September 2011

This year’s gap year scholarship applicants were incredibly impressive.

Every one of them offered insight, passion, and motivation beyond anything either Jim or I remember having when we were their age. And they all were truly dedicated to using their gap year to “test drive” their interests, skills, and future college or career path.

This made it very difficult to decide on our winners, and we wish we could award more scholarships and in larger amounts (and we look forward to the day when we will be able to do this).

Two applicants stood out from the rest, and we decided to split the $1000 scholarship between them. Congratulations to Jessica Lippe and Ilana Gelb, our Test Drive Your Future Gap Year Scholarship winners for 2011!
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This year’s Gap Year Scholarship winner is Amanda Brinegar of El Paso, Texas. She will be participating in a gap year program through Global Citizen Year where she will travel to Senegal, Africa. Amanda was chosen as our winner over all of the other applicants because her essay most strongly demonstrated her drive and determination to use her gap year to “test drive” a few possible ways that she might be able to contribute to the world in her own unique way. You can follow Amanda on her blog at: http://amandabrinegar.wordpress.com/.

Here’s what Amanda says about her hopes for her gap year:

“I want to work directly with the indigenous people. I want to be a part of a new generation of Americans to provide leadership that will address the global challenges of the 21st century. I have compassion and an ethic of service, but I need to develop the ability to communicate across languages and cultures and better understand the world and my place in it. I truly believe that my life is closely connected to others across our global community; I want to discover those connections.”

Global Citizen Year is a non-profit organization that partners with high schools and colleges in the US and NGOs around the world to create opportunities for emerging leaders to work as apprentices in Asia, Africa and Latin America.  For more information about their program you can visit: http://globalcitizenyear.org

This will be our last scholarship given under the Where’s the Map? name, as the scholarship will now be associated with Test Drive Your Future. We feel the new book and the new name truly embody what we are trying to accomplish with this scholarship program —helping young people take the time to figure out what they really want to do with their lives by doing what we call an “Extreme Test Drive” in the form of a gap year. To learn more about our Gap Year Scholarship, click here.

Runners-Up

We would also like to recognize the following runners-up to the Gap Year Scholarship who will be awarded a copy of Test Drive Your Future. We were impressed by so many of our applicants and wish we could have offered everyone a scholarship.

• Lauren Honican and Esther Khachatryan who will study conservation in Ecuador, public education in China, sustainable agriculture in India, and public health in South Africa through a gap year organization called Thinking Beyond Borders.

• Alysa Vanderheym, Diana Chung, and Lacey Shaw who will be participating in LEAPNOW’s LeapYear to India for three months, followed by a three month internship.

• Kaia Waller who will volunteer at a Haitian summer camp, participate in a 3-month Patagonia NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) course, and volunteer through the WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) program.

• Yeosol Chung who designed an independent gap year diving into her passion for history lessons by conducting research in local museums.

We wish Amanda and all of our scholarship applicants a fantastic journey!

September 2009

The winner of the 2009 gap year scholarship is William (Bill) Doerrfeld from Issaquah, Washington. We were especially impressed by Bill’s passion to participate in his gap year, and his over-the-top efforts to raise the money to make it happen, over $20,000!

Here’s what Bill said about his gap year:

“My mission abroad is to gain new perspectives and insights on life. I believe that with this goal in mind, I will emerge with a clearer definition of my passions, and will apply them to my college selection and career path.”

We hope that everyone’s gap year will do just that and much more!

Bill will be traveling with the program Magic Carpet Rides to Guatemala this coming year. If you’d like to check out Bill’s website, or pass on an additional donation to him, go to www.billgoestoguatemala.com. You can also learn about Magic Carpet Rides at www.magiccarpetrides.com

Runner’s Up:

We would also like to recognize the following runners-up to the Gap Year Scholarship, who were awarded post-gap year “transition coaching” and our “Mapping Out Your Major” package (value $400):

• Kelly Bloomer who will be leaving high school one year early and traveling with Carpe Diem in India this fall, followed by a semester at American University of Paris.

• Sean Kuusinen who has planned a diverse year of activities including a trip to Uganda and Rwanda, a Mountain Orientation Class, working as a ski coach, and apprenticing at an organic farm and Zen Center.

Honorable Mention:

• Saanti Steyer who will be traveling with One Revolution to Guatemala, India, and Uganda.

• Thea Stevens who will be living in Japan for a year, immersed in the culture and language.

• Olivia Boucher who will be working with LEAPNOW in California and traveling to India.

• Abigail Bard who will be spending a year in Japan attending high school and living with a host family.

• Domonique Matlock who will be traveling abroad with LEAP NOW to India.

It was an incredibly tough decision to choose a winner for our scholarship, as we had an exceptional group of gappers, and we wanted to support them all. We added a couple new judges this year to help with the decision: special thanks to Joanna Lasarek from the Center for Interim Programs, and Drew Rabidoux from Launch Coaching.