Gap Year Programs

Thinking that you want to attend college, but aren’t sure if you’re ready yet?  Gap year programs are a great option to consider.  Below are some resources to investigate, but be sure to talk with your school counselor if this is something you’re thinking of considering!

Volunteer and Service Based:

AFS International Programs (fees required)
www.afsusa.org
AFS is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world.

City Year
www.cityyear.org
City Year is an education focused non-profit organization that unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service to keep students in school and on track to graduate.

Year Up
www.yearup.org
Year Up is a one-year, intensive training program that provides urban young adults 18-24, with a unique combination of technical and professional skills, college credits, an educational stipend and corporate internship.

Center for Interim Programs (fees required)
www.interimprograms.com
Interim has designed creative gap-year opportunities for more than 5,700 people of all ages and built relationships with organizations worldwide. Our database encompasses over 5,600 program opportunities.

Other post-graduation options:

Outward Bound (tuition required)
www.outwardbound.org
Outward Bound is the premier provider of experience-based outdoor leadership programs. Seek challenge and embark on a backpacking trip, mountaineering class, kayaking adventure, sailing trip or an urban expedition in your community and take home real leadership skills and the courage to follow your own path.

National Outdoor Leadership School (tuition required)
www.nols.edu
NOLS takes students of all ages on remote wilderness expeditions and teaches them technical outdoor skills, leadership, and environmental ethics.

Programs & opportunities for study, internships, work & travel

Peace Corps
www.peacecorps.gov
Peace Corps service is a life-defining leadership experience. Volunteers serve in 76 countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, the Pacific Islands and the Middle East. Peace Corps Volunteers live, learn, and work with a community overseas for 27 months, providing technical assistance in six program areas: education, youth and community development, health, business and information and communications technology, agriculture, and environment.

Global Service Corps (tuition required)
www.globalservicecorps.org
Students, both undergraduate and graduate, from all disciplines are welcome to join any of the programs that GSC offers in Cambodia, Thailand, and Tanzania. Programs can range from two weeks to six months or longer.

Restless Development: The Youth-Led Development Agency (fees may be required)
www.restlessdevelopment.org
Whether you’re looking for a research assignment, a community based placement, or have a particular skill area you would like to transfer to the development sector, our international placements offer structured and meaningful opportunities in our country programs in Africa and Asia.

Volunteers for Peace (fees required)
www.vfp.org
With over 3000 projects to choose from in more than 100 countries around the world, Volunteers For Peace has a project just right for everyone. Participants can volunteer with kids, teach English, restore the environment, assist with social projects such as HIV/AIDS awareness, and more!

Internships Programs

Dynamy
www.dynamy.org
Hands-On Learning at Dynamy means that young people are given an opportunity to test interests and aptitudes, to be involved in a meaningful internship and develop a community with their peers while having the support and guidance of trusted advisors, internship mentors, and staff members.