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LEAPYEAR - The Most Unique Year of College on the Planet

Study Abroad, Gap Year and Interim Learning Programs

"Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist: it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it should allow you to find values which will be your road map through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die." -John Taylor Gatto

"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the practice of freedom - the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of the world." - Paulo Freire

Philosophy of the LEAPNOW Study Abroad Transforming Education Program

Mahatma Gandhi exhorted us with his actions and words to "be the change that you wish to see in the world."

How can you learn to "be the change" in an educational system that asks you to sit in a chair and listen for 16 years in a row - that is more dedicated to teaching conformity than teaching creative participation and transformation? Humans learn best by doing - by working actively in the outer world and by learning how to transform our inner worlds. LEAPYEAR is designed to be experiential and participatory - for people who realize that there is much more to life and learning than sitting passively in a classroom and letting educational "experts" talk AT us.

We grow in our own lives by facing successively greater challenges. We grow by surrounding ourselves with others who wish to grow and be challenged. We grow by taking time to lay down a solid foundation in our life based on integrity and alignment with our inner self. We grow by leaving home.

What is a LEAPYEAR: Study Abroad, Alternative College Education Program?

A LEAPYEAR provides a strong and gentle container in which you can remember and embrace your life purpose, and challenges you to answer the call you are hearing, so that you can do what you came here to do. Once you know what you are here for, the investment of time, energy and money in your remaining three years of college make a lot more sense.

Between the ages of 17 and the early twenties, young adults are faced with THREE big and potentially difficult transitions:

from high school to college
family to independence
and adolescence to adulthood

This is when most people start grappling with the questions, "Who am I, really?" and, "What am I going to do with my life?" These fundamental questions arise with a sense of urgency, with a strong need to know. This is when we begin to understand that WE have to take the tiller of our own life, and determine which direction we will go.

Why Gap Year and LEAPNOW Study Abroad Education Programs Lays the Foundation for Today's Teens and Adolescents

If you take the time to wrestle with these questions and find some answers, you can lay the foundation of a life worth living - one of creativity, fulfillment, and integrity. If, like most people, you choose to follow the herd to college for four more years of classroom schooling, you might continue to live an unexamined life - choosing to defer real inquiry into what you are made of. If you do so, you replace the family with another institution that houses and feeds us, and that limits how one learns to a classroom. Private college now costs over $1000 per WEEK. If one does not have a compelling reason to be there, it can be a tremendous waste of time and money. Indeed, many people end up using their freshman year as a year off! We hear more and more students express the sentiment that they don't want to waste their or their parents' money by going to college without a plan or a purpose. Students who go to college without a clear sense of inner purpose, are often afflicted by "sophomore slump", when faced with choosing a major but have no real life experience on which to base an appropriate choice.

A better alternative to 16 uninterrupted years in the classroom is to take time for exploration - real exploration that leads to life experience, perspective, and the beginnings of wisdom - time to engage the world in a genuine way reflecting our individual interests - rather than continuing in a contrived learning situation. Life isn't a race, and there is inner work that needs to be done at this time in order to grow up. To do this work we need time and experiences that allow us to take the measure of ourselves - LEAPYEAR is specifically designed to provide "the right stuff" for this passage. The year contains formal and informal rites of passage - a vital necessity in a society that does not give its youth markers for the journey into adulthood.

LEAPYEAR gives you study abroad college credits, group travel, individual internships, and transformative teachings.

This all-in-one program, is a way for people between the ages of 17 and 22 to get what they need to make a graceful and powerful transition into creative, independent adulthood. LEAPYEAR is the longest, most challenging and most personal program that LEAPNOW offers. It provides a full palette of physical, mental, social, spiritual and cultural challenges. It would be very difficult to complete the program without becoming a well-rounded and mature individual.

Gap Year for College, Independent Study or High School Completion - a 9 Month Program

The program is used by most students as a first or second year of college, but it can also function as a for-credit gap year between high school and college. Four past LEAPYEAR students have used the program as independent study for high school completion.

This 9-month program is tremendously varied, and is designed to cultivate the whole person and includes:

a three-month experiential group semester of language,
service and cultural immersion in India or South America,
a 12-week solo internship of your own choosing,
career and job-readiness counseling, a curriculum of Life Skills Learning, and
a formal Rite of Passage that also involves the parents.
The graphic below shows the linear progression of the alternative program "at a glance."

