Hello everyone! My name is Hazel and I am from Corvallis, Oregon. I have dreamt of taking a gap year since the beginning of high school and I am so beyond grateful to have found Duke and it’s gap year program that not only allows you to defer admission, but incentivizes it!
I have spent the summer traveling around 9 countries in Europe, but will spend the school year attending Fosen Folkehøgskole in Norway where I will study traditional square-rig sailing and traditional Norwegian craft. Here, I will have the opportunity to not only learn a new skill that will help me with my future studies in marine science at Duke, but it will also give me the opportunity to connect with my Norwegian heritage, and grow my skills in woodworking, fiber arts, and
interest in organic farming at the school’s farm, for which I am very passionate. Next summer, I hope to do some long-distance solo backpacking in Oregon, and I am also looking at marine debris removal projects but mostly I am leaving next summer with no concrete plan!
I look forward to this year as an opportunity to be in a space where I can grow and root deeply into the person I want to be in the world. I also look forward to spending so much time in nature and learning the language that my ancestors spoke as a way to connect even more with my cultural history. In high school, it sometimes feels as though someone else is in control of your life, and that there is only one track to success, but now is the chance to break out of that and forge your own path so that you may come to Duke a more sincere version of yourself that is truly ready to make a difference in the world, so I hope that is what this gap year brings to all of us!
