Gap Year Project

Gap years - time taken "off" between high school and college - are becoming increasingly popular among college-bound students in the US. A sub-set of these "gappers" choose to participate in structured gap year programs: 3-9 month programs that combine international travel, language study, homestays with local families, and internship or volunteer work.

These programs are described by both providers and former participants as personally transformative experiences. Gap year providers say the experience will help participants discover who they are and identify their true passions, preparing them for college as well as their future careers. Former participants agree, saying that they have been fundamentally changed by their experiences in ways that continue to manifest in their lives post-travel.

In this project, I aim to better understand the lived experience of taking a structured gap year, to uncover how these experiences shape participants' self-understanding and value commitments, and to examine if, when, and how the gap year experience continues to shape participant behavior and attitudes post-travel (especially in their decision-making during college). In doing so, I pay particular attention to the role of gap year providers in facilitating these experiences, attending to how they encourage, channel, and help to construct gap years as potentially (and actually) transformative experiences.

Data analysis for this project is ongoing.

Between 2015 and 2017, I interviewed 30 former participants on a university-run gap year program about their experiences and how they felt it has impacted their identities and actions since. I also interviewed 20 current and former "trip leaders" from several major gap year providers - including Carpe Diem and Where there Be Dragons - about their role in shaping student experience. Finally, I collected textual data from major provider websites and recruitment materials to better understand how these programs are described and marketed, as well as to identify similarities and differences in program structure and content across providers. This pilot study was funded in part by a grant from The Experience Project (funded by the Templeton Foundation).

In the second phase of the project, I conducted an in-depth case study of one provider organization: Global Gap Year (GGY). This study follows the 2019-2020 cohort of gap students through the program cycle. Interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of students (35 total) on pre- and post-program to identify and examine how participants are changed as a result of their experiences abroad. I also conducted fieldwork “on program,” observing organizational programming in both the US and abroad (in Ecuador), in order to better understand the gap year experience as it unfolds on-the-ground. This data is supplemented by an analysis of organizational materials and interviews with core program staff.

The project has received financial support through The Experience Project from The John Templeton Foundation and through the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Jack Shand Research Grant.