As the majority of their peers plan to start college in the fall, a small group of the Homestead Class of ’15 has opted to delay their postsecondary plans, taking what is commonly referred to as a “gap year.”

However, Aly Rausch, senior who will be entering the U.S. Army, takes issue with that name and its connotation of being a vacation from rigors of learning.  According to Rausch, “The Army can teach things that 99 percent of Americans will never learn in their lifetime. So in a way, I will still be attending school everyday.”

Studies conducted by the American Gap Association (AGA) supported Rausch’s idea of a gap year providing its own form of education, finding that students who take gap years almost always outperform their other peers academically over all four years of college.

Additionally, the AGA reported that in 60 percent of all gap year cases, students indicated that the gap year either “set me on my current career path/academic major.”

Mikah Semon, senior who will be taking a gap year studying in a Jerusalem seminary in the fall, summed up what he believes a gap year is in nine words: “It’s not a year off; it’s a year on.”

Click here to find out where Homestead students will be taking their gap years.