The Gap Year - One of Higher Education's Hottest Trends
New gap year novel aimed at young adults
The article, Mind The Gap by Kayte Korwitts, appeared in Chicago's North Shore Magazine yesterday. It highlights the current 'gap year' trend amongst some high school graduates, and briefly reviews Cliare Zulkey's young adult novel An Off Year, an account of an acutely self-conscious and hyper-intelligent 18-year-old who arrives at a small liberal-arts college only to turn around and go home.
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Applications for gap year options on the rise
The Center for Cultural Interchange (CCI) in Chicago is mentioned in Korwitt's article as offering multiple programs that focus exclusively on gap-year options. Specifically, Greenheart Travel is mentioned. Further reserarch of CCI's website indicated that Greenheart is CCI's environmental and social initiative that "promotes the health and welfare of the earth and its people through cultural exchange, ethical travel, responsible consumerism, and community service."
Korwitts reports that applications for the program have doubled in just the last year! Good news showing demand for student gap year option still on the rise!
Gap Year travel trends
my experience of our charity's services certainly supports this trend. Kiwi-Internships is a service placing young travelers into meaningful volunteer work experiences within New Zealand and we're seeing an ever-greater number of students taking time out before university or even a Gap Year off between college years.
While young people wishing to travel is nothing new, over the decade we've been running this service, we've seen a huge increase in the support of home country schools for students choosing New Zealand as a place to gain first-hand experience, and sometimes as a way to re-evaluate their chosen path of studies or career option.
Rebecca Towle,
internship coordinator