Gap Year Fair gives students options

Students and parents learned about the options available to students planning to take a gap year after completing high school.

The school held a presentation and fair focused on the idea of taking a gap year after high school instead of going straight to college on Saturday, February 27 in the Eagle Theatre.

The fair was sponsored by Dynamy Internship Year, the oldest and only residential internship program in the country, and Thinking Beyond Borders, a program that takes 16 graduating high school seniors around the world for 8 months to study global issues.

The two programs have been hosting multiple gap year fairs together throughout the Bay Area to spread the knowledge that students do not need to go straight into college after graduating high school.

At the fair, students were able to read about more than 35 different gap year options.

These options included programs like Gap Year South Africa, which aims at allowing students to immerse themselves in South Africa and help as sports coaches and mentors for the community.

Almost all gap year programs have a focus on education, service and personal growth.

All of these programs attempt to give students a developmental advantage over their peers by providing them with an opportunity to gain new experiences.

The programs are also intended to help students expand their perspective and give them a direction for college as well as life after college.

“I had been thinking about it for a while and when I got there I found exactly what I was looking for in the National Outdoor Leadership School Request (NOLSR) Program,” Anthony said. “It’s not for sure, but it’s definitely a strong option.”

According to one of the speakers at the fair, on average, students who opt to take a gap year tend to have a slightly higher grade point average when they return to academics.

With various organizations offering their services, students were able to pick and choose which program seemed like the best fit for them.

For more information on the various different options that are available after graduating high school, students can visit www.USAGapYearFairs.org.