U.S. Gap Year Fair visits Davis

By Mariana Carvajal-Munoz,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

On Feb. 28, the U.S. Gap Year Fair came to the Veterans’ Memorial Center in Davis to give students information on the benefits of taking a gap year and the many options they can consider.

The fair started with a one-hour presentation by guest speaker Jason Sarouhan, Vice President of the Center for Interim Programs, a gap year counselling organization. Sarouhan spoke about his own experience with a gap year and about the “who, when and where” of taking a gap year.

Alia Pialtos, director of the U.S. Gap Year Fair, believes that attending presentations like this one “encourages students to think of different ways to navigate their education”.

“Students have so much pressure to succeed in the way their parents and teachers expect,” Pialtos said. “They don’t have the time and space to pursue a more active education. A gap year takes students out of their day-to-day and gives them a different experience of travelling, working and other activities.”

The U.S. Gap Year Fair was founded 11 years ago, in partnership with the gap year organization Dynamy. On their first year, they toured eight locations and this year, since demand and interest have grown, they have traveled to 43 different locations around the country.

“We came here because members of the PTA asked us to come,” Pialtos said. “We get a lot of requests, and there are people from Arizona who come to presentations in California.”

After the presentation, students and parents had the opportunity to learn about the different organizations through which they could take a gap year. Some of these included Dynamy, Education First, Rustic Pathways and Thinking Beyond Borders.

“It is interesting planning the tour across the country, because communities view gap years differently,” Pialtos said. “What we do is facilitate and connect students. It is easy to visit colleges, but it’s much harder to make a visit for a community service program in Peru or a language immersion program in China. We facilitate and provide information.”

Sophomore Allison Gunther is interested in a gap year program involving art and literature. She found the presentation to be very helpful.

“They gave us lots of information and elaborated on important stuff,” Gunther said.

Senior Katie Hall’s focus is volunteer work. She is mainly interested in going to Africa.

“I thought that the presentation was very informative,” Hall said. “I got lots of resources and it helped me understand different options.”