Paul's blog

The New York Times Business section recently published Delaying College for a Year Could Have Benefits, an article by Jonathan Glater which argues that NOW is an ideal time to take a year out, because college funds are scarce. Read the article, then return to our Gap Year Options database to find specifics on a range of volunteer service,volunteer travel, study abroad, internships, and more!

Less than one week from now Denver Colorado will be holding its first ever student Gap Year Fair at the Sherman Center downtown. High school & college students, parents, counselors and educators from up and down the Front Range will come to meet representatives from a variety of programs offering volunteer, internship, language study, international travel and exploration, leadership development, cross cultural learning and more! Click here to see list of gap year exhibitors.

This video, discovered on You Tube was created by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Watch these interviews, and then imagine the difference you could make if you spent a gap year doing volunteer service right here in America!

Dynamy Internship Year in Worcester, MA is sponsoring a second year of gap year opportunities fairs around the US starting in January. Last year's fairs attracted hundreds of students and parents at several venues. In order to meet the public's growing interest in gap year options, the organizers are doubling the number of fairs for 2009! Click here to see profiles of last year's exhibitors. Entrance to the Gap Year Opportunities Fairs 2009 are free and open to the public. Exibitors can register by contacting the Fairs' sponsor, Dynamy Internship Year, Worcester, MA.

Click here to see video of students and parents being interviewed about gap year at the Denver Gap Year Fair last week.

Gap Year Fairs 2009 (updated 2.05.09) Bookmark this page, and return for updates!

A recent article in the Miami Herald titled "Economic Downturn Forces Students to Rethink College", by Andres Viglucci points to the fact that families and students are looking for cost saving options to start college. The author says more students are applying to less costly in-state schools vs. expensive out of stat, and more opting for community college.

Like many articles popping up lately on the Internet, the columnist points out that students are DEFERRING college entrance to work for a year. This development reinforces the trend that college admissions offices have been reporting even prior to the economic crisis, and which suggests more and more students will be planning 'gap years' now and in the future.

News channel WABC from New York City recently interviewed a student from Princeton who deferred college for a year to work with school children in Thailand, and completed an internship at the world famous auctioneers Christies.

Ethan Knight, executive director of Carpe Diem International will discuss the benefits of a gap year between high school and college at the upcoming Pacific Northwest Homeschool College Fair in Bothell, Washington. Portland-based Carpe Diem offers three-month group semesters abroad to gap year students.

Demand for Student Gap Year Programs Growing

I recently read an article published in the Denver Post titled, Attention College Bound Seniors, by Ryan Brown. The author, a Duke University student, encourages high school seniors getting ready for college application process to consider a gap year before going straight to college. Ryan didn't take a gap year, but says she wishes someone would have told her it was okay to take time out between high school and college. She says, "think of the cool things you could do with a free semester, or year, like hold down a full time job, learn a language or join AmeriCorps."

I just read an article Change the World-on Dad's Time, by Judith Timson, of the Toronto Globe and Mail. The article takes a humorous poke at the upper-middle class appeal of the voluntourism industry, yet rightly points out the positive personal impact international volunteering can have in the lives of students.

According to a news release on our Gap News feed, Carpe Diem International, education specialists offering gap year programs to U.S. students, is the first U.S. Gap Year organization working closely with U.S. State Department to help students traveling overseas in November to cast their ballots.

The news release states, "the U.S. State Department reports that, 250,000 students participated in overseas programs last year. As many as 150,000 students are expected to participate in overseas programs during the 2008 Fall school term."

To support the growing ranks of U.S. students traveling on gap years before and during college,