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 […]
hiking
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 […]
Packing Light and Reverse Culture Shock
By McKenna The importance of packing light was apparent within the first few hours of our two-week trekk as I soon regretted bringing five pounds of trail mix. No matter how many times my instructors advised me to pack frugally, I needed to experience the hip bruises and aching muscles to truly understand what items […]
Take a NOLS Trip, if You Can
By Sam If you are taking a gap year and enjoy the outdoors, you should definitely go on a NOLS trip. I went on the NOLS Patagonia cultural expedition which was probably the highlight of my gap year. Having spent the previous 4 months in Spain, not only was I able to enjoy the wilderness, […]
My First Semester with NOLS
By Delaney Hello! My name is Delaney, and I am from Cleveland, OH! I recently returned home after spending three months in Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho. Now that I’m back home, and have access to a computer, a shower, and the internet, I figured it was a good time to write a blog post. For […]