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ABOVE:
Blair Bean
in Israel.
RIGHT: Tamar
Brown with her
sister above the
Dead Sea.

continued from page 28

much good and so many bad prob-
lems our world faces,” she says. “I got
to express myself and enhance my
leadership abilities. Every time I feel
anxious about taking a next step, I
remind myself that I was able to get
around another country by myself
and didn’t even speak the language.
I am forever grateful for new friends,
experiences and memories.”
If Bean follows trends, she may be
at an advantage when earning her
degree, according to a study cited by
the American Gap Association.
“Students who had taken a gap
year were more likely to graduate
with higher grade-point averages
than observationally identical indi-
viduals who went straight to college,”
the study indicated. “This effect was
seen even for gap year students with
lower academic achievement in high
school.”
Administrators at the Frankel
Jewish Academy in West Bloomfield
are very supportive of students opt-
ing to take gap years. They encourage
participation and have had positive
reactions.
“Gap year experiences help stu-
dents grow emotionally, academically

30

August 24 • 2017

jn

and spiritually, depending on where
they go,” says Ella Dunajsky, direc-
tor of college counseling at Frankel.
“Ultimately, it provides them with
the ability to learn more about them-
selves, and then they learn better in
college.”
Rabbi Elliot Pachter, rabbinic
adviser at Frankel, explains that
programs in Israel are most popular
among Frankel graduates, but other
options are explained to students
expressing an interest. AmeriCorps,
for example, places young people in
service programs that let them learn
skills and earn money while assisting
communities addressing problems.
To help pay for the gap year choice,
some formal programs provide schol-
arship opportunities. Other partici-
pants find they have saved money by
discovering more about themselves
and their talents so that they enter
college with firm ideas of the direc-
tions they want to take instead of
adding classes — and maybe semes-
ters — because of experimenting.
“During gap years, students
explore how they interact with the
world, who they are and where they
can make a difference,” Dunajsky