Map the Gap International

Why Colleges Should Require a Gap Year

Why Colleges Should Require a Gap Year It would go a long way toward improving higher education’s public perception.

Map the Gap is checking out Argentina this month! Think about spending some time here on your gap year :)

The Best Freshman Year Is a Gap Year

YAAAASSSSSS

chronicle.com A purposeful year off before college is the best way to ensure that more students arrive on campus prepared to declare both a major and a mission.

The Atlantic

Yaassss!

"Sometimes it takes moving abroad to fully understand what’s important to you." (via Quartz)

Traveling Teaches Students in a Way Schools Can't

Amen!

theatlantic.com American education is largely limited to lessons about the West.

US: the reason why U.S. students want to study abroad - IndustryNews - eduHow.net

From a survey by StudentUniverse in 2017, 74.1% of American students who had studied abroad said that international education experiences enable them to stand out among a lot of candidates and improve the chance for interview.

eduhow.net According to IIE open doors repost in 2017, the number of U.S. students participating in study abroad increase every year. In 2015/16, 325,336 American students got academic degree, an increase in 3.8%. It is expected that the figure for American students having international experiences will rise c...

Email Your Representative to Support Study Abroad

A bill worth supporting!

connectingourworld.org Email Your Representative to Support Study Abroad There is growing concern about Americans’ lack of preparedness in engaging and communicating with the world today, but the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Program Act could change this. This bill in Congress would give more American college student...

Homepage

Making study abroad more accessible

connectingourworld.org

The Atlantic

"Speaking another language can improve our ability to imagine the perspective of another." (via Quartz)

The benefits of speaking more than one language

Every Map the Gap program includes language and cultural immersion.

weforum.org There are clear and very tangible benefits to being bilingual, although there is limited proof that growing up bilingual gives children a significant cognitive edge.

The most useful language for English speakers to learn, according to an economist

qz.com Mandarin and Spanish are both strong contenders.

How Taking a Gap Year Can Shape Your Life

Stop what you're doing and read this article! If you have questions about the value of a gap year, this will help.

nytimes.com Looking back, adults who took time off before or during college say they have no regrets.

Timeline Photos

How To Have A Successful Gap Year — Tips For Malia Obama And Other High School Grads

npr.org Taking a year off before college can be a great idea or a disaster. Follow these tips.

Does college fail grads in the workplace?

Great advice for high school grads!

marketplace.org Author Jeffrey J. Selingo tells parents and kids "There Is Life After College"

How Studying Abroad Makes You A Better Leader

Interesting article in Forbes magazine. Applies equally to taking a gap year abroad.

forbes.com Parents used to send their children to study abroad to perfect their French or to learn social skills. In today's global, interconnected world, living and studying abroad is a prerequisite for leadership.

Great quote from Whitney DuBarry Hayes, a high school student from Palm Desert California, who spent a semester in Paris:

"When nothing is familiar or routine, one is able to examine, criticize, and perceive his/her surroundings wholly. A new environment allows for the creation of new ideas, which spur art and literature and thought. If one is never a foreigner and becomes comfortable in an identity, one becomes stagnant and ceases to truly live."

Rethinking College Admissions

"They’re realizing that many kids admitted into top schools are emotional wrecks or slavish adherents to soulless scripts that forbid the exploration of genuine passions." I know of a way to explore genuine passions.

apple.news A new report suggests that we’re on the cusp of important, necessary changes in the way colleges evaluate applicants.

Make 2016 count, people.

What's the First Thing You Should Do When You Get into College?

Word to the wise.

mobile.nytimes.com Before you start buying decorations for your dorm room walls, consider for a moment following a road less traveled in America: Take a gap year.

Map the Gap International's cover photo

http://www.serveayear.org/

Where will your year of service be?

www.serveayear.org http://www.serveayear.org/?utm_source=ServiceNation&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=serveAyear

Michelle Obama Visits China, Lauds Study Abroad

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama praised study abroad on a recent diplomatic trip to China, calling for students to be "citizen diplomats" and encouraging free exchange of information, according to The Washington Post.

Op-Ed: The benefits of taking a gap year

Check out this op-ed extolling the merits of a gap year!

blogs.gwhatchet.com I implore more GW seniors to seriously consider the idea of a gap year with an organization like Americorps. The term gap year has a negative connotation because it makes us think of inserting a gap in our lives, delaying and possibly even derailing our future plans in the process. But this thinking...

College offers to pay students to take year off - Boston.com

Go gap!

www.boston.com MEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — A new program at Tufts University hopes to remove the financial barriers keeping cash-strapped students from taking a year off after high school to travel or volunteer, offering an opportunity now typically only available to more affluent students to explore different communiti...

Keegan and Naomi - Welcome to Siena! Enjoy meeting your families, and go have a cappuccino. :)

Good luck getting ready for your semester in Italy, Naomi and Keegan! Ciao a tutti! Here's your first glimpse of Siena!

2 of our Summer 2012 Nicaragua participants are back with lots of stories and photos. Stay tuned!

'Globals' Generation Focuses On Experience : NPR

Go Globals!
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/10/156463825/globals-generation-focuses-on-experience

npr.org For a growing number of U.S. college students and young adults, the idea of building an American dream is to think internationally. They are a group that pollster John Zogby is now calling "the first globals."

“To speak a single language is to be enclosed in one cultural possibility–to be preordained to live in the linguistic and cultural cage into which you are born.”

Martin Hoffman

USA Gap Year Fairs | Events Schedule

Come see us at upcoming USA Gap Year Fairs! We have bowls of free candy.http://www.usagapyearfairs.org/events-schedule

usagapyearfairs.org

Join us in January - Viva Nicaragua!

Getting ready for spring 2012!

us1.campaign-archive1.com Not sure what to do with your gap time this spring? Come join MTGI in Nicaragua! Learn Spanish like you never have before, eat gallo pinto (the signature Nicaraguan rice-and-beans dish), live near the only lake in the world with fresh-water sharks, and most importantly, make a real difference thro...

"The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

News: Engaging Globally - Inside Higher Ed

Way to go, Duke University! Let's hope other universities catch on.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/08/10/duke_finds_success_with_its_ambitious_program_for_student_summers_abroad

insidehighered.com Now in its fifth year, DukeEngage allows hundreds of students to spend a summer of service at home or abroad, at no cost to them.