The Gap Year Podcast

Who Should Take a Gap Year and Why? Jane’s Perspective as a Formal Guidance Counselor and Parent

After being removed from it for a little bit of time, we can forget how many major stressors and transitions happen in the late teenage years.  Beyond just the physical and hormonal growth, there are huge social changes that come with the transition out of childhood then  into adolescence and into early adulthood. They are all tremendous leaps in one’s life! No wonder it can feel like we’re all on a roller coaster.

Jane Kristoffy is an educational strategist, educator of over 25 years and mother of teens – so she knows all about what is happening in the schools, in post-secondary, and at home during periods of transitions.

This week on the Gap Year Podcast, I discussed some of the major reasons people choose to take a gap year with Jane. Although everyone can benefit from a gap year, we both see several reasons why people choose to take this time away from formal education.

Is your kid ready for post-secondary?

I love to talk about this topic because it is one that keeps parents and teens up at night.

Parents often approach me saying “my kid isn’t mature enough”, “they aren’t going to be ready” or “they just need some more time”.  Students say similar things – saying they need more time, they aren’t ready, or they don’t know what they want to do. I hear these concerns on a regular basis and they all boil down to one common theme – not feeling ready.

This episode explores "readiness" and which factors indicate a gap year, and which can be addressed in other ways.

Lynn’s Story: Parenting a Gapper – Pre, During, and Post Gap Year

Lynn Trevesan is a mother of two girls, now 18 and 15 years old. But when her oldest daughter was reaching the end of high school, Lynne noticed that she wasn’t quite ready for post-secondary, despite being mature for her age and identified as a gifted student throughout her studies.  As an engineer who has had multiple jobs in multiple industries over her career, Lynn knew that taking different paths would only enrich her daughter’s life journey.

University Deferrals, Life Lessons about Age and Traveling According to Grace

While you’re probably looking forward to what your gap year has in store, there’s probably still some nerves about things you don’t know yet. Will you get into my university program after my gap year? Do you have the skills to travel? Is it going to be weird to be going back to school when I am a year older than everybody else?

Grace weighs in on all of these questions in this week’s podcast.

Grace is a current University of Toronto Student studying Biodiversity and Conservation.  She spent many of her summers working at camp, where she found her passion for the outdoors.  With the support of her family, she deferred her acceptance and spent the majority of her gap year working at a restaurant before venturing to Europe for some exploring.

Grace speaks about the transition from being a student to working – the freedom of not having homework, the exposure to new peers of all different ages and life experience, as well as a taste of what “adult life” is all about.

What does Grace want people planning a gap year to know?

• You don’t need to do it all in advance. lots can be figured out on the fly and it will allow for more flexibility in your travels
• Things go wrong, but go with the flow.  The funniest stories that you will tell upon return are all about when things go wrong
• Traveling will help you become more resilient and resourceful, two skills that will serve you well in your future.
• Deferring your acceptance is not difficult – when you receive your acceptance, research the proper steps for your university – for Grace, she had to fill out a form with some administrative information and then 4-5 liens explaining what she was doing – they just wanted to know she had a plan.  She dropped off the form on campus and soon heard back that they would welcome her a year later. YAY!
• Being a year older when going back to university isn’t a big deal at all – there are people in her classes that come from all walks of life and are all ages – age stops mattering as soon as you graduate high school, it’s more about who you share interests and values with.

As cheesy as it sounds, Grace did “find herself” on her gap year.  She learned so much from traveling, being alone, and being in a slower environment.  She started her first year of university more confident, independent confident in her ability to make new friends.

Her top advice for students in grade 12? To commit and absolutely do it, and not to let FOMO get in the way. It may seem like you’ll miss out on the university experience, but you’ll have the same experience a year later – plus, you’ll have all your amazing gap year experience under your belt as well.

Pretty cool, eh?

Want to dive deeper into the resources mentioned throughout the podcast? Here are some of the resources that Grace and Michelle mentioned in the podcast:

Eurail pass

Hostelworld

Gap Year Frosh Week – Get on our mailing list for this EXCLUSIVE event (August 2020 in Ottawa)

Welcome to The Gap Year Podcast

Everywhere I go, I hear incredible stories about gap years.  

