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Impact of a Student-Led Gap Year Erin Garcia, Educational Leadership, EdD
Impact of a Student-Led GAP YEAR
Erin Garcia
Educational Leadership, EdD
Dr. Jill Channing, Faculty Advisor
Written by Hannah Warren
Erin Garcia completed her bachelor’s degree in 2008 in her home town of Asheville, at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. She started teaching with the mindset that if she enjoyed teaching high school, she would get her master’s. It only took a year before she knew going back to get her master’s was something she wanted to do. After earning her master’s, Erin took a job as an adjunct professor at Nossi College of Arts in Nashville, Tennessee, where she currently teaches Success Strategies in a self-directed, project-based learning component. Her students are working in three groups in each class (Graphic Design, Videography, and Photography) and are working with a business to design all materials in these three categories. They learn these skills, technology and many other components in this semester-long project. When Erin decided to pursue a doctoral degree in education, she began looking at online programs so she could continue in her current role at Nossi. She saw that ETSU’s Clemmer College of Education has an excellent reputation for its in-person and online course options. She was also drawn to the beauty of the campus she saw in the online photos, even though she planned to take her classes online. For her doctoral dissertation, Erin is doing a qualitative examination of a self-designed gap year fellowship at a large, public, higher education institution in North Carolina through a phenomenalogical approach. A gap year can be completed after a student has been offered admission to an institution and will defer their admission for one year, or can be completed between years of attendance. Gap years range from two to six months in duration and can be spread across multiple countries. Currently in the United States, there are 12 institutional gap year programs. These programs have an in-house department on campus that sends students on a directed gap year. In addition, many universities are also allowing students to complete a gap year through third party, non-profit or forprofit entities, which can cost as much as $30,000 per year. At the institution Erin researched, the gap year is funded by an $8,100 stipend, provided by a generous private donor. It is the only gap year program of its kind in the United States.
A gap year, at the particular institution Erin examined, differs from a studyabroad program where students take traditional classes. In this program, students are required to complete 40 hours per week of volunteer service, which makes the opportunity more like an internship. Students in the program Erin examined are responsible for planning every aspect of the experience themselves instead of letting administration or a thirdparty plan details for them, using their $8,100 of funding. In the summer before their gap year, students attend the Summer Institute where they research the countries, volunteer programs, and potential host families. Once students have their plan and have created a budget accounting for all of the funding, they present it to the administrators in charge of supervising the gap year for approval. This allows the student to align the activities of their gap year with their future academic interests independently, instead of having a thirdparty entity plan the year for them. As of last fall, one of the administrators of the program created an online-class students take during the gap year and a one-hour for credit course, taken by the gap year students when they return to campus. In these courses, students reflect on their experience and reacclimate to college classes. In conjunction with the two courses, the cohort participates in a weekend retreat where they are able to dive deeper into themes of reentry and the struggles they may face being back in the
Erin knew she wanted to study this gap year program before she even met her current advisor, Dr. Jill Channing. She has always been passionate about self-directed learning and was curious to examine the magnitude of impact the unique program was making on its participants. She had already established a relationship with the director of the gap year program at the selected institution on a visit to discuss the potential of conducting research on their program.
When Erin was originally designing her program, she decided to use a phenomenological approach, with a minimum of ten student participants who would complete an interview lasting 45 minutes to one hour. As she began recruiting participants, she ran into some issues and had to make modifications to her study design and resubmit to the Institutional Review Board (IRB), which allowed her to do snowball sampling, a process where she reached out to participants who had already been interviewed to see if they could help her recruit additional participants. Despite her efforts, she still did not have the minimum number she was looking for. After further modifications, she was able to reach out to administrators. After seven months of work, she finally had enough participants, was able to complete the interview process, and begin analyzing her data. In the end, including the perspectives of some of the administrators involved in the program added value to her study because she was able to see how the students and administrators felt about the self-design aspect. For Erin, one of the most meaningful skills she gained from this project was the ability to effectively structure interview questionnaires for the two different groups with different perspectives.
After the interviews, Erin coded the transcripts for themes and categories a total of three times. Her central question focused on how a student’s ability to selfdesign their gap year contributes to adding meaning towards who they become as a person.
Being able to self-design your own learning, as an individual, adds value to the journey of becoming a new version
Erin Garcia Dr. Jill Channing
of yourself, and that is what differentiates a self-designed gap year from a more traditional version of a gap year. As Erin analyzed the data, the responses from the administrators supported those from the students who participated in the gap year. Students in her study seemed to prefer having to overcome obstacles on their own, such as being responsible for finding their host families and volunteer placement. Erin felt that demonstrated the ability of the self-design aspect to instill self-confidence and purpose in students for their majors and careers. Students also reported being able to trust their own decision-making process. Reflecting on her data collection process, Erin realized that she was able to complete all of the interviews prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, and that with the current outbreak, taking a gap year is becoming an even more frequent experience, even though it may look different. Students may not be traveling in the same capacity they traditionally would during that year, and they may be choosing to take the gap year because of the transition of university courses to a primarily online format; but they are still seeking other avenues to advance their future career and educational goals. on students becoming a new version of themselves, skills gained, the meaningmaking process, and especially the selfdesign aspect, which she was able to find very little work on during her literature review. Erin has received editing assistance along the way from another graduate student Dr. Channing put her in contact with. Erin is grateful for the patience Dr. Channing has exhibited throughout the journey, and for her knowledge of various resources available to students, even in the time of online learning. Dr. Channing has helped her learn a lot about herself as a teacher and the entire research process. Once Erin defends her dissertation, she would love to talk with the institution she used for her study about publishing her work or presenting it at a conference. Seeing the impact a self-designed gap year had on students who participated reinforced why she loves working with her current students on graduation projects and experiential learning. Ultimately, she hopes her work will be a voice for the importance of self-directed learning, and education adapting to the changing times. After graduation, Erin plans to apply for positions in the field of experiential learning, project-based learning, retention, or education as a consultant or as a fulltime position.
Where Are They Now?
Why did you choose ETSU for your education?
What is your current position and/or research?
At the time, I was researching universities that supported students and had a track record of achievement. ETSU is a university that has a reputation for quality education and would help me achieve my long-term career goals. In addition, I was interested in working with Dr. Russell Brown in his lab. His lab was not only highly productive, but his work was to a standard that is respected by the field I wanted to work in. After my initial interview, it was clear that ETSU was a positive, supportive, productive, and encouraging place to continue my education.
I am Assistant Professor of Psychology at Nebraska Wesleyan University Lincoln. My lab engages undergraduate students in interdisciplinary psychopharmacology research.
What does this position/research entail?
As Professor in Psychology, I not only teach many different courses, but I advise and mentor students. In addition, I mentor and oversee students conducting research in my lab. How did your time at ETSU prepare you for this career?
My education at ETSU prepared me for the transition from classroom and lab to my career by providing me the skills necessary to succeed. For example, in my graduate program there was a strong emphasis on teaching. At the time, I was convinced I would spend most of my career in a lab, and teaching was not on my radar. However, what I did not realize was that the work I was doing in the lab was also preparing me for my career, which would include teaching and research.
What advice would you offer current or future graduate students?
Allow time for adjustment. Graduate school is a life changing decision and involves many different things all at one time. During that first semester, you might feel overwhelmed with the changes and demands. I promise this will be a time in your life you will never forget. Here is where you will make lifetime friends and face challenges that will shape you for what is to come. I look back on my time as a graduate student, and I am grateful for the education and the life lessons I learned along the way.
Elizabeth Freeman
PhD Psychology, concentration in Experimental Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience. Department of Psychology
Graduate: PhD, 2011
