By Rachel Wanat
After graduating from Princeton High School, students have a multitude of options as far as post-grad plans go. While the majority of students will go on to study at college the fall following graduation, a handful of the seniors from the class of 2012 have decided to take a gap year. Their reasons vary as widely as their plans.
Christian Nazario ‘12 plans to hold a part time job at the Arts Council of Princeton, working on audio and visual production. Christian, after realizing that the colleges he really wanted to apply to had application deadlines that passed, decided to take a gap year.
”I did not want to go through the hassle [of] transferring colleges so I felt that a gap year would be appropriate,” he says. Of his hopes for next year he maintains, “I hope to discover what I really want to do with my life, although my main focus is on video production and film, I hope to gain experience in other things that I may be interested in so I can include those things [in] my future plans. I want to have fun during my gap year, but also mature as a person and learn how to be an adult.” Also looking for a job is David Bronsteen ‘12, who plans to combine studying with travel during his gap year. He will try to travel to different sports venues. “I love the environment and feeling in sports arenas and stadiums. Also, I feel like I need a break from school for a little bit,” he says. “I hope to use my gap year to gain independence, experience living away from home and family, and [get] working experience as well.”
Emma Honore ‘12 also plans to use next year to take a break from the American educational system. She will be studying next year at an adult school found in Helsingor, in Denmark.
”I decided to take a gap year in Denmark to improve my Danish, and to be exposed to life in another country, as well as taking a break from formal education before continuing on for the next four years,” she says. “I am looking forward to meeting people from around the world and being immersed in Danish culture and society.”
Other students are using their gap year opportunities to travel. Emma Wingreen ‘12 will spend the first half of her gap year in the Dominican Republic and the second half in Spain. She will stay in both places with a host family and complete community service.
She says she also plans to “tak[e] Spanish and culture classes at a local university of language institute.” She says she was driven to take a gap year when touring colleges during her junior year of high school. “I kept hearing about amazing opportunities to study abroad. Because I didn’t want to wait until my sophomore or junior year of college to travel and because I had such great opportunities traveling to Peru and Israel for the past two summers, I decided to look into taking a gap year,” she says.
”My main objectives are to become as fluent in Spanish as possible and to help out a community through various community service projects. Along the way, I hope to learn more about Spanish culture and make invaluable friendships,” she says. Like Emma, Susan Farrell ‘12 will go to a Spanish-speaking country, Peru, and immerse herself in the culture. Susan was also part of the group that went to Peru from PHS during the summer of 2010.
”I absolutely loved it. I definitely wanted to go back,” she says. “I would have done the program anyway, but being in Cuzco was a bonus.” Susan will be teaching English at an eco-friendly school, as well as educating students on how to lead “green” lifestyles.
”I want to have an amazing time and learn about other cultures and immerse myself in [those] other cultures,” she says. She will also spend time in New Zealand.
The thread of teaching English continues with James Page ‘12, who will spend his time next year divided between Tanzania, China and Mongolia. Along with English, he hopes to teach basic computer programing and will help construct schools in Tanzania. In China, he will try to work with a environmentalist professor, helping him to conduct research centered on human interactions with rainforests.
James maintains he knew he wanted to take a gap year when he saw the positive experience his older brother had in India and South America.
”I plan on being completely culturally immersed.” James says he wants to gain perspective from his gap year. “Living in Princeton is not at all an accurate indicator of the living conditions of the world. … I want to do stuff that matters to people not just living in first-world countries. … While I’m going to enjoy myself, it’s not a vacation.”
It hardly seems as if any students are using their gap years as vacation time. Rather, the trend appears to be that students will get a job and work, do community service, or travel, all before heading back a year older, perhaps wiser, to school.
Rachel Wanat is a student at Princeton High School.

