Global Gap Year Fellowship Blog

The following post was written by Bridge Year Fellow, Tushar Varma.

Over six months have passed since I began my bridge year. August seems like a distant memory, and I suppose that I want to keep all of the past year that way.

I was anchored to home for the first half of this year-long experience—partly due to some decisions I had made the semester before regarding living arrangements, and partly due to the restrictions imposed by the disappointing spread of the pandemic in our country. So, I decided to stay in a house with two friends in Carrboro, North Carolina, from the summer to Thanksgiving break, when I returned home for the holidays before a monthlong retreat to Blowing Rock. Now, as I sit on a sizeable bed in the small Airbnb I found in Hilo, the constant chirping of birds, dripping of rain, and aroma of bananas create a […]

The following post was written by Global Gap Year Fellow Halden Levin.

Dear Reader,

Hello again. Where am I? Let’s begin with this moment. Right now, I am double-masked in a row to myself on a plane to Taiwan. It all seems a bit surreal to be flying; am I floating in a dream or finally flying? Finally flying seems to be the answer. However, as you can guess, getting to this point was not an easy task.

As I mentioned previously, I am a part of both GGYF and the National Security Language Initiative for Youth’s (NSLI-Y) Chinese Academic Year program in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Although my NSLI-Y cohort, composed of nine unique individuals from across the United States, traditionally planned to travel to Taiwan at the end of August/beginning of September in 2020, due to COVID-19, our plans were delayed, and instead, for this past semester, we’ve been engaging in a […]

The following post was written by Global Gap Year Fellow Karsen Kennedy.

It seems like it was only yesterday that I was WWOOFing in Asheville. However, it was the month of September that I set off to WWOOF at a beautiful, secluded farm close to the vibrant city. WWOOF, or the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farming organization, allowed a closer look into what living a more sustainable lifestyle can look like by living/working on designated farms with arranged hosts. It was about a 4 and a half-hour drive, and I stayed the entire month of September. I remember feeling extremely nervous and scared to be so far away in a new environment, but it was an exciting nervousness and an exciting scared. And eventually that all faded into loving my first placement.

I lived in a refurbished barn that had all the essentials. A small kitchen with provided appliances, a […]

The following post was written by Global Gap Year Fellow McKenzie Roller.

I am writing this from the exact spot I began my gap year: on my bed at home in Avon, CT where I will be for at least the next month. However, I am not the same person I was five months ago. I have met dozens of new people, faced new triumphs and failures, visited new places, tried new things, and have faced more uncertainty in my life than ever before.

When I wrote my first blog post, I had just arrived in Wilmington, North Carolina, not knowing a single person and not able to navigate anywhere without my GPS but hoping to “pop the bubble” that I had grown up in. Through the months that I spent in Wilmington, my bubble exploded, personally and professionally.

Mid-September through mid-December, I had the opportunity to work with the organization Vote.org, […]