Gap Year Radio

Today on the pod we are rounding out Season Four of Gap Year Radio with a feature from your cohosts, Margo and Julia. We discuss gap year and college planning in the time of COVID, something we know so many high school seniors are grappling with this year. For the second half of the show you will hear from Drew Beasley, a gap year alumni who started college both with and without gap time, and speaks to the important that time abroad had on his future, and his current work helping to promote the gap year movement.

Today we welcome bestselling author Lara Prior Palmer to talk about the gap year that inspired her book, Rough Magic. At the age of nineteen, Lara Prior-Palmer discovered a website devoted to “the world’s longest, toughest horse race”―an annual competition of endurance and skill that involves dozens of riders racing a series of twenty-five wild ponies across 1,000 kilometers of Mongolian grassland. Lara ultimately became the youngest and first-ever woman to win the race. Margo, Julia and Lara discuss the entirety of Lara's gap year, what it was like competing as a woman and why she thinks all young people should consider the magical uncertainty of gap time. ***CONTEST ALERT*** We are running an Instagram contest to give away a copy of Lara's book! The contest runs through Monday, December 16th 2019 so the winner will get their copy just in time for the holidays. Want in? Follow @gapyearradio on instagram and tag someone you want to travel with too. If you already follow us, tag two people you want to travel with and/or who you think should take a gap year. Winner will be announced on December 17th 2019!

As an American, there are so many ways to give back right here in the US on a gap year. One of them is City Year, an 11 month long service program that some people call "the domestic Peace Corps." Volunteers spend their year mentoring students in a high-need school in one of twenty-nine CY cities across the country. Andre Morgan and Tiger Mar share their experiences as City Year volunteers in New Orleans and Boston.

Welcome to Season Three of Gap Year Radio! We are excited to bring you a brand new season of exciting interviews. Our premiere episode features three entrepreneurs who launched successful social ventures as a result of their gap year experiences. You’ll hear from Kris Cody of PAKA Apparel, Anika Funk of Banana Backpacks and Cecilia Polanco of So Good Pupusas. Although these three stories are unique to each of their personal journeys, they share a common thread of their gap time influencing their worldviews, and eventually, their enterprising career paths. As Kris says,” Taking a gap year in of itself is an entrepreneurial act.” Note to listeners: Use coupon code GAPYEAR for discounts on PAKA and Banana Backpacks gear!

Joining Margo on the pod is Jacqueline Contino, who spent a life-changing post-undergraduate gap year in South Africa through the program Oyster Worldwide. After studying a pre-veterinary track in college, she ended up participating in two separate programs in South Africa during her gap time, first studying wildlife veterinary medicine. It was during this first stint in the country where she discovered that maybe there was a different path calling to her, and she was able to return to the same place in South Africa to pursue her now dreams of becoming a park ranger.