Whenever I’m at different fairs or conferences, people come up to me to tell me how great their gap year was. I can’t count the amount of times I hear, “I took a gap year, and it was the best decision I could have made.” And this hasn’t happened once or twice – it happens all the time. While they always rave about the different things they did, they always come back to how it helped them to grow and learn in ways that formal education couldn’t have.

I hear these amazing stories all the time, and I just wished there was a way to capture them and share with people who are considering a gap year – which is where this podcast came in! I am so excited to share all of these stories, along with the tips and tricks to make your gap year meaningful.

I often get asked about what sparked my passion for the gap year pathway as an option. I started out my career as a high school science teacher but left the classroom soon after. Teaching in a classroom wasn’t the right fit for me – I saw that students needed space for experiential learning, reflection, and support in defining who they are and who they want to be as they make the transition into adulthood. That’s where gap year comes in. It helps students get into the driver’s seat of their own lives – professionally, personally and in relationships.

Now more than ever, youth are getting involved in the different issues we are facing in today’s world – and with so much going on, it can make things seem scary. Taking the time during a gap year to gain some perspective, realize the gifts and talents that they have to contribute to the world, and aligning them with passions and meaningful ways of contributing to society will lead to a stronger future for humanity and for the individual.

But if gap years are so valuable, why haven’t they caught on in Canada?

While working with gap families for over a decade, I’ve listened intently to the objections of families and have some answers to that very question.

The American Dream – We are still living in the false-reality of previous generations.  The idea that “the harder you work, the faster you go, the more successful you will be, the sooner you will be successful” is still part of our everyday narrative, even if it’s inaccurate.  Therefore any deviation on the ‘fastrack’ has a stigma attached to it. It can be falsely seen as being lazy, not good enough to go on, or wealthy enough to go on wild, expensive adventures.

A Strong Education System – Canada has one of the top educational systems in the world.  Our colleges and universities are world-renowned, with lots of power, money and international influence. This prestigious status of Canadian higher education, paired with how fiercely students are recruited for post-secondary schools while still early in high school, drive the narrative that taking a path that isn’t direct into university or college is less valuable.

Lack of Information – Guidance counselors, teachers and parents have not been supplied with accurate and helpful information on the gap year pathway, so many rely on their lived experience.  Educators need to have a university education so, by no fault of their own, they are influenced by their lived experience. This will shift as more educators and parents are informed on the gap year pathway

Canada is Safe – If we live in such a safe and great country, why would we ever leave it? With gap years being so deeply linked with travel, this is a common objection to the gap year path. In Canada, we don’t have the same level of social challenges as many other countries for the most part. On the other hand, because we have it so good in Canada, travelling to new places can seem daunting.  Travel also isn’t as commonplace in Canada, as compared to somewhere like Europe. Our country is so big that it makes local travel less popular – as well as the skills that are gained from stepping outside your comfort zone and into a new province or country. This lack of confidence in travel can also keep people from gap years.

 

In short, this podcast will help Canadians gain confidence and knowledge about their decision to take a gap year.  By telling more stories and sharing ways to make gap years easier, the more meaningful this podcast will become in helping individuals and families start to shift the overall conversation about gap years.

 

Mission of the Canadian Gap Year Association:

The Canadian Gap Year Association (CanGap) is a registered non-profit organization filling a gap: support for young people looking for an alternative step in educational and/or career pathways through taking a gap year.

Our mission is to build a healthier, happier, more resilient and experienced Canadian youth population by connecting families with the resources they need to have purposeful gap years.

Our resources include online and in-person events, connection to gap year and youth-specific programs and activities, a recognition program, and knowledge and expertise for all those connected to gap years.

We achieve this through professional collaborations with passionate and qualified professionals in secondary and post-secondary education, travel, volunteering, personal and professional development, and government.

Families who engage with us and apply the best practices of purposeful gap years will see the young adult emerge with more confidence and independence, more awareness of their talents and passions and more driven to use these to contribute to society.

 

Resource Links:

Gap Year Quiz

Gap Year Planning Toolkit

Gap Year Certification

Newsletters

Partner organization

Instagram

Twitter