The Foreign Service Journal, June 2006

hen I told my friends I was tak- ing a year off between high school and college, they were shocked. I was an “A” student, and I had been accepted to Brown University, one of my top choices. I was excited about Brown, but I didn’t feel ready to go. Instead, I want- ed to go to Venezuela with my parents. My father, a Foreign Service officer, would be working at the U.S. embassy in Caracas. As it turned out, taking a so-called “gap year,” a year off before or during college, was one of the best things I ever did. Before heading to Venezuela, I spent time with my par- ents in the D.C. area, where my father was studying Spanish. In Washington, I interned at CNBC. I also went on an Outward Bound course in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Minnesota. In Caracas, I learned how to dance, became fluent in Spanish, volunteered at a bicultur- al center, audited courses at a Venezuelan university, and worked as a “summer hire” at the embassy. When I headed to college in the fall, I was much more ready to be on my own than many of my classmates. As a Foreign Service kid, I also found it empowering to choose where I was going for once. For years, my brother, Ted, and I had followed our parents wherever the State Department wanted them to go. This time, it was my choice to go with them. Why Take a Gap Year? In the U.K., Australia (where it’s known as the “walka- bout year”) and New Zealand, gap years are more common than they are in the United States. Although official statis- tics for U.S. students taking gap years don’t seem to exist, a 2003 Princeton Review poll found that “very few American students take time off, but the ones who do, report getting better jobs and grades.” One of my close friends from college also took a gap year. She was from suburban Massachusetts, had never lived else- where and wanted to see more of the world. And so my friend spent a year in Mexico. Today she’s launching a career in international public health, something she might never have considered if she hadn’t taken the gap year. Another young woman, Lucy Terrell, spent the first six months of her gap year living with her parents in Virginia and working at a doctor’s office; she then used some of the money she saved to go backpacking in Europe. Although many Foreign Service kids have already seen a lot of the world, they might want to experience living or working in another country. There are many other reasons people take a gap year. Some individuals think it will help them get into a better school or get a better job. Some peo- ple don’t know what they want to do, and they hope it will help them figure out a career path. Others know what they want to do next, but simply want a break. They also might want to gain hands-on work experience in a particular field. For a Global Nomad — someone who has lived outside their parents’ country of origin before adulthood because of a parent’s occupation — the idea of staying in one place for more than a year or two can be very compelling. That is what prompted one young woman to opt for taking a gap year. Marloes Miller, 32, lives in Maryland and works at a biotech company. She is originally from Holland, but grew up in Egypt, Greece, Switzerland and Hong Kong. Miller was living in Zug, Switzerland, when she decided to take time off. “I was signed up to go to hotel management school in Continued on page 64 62 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 6 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT T AKING A G AP Y EAR T IME OFF CAN GIVE STUDENTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO PLAN FOR THE FUTURE AND CLARIFY WHAT THEY WANT TO DO . B Y I NGRID A HLGREN Ingrid Ahlgren is a Foreign Service kid who took a “gap year.” She currently works as a researcher at National Geographic Traveler magazine. W