Before Andrew graduated from his public high school in New Jersey in 2017, a friend heard Interim's president, Holly Bull, present at a gap year fair and alerted Andrew to our gap year counseling service. We did our normal free 90-minute brainstorming session with Andrew and his mother in the fall of his senior year and mapped out a possible plan for after he graduated. He deferred Lynn University and headed off in the fall on a group program in Latin America which involved Spanish immersion through local home stays, cultural study, service projects, travel, and how to deal with a small group of peers for three months. After a winter holiday break at home, he stepped into a more independent internship program with fellow interns in New Zealand and Australia through the winter and spring. His internships involved assisting at a garden center in Auckland and at a virtual reality store in Sydney.
Andrew reached out to us this week saying the following:
I graduate from Lynn in 4 weeks and just got offered a position to work for the Marriott Voyage Program. I am moving to Houston, Texas in July to work at the Marriott Marquis for 10-12 months. I’m getting paid a huge salary and will be a supervisor for the Food and Beverage Department. The gap year definitely paid off, just wanted to say thank you and I’ll definitely keep in touch with you.
The independent living skills accrued during Andrew's gap year, especially from his internship experiences, gave him an incredibly useful trial run into the working world. This is one of the great benefits of gap time because it not only prepares students for a more productive college experience, but also for the sometimes daunting transition from college into finding and taking on a job. For Andrew, it will be far easier since he already knows what it's like to live independently in an apartment, cook for himself, work everyday, and navigate unfamiliar cities. Houston will likely not faze him in the least!
