If you have a child who is interested in participating in Denver Gap Year, then this page is specifically for you. We know that sending your child to a college alternative can induce worry and you likely have questions. Our hope is to explain who we are, answer your questions, and put you at ease.

Denver Gap Year is a young adult program designed to deepen your child’s relationship with God, discover who they are and what they want, and to set them up for a successful future with Christ. We believe a life of purpose and passion is available to all of us, we just need to take the time to find it in Christ. Each participant will be taken on an 8 month journey dedicated to self discovery and faith. This is not a break from life but a launching pad into the fullness of life (for a detailed breakdown of what our program is like and who our partners are, follow this link).

But this is more than a journey just for your child, this is also a journey for you. Each participant will go on a world changing journey and they want you to walk alongside them. You will find God stretching you as a parent, as a friend, and as sons and daughters. Your trust in God’s sovereignty, provision, and goodness will deepen as a Denver Gap Parent.

Right now, you have the opportunity to have serious conversations with your child about the future, identity in Christ, and purpose. If your child has expressed interest in a gap year, we highly encourage discussing what they are seeking, options, and next steps.

DENVER GAP PARENT EXPECTATIONS

As a Denver Gap Parent, you won’t have any official responsibilities, but you can still make a huge impact on this journey.

Prior to the start of the program, we suggest helping your participant with fundraising and logistics. This is also the time to strengthen your relationship, create memories, and continue to mentor their spiritual life. Your child will go through a deeply impactful and transformational season and this is your time to prepare them for that experience.

While your child is going through our program, continue to pray for and talk to him/her. You will be completely free to check up on your participant and talk about what is happening in the classes but know that each participant will be busy with the program and life in Denver, so contact will likely be less than what you are used to. Your child will be free to dictate what they want to share and how often they want to talk with their parents, so it is important to discuss what you both want communication to look like. As this is a spiritual journey of self discovery, we do request you allow your child to have a pressure free environment to freely explore, make mistakes, and find themselves in Christ. There are opportunities throughout the year including at graduation week for you to visit your child at Denver Gap Year in co-ordination with staff.

You will have open communication with the staff on DGY updates, how the program is going, and pertinent information. We will do our best to keep you up to date but we cannot guarantee any day by day info on specifics of your child. We value respecting each participant’s privacy and will not discuss any sensitive information that the participant does not want shared with any family or friends. Always feel free to message us with any questions or concerns.

During the program, we also encourage you to focus on your own spiritual and emotional developments. Having a child leave home is a huge life transition. We know that empty nest syndrome is a real thing but it does open up more time for you to go through your own self discovery. As your child deepens their relationship with God, you get to mirror that depth in your own life. This ministry of mirroring will bring new freedoms and self discovery.

Parents’s FAQ

What is a gap year?

A gap year is a when a student takes a year off of school between high school and college or between college years. This year can be used for work, travel, volunteering, exploring, and self discovery.

Why do a gap year?

There are many studies that show the benefits of taking a gap year. According to a 2005 and 2013 study, most gap year participants choose to do a gap year due to school burnout and self discovery. Gap year students will experience greater exposure to different cultures and people groups. Many colleges actually encourage gap years as gap year students have shown to have higher GPAs, change majors less often, and have greater life experiences. Fewer than 1% of incoming college freshmen have taken gap years, a gap year helps students stand above the rest of the crowd. We have added further links on the benefits of a gap year down in the Resources section.

Specifically for Denver Gap Year, we focus on deepening relationships with God and discovering identity found in Christ. We know that there is no measurable statistic that fully encapsulates the significance of knowing Jesus. We never discount the worldly benefits of a gap year but we most value our focus on love of Christ.

What are the dates and rates?

The program starts in September and ends in April. The cost is $12,000 which will cover housing, food, classes, monthly adventure excursions and an international missions trip each term. We also have 4 month options from September to December and January to April. Those cost 6,000 each and include everything the 8 month program does. The cost of the program is tax deductible per IRS regulations and a support raising option to pay for the program is available as well.

Who will be guiding this journey?

