Millions of college-age students have to make a difficult and important decision soon regarding their careers and higher education. It is one of those big moments in life! A big commitment with big financial implications, but now, due to COVID-19, it’s more fraught than ever before. Accredited academic institutions suddenly have had on-line teaching thrust on them, which will be with us going forward. Although given the circumstances they have done an incredible job adapting, they simply haven’t had the opportunity to commit the time or effort to actually be really good at it. They’re pioneering a new way without any assurance of effectiveness, polish or insight.
The alternative is a meaningful gap year. To some, the term gap year implies that the year is somehow wasted, that it’s a gap that snuck in between the stuff that you’re supposed to be doing. But of course, it’s not that at all. “Living” is what we’re supposed to be doing. “Living” in the context of the complex global society we are all part of actually requires contributing, learning and figuring out how to make things better. It requires us to be inspired and empowered beyond the scope of systematic industrialised academic grooming.
This is a powerful moment to invest in the next chapter of who you are and what you will become.
For an adult, to walk away from your chosen career path and paying job to take time out to work through career or life issues is expensive and for many an impossible dream. But for a student, it’s actually an investment. It’s a chance not to step blindly onto the carousel of conformity and lockstep obedience. It is an opportunity to actually commit to a path of your own choosing. An opportunity to create a change, to make an impact, to cause a shift in your posture that you’ll have forever.
Conservation, wildlife and environmental management offers a vast array of wildlife career opportunities few of which are the focus of current school education systems and no matter what career you end up in we all need to be conservation savvy and we all need to be the best global citizens we can be.
African Insight Academy offers a one, two or three-month wildlife conservation internship which past interns have rated “a life changing experience”. It also offers an opportunity for a real African wildlife adventure component of a meaningful gap year that is making a difference.
A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never return to its old dimensions. A meaningful gap year offers you the opportunity to stretch your mind, to learn, explore, grow, contribute, and make a difference not only in the present but for the rest of your life.
Discover more about African Insight’s wildlife conservation internships here.
