Education

What Is a Gap Year? And Why Is It a Growing Trend? (Video)

By Carmen Rojas — May 13, 2016 1 min read
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President Obama’s daughter, Malia, recently announced that she will be taking a gap year before beginning her college experience. She’ll be joining a growing number of students — over 30,000 U.S. graduates chose to defer college last year, which is a 20 percent increase. Why is this a growing trend? What do teenagers actually do during a gap year?

In a recent PBS NewsHour segment, Joseph O’Shea, author of “Gap Year: How Delaying College Changes People in Ways the World Needs,” answers these questions. Describing gap years as a “powerful educational experience,” he discusses the benefits, which include higher GPA and college-retention rates, and dispels misconceptions about the practice.

This segment aired on PBS NewsHour on May 2, 2016.

A version of this news article first appeared in the On Air: A Video Blog blog.