student question

The following question was emailed to Planet Gap Year last week from a student named Ryan in Wisconsin. With his permission, we are posting his email to show our readers an example of the increasing interest shown by American students to choose volunteer service in the US for a gap year. My answer to his question is at the bottom of the page.

I have a question about taking a gap year. Right now I am a college freshman at a university located in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I was looking at different options on your website for a gap year and one really caught my eye. It was the Habitat for Humanity-Americorps one.