Gap Year Programs

Still trying decide what you will be doing after graduation? Post graduate service can be a great alternative to finding full-time employment or applying to graduate school. Interest in public-service opportunities has surged for well-promoted programs such as Teach for America and the Peace Corps, and countless other opportunities to serve are available. Please note: these are not Kalamazoo College programs and inclusion on this page does not indicate College sponsorship or endorsement in the program. Students are encouraged to do their own research on the programs before applying. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact career@kzoo.eduTo learn more about these opportunities, visit their websites:

AmeriCorps: In September 1994, the first class of AmeriCorps members—20,000 strong—began serving in more than 1,000 communities.

BUNAC offers a range of exciting summer camp, work abroad and volunteer abroad programs. Popular BUNAC destinations include: USA, Canada, New Zealand, Ghana Australia, Britain, China, South Africa and many more.

Camphill Soltane is a year-long, full time program aimed at creating a supportive environment and a college experience for young adults with disabilities, emphasizing self-advocacy, ongoing education, meaningful work, and the transition into adulthood.

Citizen Schools partners with middle schools to expand the learning day for low-income children across the country.

City Year unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service, giving them skills and opportunities to change the world.

Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs is a nine-month, full-time, post-graduate experiential leadership training program which introduces diverse, intelligent and driven young public servants to all aspects of the public affairs arena. Field assignments, site visits, interviews and special individual and group projects and consultancies prepare Coro Fellows to translate their ideals into action for improving their own communities.

Echoing Green Fellowship—Two-year fellowships at $30,000 per year awarded to emerging social innovators who create new models for tackling seemingly unsolvable social challenges. Fellows do not develop their ideas in an academic setting – they work within the community to launch, manage and grow organizations that implement and expand their ideas for creating lasting social change.

Green Corps Environmental Leadership Training Program is a one-year, full-time, paid program gives you instruction and experience to launch an organizing and advocacy career. The program includes intensive classroom training, hands-on field experience running urgent environmental and public health campaigns, and placement in permanent leadership positions with leading environmental groups.

Habitat for Humanity: Join in the fight against poverty housing and homelessness around the world with Habitat for Humanity!

Inner City Teaching Corps of Chicago is a two-year teaching program that places recent college graduates as teachers in inner-city Chicago classrooms.

Interaction is a coalition of over 150 US based non-profit organizations, both domestic and international, working to promote human dignity.

The Japan Exchange and Teaching Program aims to improve foreign language education in Japan and to encourage international exchange at the local level by fostering ties between Japanese youth and foreign youth. O-HAYO SENSEI is also a newsletter of teaching jobs in Japan.

In Jesuit Volunteer Corps, recent grads are asked to live within a community and work in community service in international & domestic location. Program provides room/board, stipend, loan deferment as well as health insurance.

Jumpstart’s goal is to build literacy, language, social, and initiative skills in young children.

Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC) unites full-time stipended Volunteers with financial supporters, non-profit organizations and ministries to work for peace with justice across the nation. In addition to working for justice, LVC Volunteers live together in intentional household communities of 4-7 people to encourage simple, sustainable living.

Match Corps is a one year urban education fellowship in Boston. Corps members are typically matched with two students, tutoring them and providing support to master AP coursework. Corps members also serve as teaching assistants providing additional academic support in particular subject areas and providing unique out-of-school activities for students.

Peace Corps: Since 1961, the Peace Corps has shared with the world America’s most precious resource—its people. Collaborating with local community members, Volunteers work in areas like education, youth outreach and community development, the environment, and information technology.

New Sector Alliance is a nonprofit strategy consulting firm located in Boston. RISE gives recent college graduates the opportunity to lead a strategic initiative for a Boston nonprofit organization over the course of one year. People who join the Residency develop leadership and management skills that cut across sectors and that support a career focused on positive social impact.

Public Allies advances new leadership to strengthen communities, nonprofits, and civic participation, develops a new generation of diverse leaders and promotes innovative leadership practices that meet the demands of changing times.

Teach For America: Since its inception in 1990, the Teach For America network has grown to include 24,000 individuals. The mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation’s most promising future leaders in the effort.

Service Year teams up with advocates, communities, higher education, companies, and more to make a service year a common expectation and opportunity for all young Americans.

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom is an international NGO with consultative status in the United Nations Economic and Social Council, WILPF works to achieve, through peaceful means, world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, and an end to all forms of violence. WILPF offers a paid 12-month internship with the UN in Geneva and in New York.

Year Up: Operating a one-year, intensive training program for urban young adults, ages 18-24, Year Up’s mission is to prepare this population for life and work in our technology-driven society while guiding them towards successful and rewarding careers and higher education. Sites in Boston, Providence, Washington, D.C., and New York City.