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Donation Supports Gap Year Fellowships

A year can make a world of difference to some students preparing to enter the University. Thanks to a $1.5 million commitment from an anonymous donor, incoming students selected for the new Global Gap Year Fellowship Program will have the opportunity to spend a year in international service before their first year at Carolina.

The Global Gap Year Fellowship Program Endowment Fund will support new high school graduates who wish to defer their matriculation to the University for a year to pursue a combination of work, travel and volunteer service, where at least one component will be international. Five initial awards are expected to be made in the spring.

Intended to build on the University’s commitment to public service, global education and entrepreneurial climate, these nine-month fellowships provide a stipend for travel, living expenses, program and other associated fees to recipients. The program includes a pre-departure orientation and staff support to help students integrate their gap experiences into academic and extracurricular life upon entering Carolina. Fellows will be chosen on a competitive basis from submitted proposals.

Steve Farmer, associate provost and director of undergraduate admissions, said the fellowships represent an extraordinary opportunity for students and the University.

“Students who receive these fellowships will have their lives transformed, and for the better,” he said. “They’ll have the chance to serve others and to learn more about themselves through programs that they’ve worked hard to put together — programs that will best suit their individual concerns, talents and aspirations. When they come to Carolina, they’ll be more ready to learn and better able to contribute to the common good than they would have been without their gap year.”

About 30 students each year defer their enrollment at the University to pursue a gap year experience, and many of them are part of a merit scholarship program such as the Morehead-Cain or Robertson Scholars programs. The Global Gap Year Fellowships, while not specifically need-driven, are intended to make gap year opportunities available to a broader range of students.

The Global Gap Year Fellowship Program will be administered through the Campus Y, which has served as Carolina’s center for social justice since 1860.

The endowment provides for a dedicated staff person at the Y to help returning fellows adjust to campus and advise them on ways to integrate their experience into their academic and extracurricular pursuits.

Several current students who have taken a gap year have formed a group to support and promote gap years and give students taking them another way to interact and integrate.

Conor Farese, a senior from San Francisco majoring in environmental studies, helps guide the group’s efforts to solicit student input on the structure of the Global Gap Year Fellowship, create a peer advising group, serve as a catalyst for University research about gap years, and build a website to help incoming students who are thinking of taking a gap year.

“I felt that taking a gap year would allow me to step outside of the academic realm and give me an opportunity to process how I wanted to approach college,” Farese said. “The gap year gives students such an advantage because they come to college more self-aware, confident and prepared to really take advantage of what the school has to offer.”


More online…

  • The Gap Generation: Should you take a year off after high school? Depends on what kind of bridge you can build over the gap. From the September/October 2009 Carolina Alumni Review, available online to Carolina Alumni members.

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