Our thoroughly vetted staff is a diverse group of college graduates, athletes, missionaries, teachers, and adventurers. Members of our staff have taken a gap year and know the fruit it has produced in our own lives. Each staff member lives in Denver and will directly participate in your child’s journey with DGY.

Click here for more info on each of our staff members and our board of directors.

The classroom teachers are all part of our network of pastors, missionaries, industry leaders, educators, and teachers. We’ve hand picked each teacher because we personally know their character and expertise.

Our international and domestic volunteer partners are all registered nonprofits with great track records of integrity and transparency. Staff members know our partners, and we highly regard the value they provide to their cities.

What will be their accommodations and what will they eat?

All participants will be living in a fully furnished house in Denver with at least two house parents. The house parents are responsible for shepherding participants to mature in interpersonal relationships and everyday living responsibilities that new adults may not know. Depending on the size of each class, participants will likely share rooms and bathrooms. The house will be given a food budget that they will use at their own discretion. They will be responsible for cooking all of their meals.

How safe will the “adventures” be?

Our Adventure Trip Leader is an Eagle Scout who has led many adventure trips in the past, and all of our staff take frequent trips into the Rockies where most of our trips will be held. We will not take participants on adventures that we would not comfortably do ourselves. Our Adventure Trip Leader will be setting up trips that are designed to be challenging but avoidant of unnecessary risk. When setting up adventures, we take every individual participant's medical and physical limitations into account. Each trip will have a specified emergency protocol for emergencies should any incident occur.

While abroad, what should my child do if they need help?

Participants will be accompanied by staff while abroad. Each location abroad has been picked due to our personal experiences there and understanding of their environment. We do our best to stay up to date on the environmental, social, and political climate of our international locales. Our partners on the ground take a great priority on participant safety and assist us on preparing for safety measures.

In case of an emergency, our primary concern will be the participants health and safety. In an emergency, our first steps will be to partner with local authorities to stabilize any situation. We will be in contact with the local US embassy and be prepared to evacuate if necessary. Students will have access to their phones and the internet. There is always a risk while doing anything abroad but our staff prioritizes limiting any unnecessary risks and are very comfortable with the safety of our international trips.

I have further questions.

Please feel free to email us at info@denvergapyear.com with any more questions or concerns.

TESTIMONIALS

Train up a child where he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. To many Christian parents, this is their parenting mantra. It is a command. How the child turns out is our responsibility and we are accountable to God. Or so we thought.

But what do you do when your young adult decides to stop in his appointed track and wants to take a “gap year” to reexamine his life? Our immediate gut reaction was, no. This is not a good idea. It’s a waste of time and resources. He already knows the direction he needs to take and it is a blessed one. He could be well on his way to med school; this is not a step forward. Then we realized that he was not asking for our permission. He was asking for our blessing.

So, we researched the organization he planned to go with, talked to other parents who had some similar experiences with their kid, and prayed a lot asking God for wisdom and guidance. In this time of seeking and uncertainty, we learned that God is not afraid of our biggest questions and His love answers them all.

Could it be God who is prompting him to do this? Didn’t we ask Him incessantly to keep and guide our son ever since he was born? After all, he and his team want to figure out who God is in their lives and spread this to everyone in their path. If this is God’s work, it would be futile to resist.
The cost is more than we can handle. If this is God’s will, it’s His bill. We had four months prior to launch. It would only be a work of God if he is fully funded by launch date. We prayed and went to work. In less than 4 months, friends, family and people we have not heard from for years stepped in to contribute…and our son was fully funded way before launch date.
Could we truly let go and let God? We had to learn to let go; entrusting our son completely to God and believing that He will lead him and his team to the right mentors who would lead and guide them properly in this journey. As parents, there comes a time when you have to step aside and have someone else be Mom and Dad. Let that be God. After all, He cares more about our son than we do.
Was our own effort and guidance not enough? For young adults, godly mentors could teach practical life lessons much better than we can. In today’s world where almost everything tends to be done on an app, our children need down to earth, real life experiences. Nothing takes the place of those who have been there. Our son received valuable lessons … so much real life lessons that we would never have been able to impart as parents.
Will they come home? “Life should be a series of daring adventures launched from a secure base.” (Frank Reagan played by Tom Selleck in the TV series Blue Blood). We learned to let our home be that secure base where the kids can always come home to recount their experiences and then leave again for more. Home is always home, no matter how far you go.

