Gap Year Effects

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Gap year, a period, typically an academic year, taken by a student as a break between secondary school and higher education. In this essay I am going to talk about the effects of a gap year.
Gap years teach responsibility, independence and confidence. For many high school graduates, they have never had to rely on themselves and have always had parents hovering over them telling them what to do and helping them every time they had a problem. Going strait from having parents handle most of your problems and making sure you get to class on time, to being at college with no parents to help you can be hard to handle and stressful. A gap year, allows students to get away from parents, and school and become more mature. In one article author Christiana
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Being away from parents and working to pay for your own food and housing and what not can really build a grads confidence and better prepare them for the college life. Andrea Dana is an example of someone who became confidant in herself during her gap year. Author Christian Wood who interviewed Andrea says “… she gained confidence in her ability to manage her own life …” (2) Working, traveling and experiencing new things can really build a students confidence. Getting a job similar to, or the same as, the job a student plans on getting after college will make them more sure and confident about their decision and better prepare them for college in a big way. Gap years provide life experiences that allow students to become independent. Christina Wood talks about Andrea Danas experience during her gap year, “every minute brought her closer to herself and taught her things she has relied on ever since.” (3) Going to a far away place and getting a job and supporting yourself for the first time will build students independence big time. Gap years provide the types of situations that allow students to learn independence in a healthy and fun way. Getting through …show more content…
It asks the questions who am I? What’s important to me? And what do I want to do with the rest of my life? Gap years can provide time to explore opportunities and earn hands on learning. It can help students be sure what it is they want to go to school to learn. Andrea Dana was a high school grad who planned to go straight to college, get her degree and become a teacher. She landed a job offer at Mini Club Med where she would be supervising kids. This opportunity would help her decide if handling kids everyday for the rest of her life is something she really wanted to do. Andrea says “it was an eye opener and it opened all sorts of doors for”(2) Being able to experience the job a student wants to go to school for will really help them decide if that’s what they really want to do. It can also give them hands on learning experience and better prepare them for when they start studying in school and when they get the job after they graduate. Gap years can allow grads to explore new ideas to figure out what they want to do. Sydni Heron is an example of a student who took a gap year and through her experiences decided what she wanted to go to school for. In an article by Jens Manuel Krogstad, it says “Sydni treated machete wounds and helped deliver a baby in a small-town in Ecuador… she is now headed to college to study nursing.” (1) Sometimes students just don’t know what they want to

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