APPLY
  • Program
  • Admissions
  • Speakers
  • Alumni
  • About Us
APPLY
  • Why Join
  • Experience
  • Apprenticeships
  • South Africa
  • FAQs
  • Admissions
  • Tuition & Aid
  • Eligibility Quiz
  • Request Info
  • Alumni Stories
  • Community Hub
  • Fellowship
  • Academy
  • Our Story
  • Our Impact
  • Our Team
  • News & Press
  • For Educators
  • Donate

Gap Year College

I signed up for college, right when I was told I was supposed to.  Going to college was sort of a given for the school in my demographic.  The question was not “what are you doing next year?”, but rather “what college are you going to?”.

People would learn a lot about me in my answer. As I was signing up for college, I was also researching gap year programs and epic ways to spend a year off. In my quest for ski resorts to teach at in South America, or volunteer opportunities like Global Citizen Year, they learned I make my own paths in life. I am independent, I don’t always follow the flock, and I am a risk taker. I decided I wanted to go on this program because I want a specific type of education. I want to learn about myself, about independence, about different types of people and culture, and a new international consideration.  I don’t know what I want to major in, or what career path to follow, so instead I feel like I am taking a year to “major” in life skills and global understanding.

Every time I have traveled, I have come out feeling stronger from it. When I was in third grade, I traveled out onto a snowy plateau, built an igloo, and slept there until it started melting on me, when I had to run inside from the “plateau” in the backyard. My sense of adventure has led me blindly into local and international forests of both trees and cityscape. Last summer I volunteered in the Israeli Defense Force and lived three weeks in a desert base on a cliff overlooking Lebanon and Syria. In this remote setting, I did volunteer labor in the extreme heat of the days.

Worthy and important volunteer work excites me as much as the independence and culture does, because it’s so satisfying to see the results in the face of someone who was once in need. It becomes doubly enriching, because I help them in an impoverished setting, but they are also helping me understand and grow from their stories and lives.

So when asked the question, “What college are you going to?” I say, “I am taking a gap year” to which they respond, “where is Gap Year College located?” and I then I say: “it has no location, because it’s not college, it’s an experience not tied to a location or institution. I am not going to college next year; I am taking a year to learn about myself, and the world around me. I want to be educated before I start my studies.”

Ariel Vardy

About Ariel Vardy


Ariel Vardy is creative, and thoughtful; passionate for expression, and endurance experiences. When he puts his mind to something, he works towards it diligently, and achieves it with purpose. In the arts, he and his band produced and sold a full-length album of their own music produced by themselves. At school, he was part of the administration of three clubs, most notable being in the Gay Straight Alliance, with which he held a leadership position for three years. He passionately feels that all people should be treated with the same respect, no matter their background, values, or orientation.

gcy logo
Take Action Lab
  • Why Join
  • Experience
  • Apprenticeships
  • South Africa
  • Take Action Lab FAQs
Academy
  • Why Join
  • Experience
  • Speakers
  • Academy Stories
  • Academy FAQs
Fellowship
  • Why Join
  • Experience
  • Destinations
  • Fellowship Stories
  • Fellowship FAQs
Admissions
  • Admissions
  • Tuition & Aid
  • Gap Year Resources
About Us
  • Our Story
  • Our Impact
  • Our Team
  • News & Press
  • For Educators
  • Community Hub
  • Instructor Hub
  • Careers

1625 Clay Street, Suite 400, Oakland, CA 94612
info@globalcitizenyear.org
415-963-9293

Have Admissions Questions?
Check out our FAQs or email our team at admissions@globalcitizenyear.org

Press Inquiries: Please contact Molly Weissman:
media@globalcitizenyear.org

Privacy Policy

© 2023 - Global Citizen Year