Gap Year between H.S. and college....Americorps?

Parent Cafe
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<p>Hello</p>

<p>I have also been interested in taking a gap yea…and now it is November of senior year, so I kind of have to get going. </p>

<p>Americorps has always been one program that caught my eye. I like City Year and how you get to choose what city you can apply to. But, one negative for this one is apparently they do not provide housing and it would be a pain to find, cheap, safe housing with access to public transportation (I most likely will not have access to a car). </p>

<p>But I am leaning more toward NCCC. It sounds like they provide housing, and give you small stipend. It does not mention anything about food costs or if it is provided, but I thought NCCC was set up so that you are living in a dorm or community type setting, but I’m not sure how food would be done. </p>

<p>I’m also a little confused about where I would be sent. The websites lists 5 locations, but from gathering information, those 5 places (Sacramento, Vinton, IA, Perry Pt, MD, Vicksburg, MS and Denver) are headquarters for that region and you could be sent anywhere for those 10 months? Like for example, say I am sent to the Sacramento region. Does this mean I stay on the west coast, maybe spending two months in Oregon, two in San Diego, two in Oakland, etc… or do you get transferred around the 5 sites. </p>

<p>Not sure, but it sounds like a cool program that I would be interested in and might want to apply to soon. </p>

<p>Any other potential gap year program that you would recommend? I did some searches on this forum and I found a couple of other programs, and it looks like I should PM Northstarmom for some more information on Americorps as well.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>Edit: Oh, and I’m sorry if I put this thread in the wrong place, I was not really sure where it should go, but I know this section gets a lot of traffic.</p>

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<p>It sounds like an exciting and worthwhile endeavor. I found the following on their website (link below). Good luck to you! </p>

<p>You are assigned to one of the five regions for your 10 month service. You can be in any part, or combination of, for any given duration during that time. </p>

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<p>[AmeriCorps.gov</a> > AmeriCorps NCCC](<a href=“http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/nccc.asp]AmeriCorps.gov”>http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/nccc.asp)</p>

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<p>I believe that NCCC has 4 or 5 two month “shifts”… first you go to one of the training locations for a few weeks, and then they ship your group out to the first location. Your group will stay together the whole time. The NCCC members I met in Biloxi, MS on my spring break service trips were living in a community living situation. They kind of put up sheets and stuff so a larger space was divided into rooms. They packed lunches to take each day and the place they were staying served dinner.</p>