Personal Benefits Of A Gap Year
Develop cross-cultural understanding and competence through cultural immersion.
Learn how to communicate when there are different basic vocabularies as a vital tool gained on a gap year.
Creative problem solving as a form of taking any challenging situation and turning it into an opportunity - much like a broken down bus in transit, a cultural misstep, or simply being sick while on a gap year.
Understand how different environments inform cultural foundation and shape relationships among the earth and local communities.
Internationalize perspective on 'living', how it is done and what is viewed as successful in other cultures. Experience all of the different ways to do this thing called life.
Evaluate personal values and identify one's own 'best' way of living.
Create one's own version of "success" rather than acquiesce to that offered by running the routine.
Exploring comfort zones and the self by doing something challenging. Pushing comfort zones allows one to better understand the self and truly know what they are capable of.
Laugh at the many cultural-difference- snafu's (e.g. finding out you just told your host family in Spanish that you are "pregnant" instead of "embarrassed").
A well-structured gap year program can be part of the lifelong education process and can induce a profound contribution to an individual's personal development.
Increased ownership for one's own life-direction.
Understand what it means to be a global citizen and own the responsibility that it means in an increasingly multicultural landscape.
Original article posted at: https://www.gapyearassociation.org/data-benefits.php#:~:text=In%20total%2C%201%2C795%20respondents%20began,year%20alumni%20completed%20this%20survey.