What Students Can Do On A Gap Year During A Pandemic
Even as much of society is still shuttered and the economy remains in tatters, there are good opportunities
In my last newsletter, I wrote about how COVID-19 is a crucible moment for high school and college students.
For those students who may take a break from college—and as many as 20% are looking at doing just that given the current circumstances, according to some projections—rather than view a gap year as a year off, students should reframe it as a year on purpose.
A question of course with so much of society still shuttered and the economy in tatters is what should students do if they are not enrolled in school. I wrote about the topic for Forbes recently in “What Students Can Do On A Gap Year During the Pandemic.”
NYU Professor Scott Galloway has suggested that the United States build a “Corona Corps” in which students could help on the front lines of the pandemic. Kaplan has launched a new program called Boost Year, in which students enroll online to learn who they are and where they fit professionally, connect with professionals and a mentor, complete projects with companies, and cultivate community with other students. Brown University Professor Matthew Kraft has suggested building a tutoring corps, in which students and recent graduates tutor K–12 students—and former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has started building such an offering. LearnLaunch, a nonprofit education innovation hub where I’m on the board—is partnering with prestigious universities to offer online internships with education companies.
As I chronicle in the piece, students can also sign up for online experiential learning opportunities, much as Adjacent Academies is offering. At Adjacent, non-computer science liberal arts undergraduates develop technical skills through experiential learning. Together, they dive into an intensive learning experience that favors application rather than discourse, failure and iteration over answers, and teamwork over individual success. All students receive a transcript from Davidson, which they can seek to have their home institution accept for transfer credit.
I encourage you to read more in my piece for Forbes here.
Over the next several weeks, I’ll also be interviewing leaders of gap-year programs on YouTube Live and Facebook Live (please subscribe and follow both channels!) to learn about their suggestions for students in the year ahead and how they are responding to the pandemic.
You can watch the interview I did with Abby Falik, founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year on YouTube.
Or check out my conversation with Rutledge Long, founder of Parachute, here.
And next week I’ll interview Charlie Talibi, CEO of Year On, which you can watch live here. The week after that I’ll interview the leaders of Kaplan’s Boost Year program.
Here are some other radio broadcasts, podcasts and articles that may interest you:
· One Third Of Private 4-Year Colleges Are At High Risk Financially, Model Predicts, WBUR Radio
· COVID-19’s Ultimate Impact on Online Learning: The Good and the Bad, Campus Technology
· COVID-19’s Ultimate Impact on Online Learning: The Good and the Bad, Campus Technology
· The Impact of COVID-19 on Higher Education—The Time Horizon Matters!, The EdUp Experience Podcast
· Higher Ed Thought Leader Interview with Michael Horn, The Collegiate Empowerment Show
· Will COVID-19 Permanently Change Instruction and Costs in Higher Ed? Episode 58 of Future U with John Katzman, founder of Noodle Partners, 2U, and Princeton Review, and Ben Nelson, founder of the Minerva Project
· The Three Digital Waves of Higher Ed in a Pandemic: Episode 57 of Future U
· Some students are considering dropping out of college because of coronavirus, CNBC
As always, thanks for reading, writing, listening and contributing. Stay safe and stay strong.