companies that are transparent about their sustainability efforts.
And finally, we come to carbon offsetting, which is a way to compensate for the carbon emissions produced by our travel. This can be achieved through investing in renewable energy projects or supporting reforestation initiatives. While carbon offsetting is not a silver bullet solution to climate change, it’s a crucial step in reducing our impact on the planet.
Sustainable Gap Year Tips:
- Learn about the UN Sustainability Goals and look for opportunities to contribute to them on your gap year. For a structured framework, consider participating in the Gap Year Association’s Student of Leadership and Humanity Award certificate.
- Seek out sustainable forms of accommodation and transport: homestay, eco-friendly hostels, trains, cycling, boats, van life.
- Carbon off-setting at home and in the communities they visit. Consider opting into carbon offsetting for your flights. Reduce the number of flights your take on your gap year by planning thoughtfully.
- Making a responsible use of resources:
- Being mindful of your use of energy and water.
- Buying locally grown food in the neighborhood’s market/locally made products in smaller businesses.
- If they need to buy clothes, check out the second hand shops / consider a clothes swap with a friend.
- Really learning about the country you are travelling to: researching about it beforehand, following the news before and during their travels, finding a few local sustainability-minded social media accounts to follow, speaking to the local people and host families about how they see their government, country’s biggest companies and other employers implement the SDGs in their community, are there any emergency situations etc.
- Getting involved/volunteering in local projects that work with a focus in sustainability: whether it is related to education, gender equality, life on land/the sea… something that is meaningful for them.
- Consider participating in a language exchange: that way, they can discuss sustainability with people of all different ages and backgrounds, while they learn the language and local culture.
- Journaling: writing about the different aspects of sustainability they observe and experience around them, so they can bring their learnings home.
- Continue to live more sustainably, grow their SDG minded network and hopefully have an impact in their own communities (in college, during internships, at work etc).
The post Ep. 801 Sustainability on Your Gap Year with Arantxa López Martínez and Daniel Ponce Taylor appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
After a year long break, we are back! Julia and Margo are feeling rejuvenated after their gap year from the pod and are excited to bring you new and exciting content this upcoming season. Tune in here for a preview of all guests, themes, and ideas that you can look forward to this season, as well as a recap of all that your cohosts have been up to for the last year!
In Season Eight we are excited to bring you content around sustainability, ethical travel, managing risk, and talking about sex as it relates to your gap year experience. We also are excited to bring you content around mid-career gap years, regenerative travel, and accessibility. Thank you for sticking around through our own Gap Year Radio gap year, and we hope you are excited for the engaging content headed your way!
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This episode features Sam Ballard, an alum of Dynamy Internship Year’s class of 2021. Sam spent both his fall and spring semesters of his gap year with Dynamy, a domestic gap year program based in Worcester, Massachusetts. Sam was able to participate in two very different internship opportunities in Worcester during his year, with his […]
The post Ep. 706 Sam Ballard on Dynamy Internship Year appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
On this episode of Gap Year Radio we are excited to have Kevin Fagan joining us, a gap year alum who participated in Where There Be Dragons’ Andes and Amazon semester for his fall term, and then spent the second half of his gap year solo backpacking through Europe. Kevin shares with us some […]
The post Ep. 705 Kevin Fagan on Where There Be Dragons appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
In 2019, Luke participated in the Tufts 1+4 Bridge Year program with Amigos de las Américas in Cuenca, Ecuador. He lived with a host family and worked at Fundación Crea tu Espacio, a non-profit that aids migrants during their transitory periods. Some of his responsibilities included working at daycare centers for toddlers, organizing fundraisers, facilitating […]
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Listen today to our conversation with Jenae Edwards, who tells us all about how she filled an unexpected covid gap year with meaning. Jenae used her gap time to create art and delve deeper into my love of art, while picking up a new skill of skateboarding and learning a lot from […]
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Episode 702 brings you our conversation with Aliza Saunders, a 18/19 alum of Tinvu: Building Justice. Tivnu is a nine-month gap year program based in Oregon that focuses on social justice engagement. Participants create a community living together, discovering the Pacific Northwest, and exploring the bond between Jewish life and social justice while […]
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We open our newest season with covid gapper Dan Schmidt who has a super interesting gap year story. As a creative, Dan expanded his professional skill set by spending a large chunk of his year as a videographer for the Adventures with Purpose YouTube channel. He helped bring the channel from 250,000 subscribers to over 1 […]
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Maytal Agasi took a gap year because she wanted to break out of the classroom and have an adventure in the real world. And boy, did she! Maytal spent her gap year working on a sustainable farm in Israel with Eco-Israel, traveling and participating in service-learning projects in East Africa with Carpe Diem Education and working […]
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In this episode, you are going to hear from two exceptional Americorps NCCC members, Emma and Amelie. Emma and Amelie are currently in the middle of their service year and tell us all about the projects they have completed and a few that are still in front of them. Something similar across all NCCC experiences […]
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“It all started with a conversation.” That’s how Justice in June co-founder Bryanna Wallace describes the genesis of the massively successful Justice in June resource. The conversation was a heart-to-heart with her best friend from college Autumn Gupta after the murder of George Floyd earlier this year. After this conversation, Autumn leapt into action […]
The post Ep. 504 Staying Active Post-Election with Justice in June’s Bryanna Wallace and Autumn Gupta appeared first on Gap Year Radio.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a covid gap year student? Are you curious what you’d do on a virtual gap year program? Today we hear from current gap year student Anushka Goel, who is participating in Global Citizen Academy. Global Citizen Academy is the virtual offering from […]
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