EDUCATIONAL OPTIONS THAT INSPIRE
““If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
Irish Gap Year is an education company based in southwest Donegal, Ireland.
Our mission is to develop more self-aware, independent, confident and resilient young people. We achieve this transformative experience through the values of community integration, immersion in nature, experiential education, exploration of the arts and creativity, meaningful travel, volunteering and cultural exchange.
Youth International is an experiential learning program that combines authentic international travel, cross-cultural exchange, home stays, community service work, and outdoor expeditions. Through a balanced combination of experiences, Youth International team members are set up for an intense and dynamic first-hand education about the region in which they are traveling. At the same time, they are presented with a unique environment for self-discovery.
Youth International has been sending groups on learning adventures abroad since 1997, and offers three multi-country semester programs in the fall of each year: Asia, South America, and Africa & Near East. Teams of fourteen peers between the ages of 18 and 25 travel with two group leaders, exploring the cultures of three countries. In the spring semester, Youth International offers an intensive 3 1/2 week program in Nepal.
Youth International is accredited by the Gap Year Association and affiliated with Western Colorado University.
North Carolina Outward Bound School
Hidden deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, an imposing rock face known as Table Rock stands guard over the Linville Gorge Wilderness. In addition to recognizing the sheer beauty of the mountain, many consider Table Rock the preeminent rock climbing destination in the Southeast.
Since 1967, the North Carolina Outward Bound School has operated its Table Rock Base Camp in the shadow of this most impressive mountain, teaching much more than how to climb “TR’s” vertical face. Upon completing their course, students embrace and value teamwork, discover innate leadership abilities and feel a deep sense of accomplishment.
Today, the North Carolina Outward Bound School has branched out from its Table Rock beginnings to offer incredible course options at a variety of geographies. Course areas range from camps in the Appalachian Mountains and North Carolina’s 200-mile Outer Banks barrier islands, to the “rivers of grass” in the Florida Everglades and Patagonia on the southern tip of South America. Each area is unique, and collectively they offer some of the most dramatic landscapes on Earth.
With courses and locations to suit a variety of age groups and interests, the North Carolina Outward Bound School will help you discover your true character, develop leadership and teamwork skills, find inner strength you didn’t know existed and gain the confidence you need to succeed.
The Arete Project
The purpose of education is to prepare young people to take responsibility for the world they will soon inherit. At a time of ecological stress and social and political fragmentation, the Arete Project offers innovative, credit-granting courses that develop students as citizens, stewards, and leaders.
Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS)
Celebrating over 50 years of survival education, BOSS teaches outdoor survival skills, wilderness survival, practical bushcraft courses, survival training and primitive skills (including our world-renowned Hunter Gatherer course). All our courses are guided by world-class survival instructors, in the famously rugged and beautiful terrain surrounding Boulder, UT.
Survive and thrive. With more than 10 different survival courses, from 7-day survival skills training to 28-day field courses, The Boulder Outdoor Survival School offers wilderness survival training and field-based practical experiences with a focus on primitive and traditional bushcraft skills. Our field courses especially are well-known for delivering big physical and mental challenges, focused skills instruction and practice, situational awareness, and extended time in nature.
The Collective
Our goal is to prepare students for careers as well-trained performers of contemporary music by offering a structured curriculum which focuses on developing the highest level of musicianship and which provides the technical, conceptual, and performance-oriented training necessary for artistic and commercial success.
Costa Rica Outward Bound
Outward Bound Costa Rica inspires a lifetime of leadership, growth, and a commitment to serve through adventure-based learning. Since 1994, led by highly skilled and safety-conscious staff, we have delivered experiential education courses, utilizing Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua’s tropical rivers, reefs, and rainforests to help participants discover their hidden potential, and move beyond what they thought possible.
High Mountain Institute
When nature and minds meet...
Ambitious, motivated students attend the High Mountain Institute to connect with nature, develop as leaders and critical thinkers, and discover learning at its best. They are here to make the most of their educations. Our programs prepare adolescents to take risks, collaborate with peers, communicate with people who hold diverse perspectives, and build trusting relationships. For many of our alumni, the decision to attend an HMI program was the most important educational choice they made during their lifetimes. When nature and minds meet, extraordinary academic and personal achievement follows.
NOLS WILDERNESS MEDICINE
NOLS offers wilderness medicine courses that will prepare you to recognize, treat, and prevent injuries and illnesses that are common in the outdoors.
