<p>My daughter is taking a year off- and was originally hoping to work with NCCC a division of Americorps which is a little different as it is residential based and you live as well as work with your team members.</p>
<p>It was the only program she was seriously pursuing- but when she was waitlisted she started to develop other ideas for her gap year & now spending at least 3 months teaching and traveling in Ghana, have risen to the top of her list.</p>
<p>However, she now has been fully accepted into the NCCC program, only she now has 2nd thoughts. It would begin during the time when she was planning to be in Ghana & because she needs as much or more alone time than many people, she feels it would be too stressful because of that right now.</p>
<p>So while she does have a lot of choices ( Americorps/attend college/live at home and work & attend college/travel) we are faced with trying to make a plan that wiil be a good fit, for the amount of traveling she wants to do, but being realistic about what is reasonable : cost and stress wise.</p>
<p>Americorps would have been great, because it has the stipend- it is structured and it is community based. But I totally understand her concern that it would be too stressful- I don’t even like traveling with my family, unless I can have time to be by myself.</p>
<p>So what I am looking for are suggestions of programs, that are shorter- maybe 6 to 3 months- provide housing or at least assistance with, and have some sort of positive track record.</p>
<p>I’d like to see her spend the summer working-then take 3 months off to travel, come home work for a few more months- then travel again with something like Interim Programs-</p>
<p>I was also thinking that since she has been struggling with a few subjects throughout high school ( because the way the our district teaches math has forced families to hire tutors or change schools) that it would be good for her to take some community college courses, but only one or two.</p>
<p>When she attends college, she undoubtably will need to take those courses anyway.
But how many courses can she take before a university considers her a transfer student?
They probably would not be courses that she would use as towards her diploma but to help prepare her for school, & to keep those skills up during her year off. They may be college level though- I guess we will know after she take the placement test.</p>