Parent Testimonies

Our son attended DGY for two semesters–and we are so grateful for the experience he had there. He left for DGY in the fall with no idea of what direction to take for the next chapter of life after high school; he came home in the spring with a plan. Our son grew in so many ways in his year at DGY. He grew in knowing himself more, discovering his God-given strengths and weaknesses, while at the same time learning that others are gifted in different ways. He gained confidence in himself along with an understanding and appreciation of others’ differences.

Another area he grew in was in living in community and learning life skills through taking turns cooking, normal cleaning/upkeep of the living space, and learning to live with others/solving conflict. All valuable skills!

The most important area (in my opinion) that he grew was in his relationship with the Lord. He really enjoyed the classes taught by a variety of teachers, deep-diving into the Bible. He discovered God as his Friend that he could go to 24/7. Even though this is something he grew up “knowing”, he really “got it” at DGY.

Honestly, what initially drew our son to DGY was the adventure and travel/missions trips. And DGY delivered on this as well; they plan fun things to do and team-building activities. Not only did our son grow in the ways mentioned above, he did so in a fun and memorable way.

We are so thankful for the experience our son had and for the wonderful folks who run the program, teach, and lead by example. We highly recommend DGY!

—Carrie Gorman (Parent of Kyle Gorman who attend from September, 2021 to April, 2022)

While Harrison was in Denver, participating in the gap year activities and doing life with mentors and peers, we (his parents) didn't realize how much maturing was taking place. He would call every week and share what he had discussed and learned from each teacher, as well as what he learned from the other kids in the program. Each topic made him think and work out his own opinions and values.

From what he said, he learned the most from the discussion times and the interaction with his peers. He enjoyed cooking for everyone far more than he thought he would and gained some confidence in his own cooking skills. He loved the trip to Nicaragua, even though he was outside his comfort zone the entire time he was gone.

Now that he's home, we've been able to see the results of his time away. We've seen tremendous personal growth in Harrison, in that he has been taking responsibility for himself and his own decisions in very positive ways. He has shown a dedicated work ethic that we did not see in him before he went to Denver.

His time in the program was truly an investment in his future. He was able to improve time management skills, practice conflict resolution skills, and gain perseverance. It was a safe and healthy way for him to step out of the comfort of home and define who he is as an adult. We couldn't be happier for him!

—Shari Lewis (Parent of Harrison Lewis who attended the program from January, 2022 to April, 2022)

I have had two children do a gap year program and I wish all of my kids would have done a discipleship program. There is so much growth that happens in the years right after high school and it often defines the path of what the rest of their lives will look like. Both of them have a deep relationship with Christ and that to me as a mother is my deepest desire for them!

—Michelle Sharick - Gap Year Parent

Resources and links

on gap years

What is a Gap Year - https://gapyearassociation.org/gap-year.php

Why take a gap year? - https://www.globalcitizenyear.org/content/why-take-a-gap-year/

Gap Year Basics: How Taking a Year Off Increases the Ceiling for Students - https://counseling.steinhardt.nyu.edu/blog/gap-year-after-high-school/

35 Colleges that Encourage a Gap Year - https://www.valuecolleges.com/ranking/supportive-college-gap-year/

Time Out: The Value of a Gap Year - https://www.forbes.com/sites/northwesternmutual/2014/04/09/time-out-the-value-of-a-gap-year/#6140f45b6800

More info on Denver Gap Year’s partnership with G42 Leadership Academy - https://www.denvergapyear.com/g42-leadership-academy

General info on Mijas, Spain - https://wikitravel.org/en/Mijas

US Department of State info on Spain - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Spain.html

Children’s Garden of the Philippines - http://childrensgarden.ph/

More info on Denver Gap Year’s partnership with Children’s Garden and our response to concerns over working with an international orphanage - https://www.denvergapyear.com/more-information-on-childrens-garden

General info on Manila, Philippines - https://wikitravel.org/en/Manila

US Department of State info on the Philippines - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Philippines.html

US Department of State on international travel emergencies - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/emergencies.html