By Kate Hello everyone! My name is Kate and I am from New York City. This month I am preparing to move to Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, where I will be interning at a boarding school known as the Haile-Manas Academy. Over the course of the semester, I will serve primarily as a peer leader for freshmen […]
Month: August 2020
A Year of Firsts
Hi everyone! First of all, I’d like to introduce myself and explain a little about what I will be doing this year. My name is Sara, and I’m from Lexington, South Carolina. This fall, I’ll be staying at home to take online audited classes, hopefully get a job, and volunteer with an animal rescue and sanctuary. […]
My Gap Year Plans and the PCT
By Ray Hello friends, My name is Ray, and this is both my first blog with the Duke Gap Year, as well as my first ever blog. I should probably introduce myself; I live in the Bay Area (Marin County). In high school, I spent a lot of my time playing for the football […]
Why I Took A Gap Year
By Siddharth Having been born and raised in India, the notion of a gap year has always been fairly restricted to a specific segment of students – those who are unable to perform up to their expectations in the cutthroat entrance tests to the most prestigious universities in the country. If one wasn’t spending their […]
Getting Going in the Big Apple
By Zachary Despite the initial challenges posed by the pandemic, my gap year planning is looking very hopeful. I will split my gap year into two main sections: City Year and backpacking. The main focus of the beginning of my gap year is a program called City Year, which is part of AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps is […]
Summer – The First Two Months
By Lukas I had been considering a gap year for some time before the end of senior year, but nothing had catalyzed my desire to take the year to focus on myself as the pandemic did. I’m creating and re-imagining ways of bettering myself to become more mentally prepared in the fall of 2021. Every day, […]
Deciding to Take a Gap Year
By Hannah I clearly remember sitting at my brother’s high school graduation three years ago and thinking to myself, “I’m going to take a gap year.” I had never really heard the term until that year, but as soon as I saw his peers thinking about taking one, and some ultimately choosing to do so, […]
Embracing Unpredictability
By Valerie 4.5E14, 1.2E2, 94, 59… I sat stock-still with my body contorted in an awkward position, the tingling and prickling of pins and needles in my limbs hardly registering as I fixated my gaze on the screen with intense, sober concentration, for fear that everything would go awry upon the slightest falter. …32, 1.8, 0.04, 0.0015… […]
Starting My Gap Year
By Leah I’ve only just started my gap year, but I’m already beginning to understand one of the most important skills that I’m going to develop this year: flexibility. Under normal circumstances a gap year is an opportunity for spontaneity, adaptation, and occasionally allowing whims to take you wherever they will – it’s not possible […]
Planning Amid the Unpredictable
By Christina Long-term planning during a global pandemic presents challenges. We have all asked ourselves what the world will look like in a month and a year. Will elbow bumps replace handshakes? Will meetings continue on Zoom? Will travel return to normal? There is a lot we don’t know, both about the future and the virus, and […]