Taking a year off after graduation?

I am planning to returning to school after I graduate. As a senior, however, the thought of another 3 years of school right now (at minimum) makes me a bit queasy. That's why I am planning to take a gap year.

I didn't realize that there were so many gap year resources out there. The career library has several related  books, such as Taking a Gap Year and Short Term Job Adventures, which list different organizations and programs. It seems like you can do anything in a gap year - volunteerism, expeditions, seasonal farmwork, au pair, manual labor - really, anything and everything you could think of is out there.

I met with career adviser Irene Komor to talk about my options. She recommended idealist.org as another great resource to find service programs that might be of interest. Idealist.org is a service program search database full of tons of listings of opportunities. When sifting through the website, I felt that I really needed to know what I wanted to do so I could make my search terms narrow enough to make the number of hits manageable.

So - how to decide? One thing to think about is location. Stay at home or go abroad? I know that the U.S. has many established programs such as Teach for America, Americorps, and CityYear, but there are endless opportunities abroad like the Peace Corps, au pairing, non-profit work, and who knows when I'll have another chance to do something like this again?

Another thing to think about is what you want to do. Do you want to wet your feet in your future career field? Do you want to engage in public service projects and get more involved in your community? Or do you want to try something completly new? The important thing is to consider what you want to get out of your experience.

Check out the "Cornell Gap Year" and "Arts and Sciences Career Services, Cornell University" for other potential gap year ideas. As I continue to pick my way through the forest of gap year programs, I will update you with my findings!

~ Elizabeth L.

Student Career Ambassador

College of Arts and Sciences

Cornell University