What is a Gap Year and Where Did It all Start?

Where did it all start? With school supplies in hand each year like the annual migration of birds, student return to school. With growing pressure placed on this generation over previous, creating a burnout in students and limiting the full potential that could be reached is a common concern. The studying, test and exams have finished yet students continue straight from high school to college. Have you ever wondered why you must be returning to school each year in a process that has been non-stop since you were 5 years old and when do I get a change? A gap year can provide that change, considered to be a break in education between high school and university . Students from the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia have encouraged students to take a year away from the education system to learn about themselves or to explore other parts of the world that they may not have seen before. The trend is now becoming a new normal or acceptable here in the United States. The most traditional gap year is taken by students between the graduation of high school and the first year of college. The term now is much broader and can refer to a break between college semesters and graduate school. 1960’s United Kingdom can be credited with the creation of the Gap Year. While the origin of the term “gap year” is not definite but a company formed in the United Kingdom called GAP Activity Projects that placed students in volunteer projects for their Gap Year which brought the idea of taking a year off to students is considered by some as the home or origin of the term gap year. Traditionally, the trips started off as individuals traveling to India on so called Hippie Trails, sometimes they would meet other travels and join together on their travels. The growth of independent travel continued to steadily grow in the 1970’s and business soon began to cater to this growing market. One of the first companies started in London is Top Deck Travel, founded in 1973 by