This year’s high school seniors didn’t exactly get the full graduation experience this year. In many cases, they missed the last few months of school and with it, proms, spring sports, end-of-school-year celebrations and even their own graduation ceremonies. As uncertainty about the fall looms, graduates may be considering something that is often done even in non-pandemic times: They may want to take a “gap year.”
The “gap year” is a semester or a full year of experiential learning, typically taken after high school graduation and before the start of post-secondary education or a career, according to the Gap Year Association. It’s a break from classroom learning and time that a young adult can spend collecting real-world experiences often through traveling, working or volunteering.
A gap year right now certainly won’t look like a normal gap year, but their freshman year of college likely won’t look too normal, either. Even if schools re-open in the fall, they could be shuttered once again if COVID-19 cases spike. Students may be moving back out of the dorms and sent home to resume online learning. It may not be the college experience they were hoping for.
Maybe they weren’t planning or even wishing for a year off from school, but they may now be considering it—especially if money is tight within the family due to unemployment during the pandemic. If so, Melody Warnick writes for the New York Times that they’ll want to make sure to follow the proper procedures before they go ahead and ditch college this fall:
Students who have accepted spots at colleges for the fall semester need to find out whether the college will allow them to defer admission to take a gap year—and what that will mean for tuition. “Even if you’re approved for a gap year,” said the education consultant Kristin White, author of “The Complete Guide to the Gap Year,” “it’s not always a given that your financial aid package will be the same.”
They may not be able to go backpacking through Europe anytime soon, but there are several ways they can use the next year to discover their passions—which means they can turn their “gap year” into a “purpose year.”
Set goals for the year
A Purpose Year should not be about sleeping in late and binging shows on Netflix all day (although I do see the appeal). They’ll only get something out of a year off if they set clear, measurable goals. The actual goals themselves can vary widely; maybe they want to learn a new skill, take some free online courses, publish some work or get involved with an organization.
The gap year is all about finding the intersection of the thing they love to do, the thing they’re good at, the thing the world needs and the thing they can get paid to do. Some young adults spend the first year of college doing this, which often looks like changing your major four times and effectively adding on a fifth year of school before you barely even got started. A gap year, when executed well, can help them home in on what they want to do for the rest of their lives.
Find mentorship opportunities
Mentorship during this year can take many forms. They may want to connect with professionals in their field of interest to do some interning, job shadowing or Zoom coffee meetings to determine what aspects of the job most appeal to them.
But they can also take this time to mentor younger children, which is particularly valuable for kids and parents during this time of isolation. If a young adult is gifted in math, they might do some virtual tutoring for kids who are struggling with at-home learning. If they’re musically gifted, they could give one-on-one lessons to a beginner musician. Or they can simply be a big brother/big sister-type to a child who needs additional support. Giving and receiving mentorship during this time can be rewarding.
Volunteer
Volunteering should be a big part of a Purpose Year, and just because we’re in the middle of a pandemic doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of opportunities to volunteer either remotely or by adhering to physical distancing recommendations. (There are lots of ideas in this Grown & Flown article, to start with.)
If they are politically inclined, there will be lots of local opportunities coming up to help get people registered to vote or by pitching in on a candidate’s campaign. There may be local (or national) social justice organizations that could use a little extra help right now. Or they could simply take on the duty of shopping for an elderly neighbor’s groceries during the crisis.
Learn and experience
However your young adult children specifically choose to spend their Purpose Year, learning and experiencing should be their priority. They should go into this year with the mindset that it will help them mentally recharge from so many years of classroom education, it will give them time to grow in knowledge and maturity, and it will leave them feeling reinvigorated to start their post-secondary education or their career when the pandemic is finally behind us.
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