Leapyear at a glance, one year study abroad program

Because we have packed so much into the program, it resists easy categorization - so please read patiently, so that you can get a full sense of this integrated approach to learning.

Listen to a 20-minute Podcast about LEAPYEAR and hear LEAPNOW Founder, Sam Bull, interviewed about the program.

"Education takes place when the spirit and soul are engaged and involved." -Michael Meade

THE 2008 LEAPYEAR PROGRAM

alternative education program 2008 academic year Two LEAPYEAR programs are available starting in the fall of 2008.
Both groups start in September 2008 and run through the 2008/09 academic year.
The first of these groups will travel to India. The second program travels to South America. During the second semester internship months, participants travel on their own. A full year of college credit is earned by each participant.

START OF THE LEAPYEAR PROGRAM - RETREAT WEEKS (8 weeks)
It all begins at LEAPNOW's Northern California campus. These weeks are the backbone of the program - and the foundation for all further worldwide exploration. The focus is on working with peers to learn vital life skills, undergo rites of passage, enhance emotional literacy, and build supportive community. Each day includes at least one hour of a physical discipline (yoga, t'ai chi, dance), four hours of work, free time, and 3-6 hours of the living skills curriculum. Follow this link for more detail about the Living Skills Curriculum.

FIRST SEMESTER IN INDIA or SOUTH AMERICA (10 Weeks)
Each participant chooses between the two study abroad programs. In South America group members study Spanish, do environmental and construction work, and study sustainable living in the Patagonian Andes in Ecuador, Bolivia & Peru. India participants do service work, study yoga, learn meditation, trek in the Himalayas, and learn Hindi or Tibetan language. More about the Group Semesters in South America and India.

MID-YEAR BREAK

RITE OF PASSAGE CEREMONY
The retreat weeks after the mid-year break culminate in a dramatic rite of passage into adulthood. One or both parents join the participants for two days to give their son or daughter their blessings while consciously letting them go into adulthood.

SECOND SEMESTER - INTERNSHIP, APPRENTICESHIP, or VOLUNTEER WORK ABROAD

SOLO INTERNATIONAL INTERNSHIP (12 Weeks)
Following the rite of passage, participants travel on their own to study abroad, do an internship, apprenticeship, or volunteer work in a country of their choice. This builds on the first semester of group travel, and allows for tailored career or other exploration and language acquisition. Participants access LEAPNOW's database of hundreds of options to find a fitting internship. Read more about the Solo International Internship.

LAST WEEKS OF THE PROGRAM and GRADUATION
The final two weeks of the program are devoted to making transitions effectively, exploring the job market, re-entry to the larger world, endings, and program closure.

ONGOING SUPPORT, FOLLOW UP AND RESOURCES FOR ONE FULL YEAR
After the formal program ends, participants have access to a full year of life path counseling, a database of internships and jobs, and ongoing annual reunions. Program graduates are encouraged to return as interns with LEAPYEAR to assist future groups and deepen their own learning through teaching and service.

LEAPYEAR is your experiential education alternative

What makes LEAPYEAR unique is the synthesis of so many valuable experiences and teachings - bringing together grounded life skills acquisition, rites of passage, group travel, individual internships and service work abroad, spiritual pilgrimage, and a curriculum focused on awareness and personal maturation.

What Sets LEAPYEAR APART?
Many programs that purport to be transformative give you an experience, but then provide little or no follow up - it's as if you fall off the edge of the world. You then have to work out how to integrate the experience on your own. LEAPYEAR gives graduates a full year of access to resources, counsel, and follow up workshops to insure that what is gained is retained, and built upon.

LEAPYEAR takes the whole person into account - working with the body, the emotions, the mind and the spirit; providing an amazing laboratory for a person to fundamentally change their life. People learn slowly, and a year gives them time enough to alter habits that may have been laid down over a decade or more. Not only is LEAPYEAR a place to deal with elevated topics such as life purpose, but it's also a place to write your first resume, learn to cook, and try on possible careers.

Read about the LEAPYEAR Guiding Philosophy.

Listen to a 20-minute Podcast about LEAPYEAR and hear LEAPNOW Founder, Sam Bull, interviewed about the program.