Words of Wisdom: 
Is a Gap Year for You?

Hurry! Hurry! Cram in a ninth course! Take next year’s Bio course during summer school! Get good grades, go straight to university, graduate, and get that great job with a large multinational company.

Stop! Relax. Take some time to look around and explore. Some of the students I see appear to be in a frantic “Race to Nowhere.” If you haven’t seen the aforementioned movie, it documents the pressure-cooker environment many students find themselves in as they race to pack in as many AP courses, tutoring and extra-curricular activities as a 24-hour clock will allow.

My words of wisdom are targeted towards senior students, many of whom will head off to post-secondary education in the next couple of years. So, what is this big secret I want to share with you? Take a gap year. Take a year off from formal schooling before entering post-secondary education and spend a year travelling, volunteering and working abroad. This is a well-established tradition amongst students in my home country of the United Kingdom, and study after study demonstrates the positive aspects of this year off.

If you’re in grade 12, the time to act is now. Take advantage of the time off this holiday season and visit the Canadian student travel agency, Travel Cuts. It's a great place to start (offices in Vancouver and SFU). Their downloadable GAP Year Abroad Guide explains the entire process. A sample itinerary taken from their site is as follows:

• Work in a pub in the UK with a SWAP visa (3 months)
• Volunteer in a school building project in Ghana (1 month)
• Travel overland from Nairobi to Capetown with a group of adventurers (2 months)
• Travel independently in South Africa with Baz Bus (1 month)
• Travel independently through South East Asia (1 month)
• Travel independently in Australia (1 month)
• Travel independently in New Zealand with Magic Travellers (2 weeks)
• Explore the islands of Fiji with local buses and ferries (3 weeks)

OK, so you’d like to go, but are feeling the pressure from mom and dad not to waste your time. Try this sales pitch with your parents: 
Universities such as Harvard and Princeton have reported that students who entered following a gap year were much less likely to drop out, and demonstrated increased levels of maturity, focus and motivation. So far, so good.


Employers love it too. Getting recruited by top companies requires you to stand out, and what better way to do it than by showing you are a smart, imaginative, self-starter with the ability to work with people from other cultures?


How do I know all this? Way back in ‘94, that time before iPhones and Internet, I spent a year travelling and working my way around the world. It remains the most memorable year of my life. When I returned to the UK, I was able to use my experiences to stand out from the crowd during the challenging graduate job hunt. In the end, I accepted a graduate-trainee position on a currency trading desk of a large London bank. Boy, was my mom happy!


At 18, anything is possible. Life is what you make it. What will you make of yours?


For more info, download Travel Cuts’ gap-year guide at gapyearabroad.ca.