You’ll learn NOLS’ industry-leading, data-informed curriculum and build new skills through hands-on practice scenarios.
Over 1,000 courses are offered each year in all 50 states and over 40 countries around the world, and courses range in length from 2 to 30 days.
Rocky Mountain School of Art and Design
At RMCAD, you’ll be taught by real artists, designers, and liberal arts professionals who have lived and worked in their respective industries. Are you ready to explore your creativity with plenty of room to grow? You’ll find it here. You’ll learn to transform your talent into a career that fuels your passion.
With both on-campus and online programs, we balance real-world connections and hands-on learning with the high-tech resources and accessibility you expect in a digital world.
Verto Education
Verto Education provides an affordable and innovative way for students to incorporate travel into their four year college experience. Spending a few months abroad before diving into the typical college grind allows students to show up on campus rejuvenated with a better understanding of themselves and what they want to do with their lives.
Winterline Global Education
Winterline Global Education offers skills-based gap year and short programs for young adults with an adventurous spirit and an interest in the world around them. You will learn real-world skills to prepare you for college, life, and your career while traveling the world and exploring your passions.
Are you ready to travel? Gain practical life skills that you didn’t get in high school and won’t get in college? Develop friendships that will last a lifetime? Then come join us!
Launch a business. Learn to scuba dive. Build a robot. Practice making delicious Thai meals and French pastries. And so much more.
Our nine-month gap experience is specifically designed to introduce you to different parts of the world and expand your knowledge of global cultures, issues and contexts, while teaching you real-world life and career skills.
Our shorter programs allow you to experience your interests or future fields of study with a global perspective before you commit to a college major or a career.
Join us for a global adventure and to gain real-world skills that will last a lifetime!
Thinking Beyond Borders
Your gap year should be the experience of a lifetime, shaping your future with passion and purpose.
For the last twelve years, Thinking Beyond Borders has set the standard for gap year programs while going beyond to empower students to become lifelong global change makers. We offer the best in experiential learning and cultural immersion with the safest and most impactful programs available. Each group is facilitated by the highest quality Program Leaders (think: your cool favorite teacher) who guide you through the complexities of real-world issues in partnership with local experts. Your search for a gap year program is over, but your learning journey has just begun.
Trails Momentum
Our students are capable young adults. However, something has gotten in the way of their plans to successfully transition to adulthood. At Trails Momentum, we provide the people, place, and experiences that allow young adults to gain insight, practice healthy independence, realign goals and learn new tools to help them launch into adulthood.
Exciting adventure programming, comprehensive clinical services, engaging academic seminars and social interactions with peers combine to create a life-changing opportunity.
Momentum is located on a 800-acre mountain top property with a picturesque trout-stocked lake, private waterfall, student dorms, dining hall, and a myriad of trails for hiking and exploring.
Our tranquil and beautiful location is the perfect backdrop for students to learn healthier ways to cope with anxiety, depression and other mental health and behavioral issues that are getting in the way of them accomplishing their goals.
Earthship Global
Michael Reynolds, founder and creator of the concept, came to Taos, after graduating from Architecture School in 1969.
Inspired by television news stories about the problem of trash and the lack of affordable housing, Michael created the “can brick” out of discarded steel and tin cans. Ten empty cans, four flat and six unflattened, were wired together to make a building block.
The early buildings used discarded steel or tin beer cans (this was before recycling existed). These cans were empty and simply used as free units of space with which to form light, strong concrete walls. These homes made from “garbage” immediately started getting press coverage though they were not nearly as sophisticated and the Earthships of today. Garbage is now all around the globe, especially tires, highly available and highly damaging to the environment when left in the nature.
Over the next decade, designs constantly evolved to incorporate thermal mass, passive solar and natural ventilation. The houses we now build with earth rammed tires are so strong that no foundation is required, giving load bearing walls and thermal mass storage. Solar glazing along the whole front of the structure allows the sun to heat the floors and the walls providing comfortable, stable temperatures inside without using fossil fuels or wood. Operable windows and skylights provided natural ventilation to cool the buildings.
Solar Energy International
To combat the growing sense of isolation and disconnection brought on by COVID-19, we are launching the SEI Global Solar Connection Initiative! The purpose of this initiative is to create a global sense of connection and community around renewable energy education. We are offering multiple opportunities to get connected and start (or further) your solar energy education.
Yestermorrow
Yestermorrow Design/Build School teaches hands-on courses in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft. Our intensive, hands-on courses are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country. For people of all ages and experience levels, from novice to professional.