Sam took a leave of absence after his freshman
year to think about transfer possibilities. During this time
he went to London for four months where he worked at a small
dot.com company that hosted a web site for sports information.
By combining his passion for sports and interest in journalism,
Sam was able to work his way up to being the senior writer and
editor for the golf web site. He also had the added benefit
of seeing the inner workings of a start up company.
Laura was accepted at Brown but learned that
she would not start her freshman year until January. She saw
this as an opportunity to do something different and worked
with Taking Off to combine her interests in cultural immersion,
textile design, and the ancient practice of yoga. During her
time in India she ate only with the fingers of her right hand,
learned to touch the feet of her elders as a sign of respect
and wore traditional Indian garb out of respect for the culture
she inhabited. Living as a racial minority, she rode in trains
with snake charmers and staring men and learned to move aside
for the holy cows that saunter through the streets. At the
end of her time, Laura observed: "I feel stronger for
having survived these new experiences and overcoming my fear
of the unfamiliar."
Alice had sometimes struggled academically
in high school so she wanted to take a breather before starting
college. As a child, she had loved working on carpentry projects
with her dad, even building an elaborate tree house together.
Using these happy memories as an inspiration, Alice chose
to work on a housing project in a Maori village in New Zealand.
This experience gave her the confidence to pursue a career
as an architect.· Ben and Sara who were both gap year
students took off for Asia to pursue very different interests.
Ben spent two months living in a Buddhist temple and then
lived with a Thai herbalist studying Eastern medicine. Sara's
goal was to work with Tibetan refugees. She spent her first
semester studying the Tibetan language and taking a glass
blowing class and then left for Nepal to work with children
who stayed at the refugee center until housing could be found.
James got 'itchy feet' after his freshman
year of college and knew he needed a change. He loved children
and animals and worked with Taking Off to find a project that
combined these interests. James wound up traveling to the
North Shore of Hawaii to join a sea turtle education project.
With the Pacific Ocean at his doorstep, he learned firsthand
about the native environment of these endangered creatures.
As he traveled from school to school giving presentations
on their plight, James interacted with different schools and
students and gained a better understanding of the customs
and traditions that make Hawaii unique. Educating the next
generation of activists gave James a sense of accomplishment
that he carried with him into the upcoming school year.
Kevin and Allison wanted to become fluent
in Spanish and were thrilled to learn that Taking Off offered
over 75 different internships in 3 different countries. Kevin
requested a leave of absence after his sophomore year at the
Berklee School of Music and took off to intern in Belize as
a journalist for a national weekly newspaper. Allison graduated
high school, but didn't think she was interested in going
to college. After first working in the states to finance her
trip, she chose to intern in Costa Rica with The Costa Rican
Movement of Union Organizers, which helps workers join unions
and fights for their rights. Her work with banana plantation
workers led to an important investigation of human rights
abuses. Kevin ended his year fundraising for the victims of
Hurricane Mitch as Allison began to fill out college applications.
Ben took a leave of absence from college to
explore his transfer possibilities. He spent the semester
in the Pacific doing three different internships--one in Hawaii,
one in Fiji, and one in Australia and was delighted to learn
that he would earn 12 semester credits without ever going
into a traditional classroom.
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Jen felt that she had always been on
the fast track and so decided to take a gap year to pursue
her passion for dance, Spanish, and community service. She
spent her first semester in Costa Rica teaching and working
on community service projects that combined the needs of the
village with her special interests and talent. After returning
home for 3 months to earn money for the remainder of her year,
she took off for Spain to attend two different intensive courses
in flamenco dance; between courses she studied art history
in Florence for seven weeks. Jen started her freshman year
of college energized by the year off of her dreams.
Martin realized about three weeks into his
freshman year that his choice of college was not a good fit
so he withdrew to research and reapply for the following year.
During this time he worked to help finance his experience
in Hawaii. Martin wanted to learn about theater production
so he chose to intern at a small production company in Honolulu,
where he quickly became the producer's right hand man: setting
up the lighting, creating new props, and even serving as a
stand-in for several actors. Learning how to produce a play
from start to finish was an invaluable experience for Martin
and led to his selection of a university with a strong program
in theater arts.
Ron had always wanted to work as a ranch hand
ever since vacationing at a dude ranch in Wyoming. On the
South Island of New Zealand, nestled against the great peaks
of Fjordlands National Park, he encountered one of the most
scenic ranches in the world. The ranch managed two large deer
herds, alongside sheep, cows, and elk. No two days were alike:
he mustered animals with fellow ranch hands, learned how to
build fences, sheer sheep, and handle farm vehicles. On the
weekends he served as a fishing guide for clients who were
staying at the ranch for R&R. When Ron left for college
he was glad that he had taken a gap year for he knew that
it would not be as easy in the years that followed to take
a break from his education and future career plans.
Kerry had loved high school and so was excited about the next
4 years at college.. However freshman year was not what she
expected and made her question her choice of schools. Kerry
decided to take a leave of absence, hoping to gain insight into
why her first year had been so difficult. She had grown up around
boats and jumped at the opportunity to sail in the Caribbean
as part of a semester long program in marine biology and oceanography.
While the setting was familiar, the challenges were not, but
Kerry persevered and this experience gave her the confidence
to take more risks in choosing an option for her second semester.
For her second experience Kerry left for Australia
on her own to teach in two very different classroom settings.
Initially she worked as a teacher's assistant and sports instructor
in an elementary school outside of Melbourne, and then moved
on to an inner-city aboriginal school. Kerry's experience
with unfamiliar surroundings, her willingness to take risks,
and her sense of accomplishment all altered her perspective
and did indeed shed light on her troubled freshman year. As
Kerry headed back for her sophomore she was more confident
than ever and told her friends: "It's not just about
where you go and what you do. It's the process that you go
through when you decide to take time off that helps to change
your life."
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