It’s long been a discussion between parents and students, “Is a Gap Year Helpful?” Students who are recently graduated often advocate for a Gap Year by explaining that they are “tired of school” and “need a break”, or express that “they aren’t sure what they want to do next, so what’s the point” or that they “need to travel”. There may be some truth to these sentiments as many students move on to University and aren’t feeling motivated, excited or ready. Often money is wasted as students drop or withdraw from courses and feel a sense of being unsure or lost.
Parents worry that one year off may lead to many more and are unconvinced that a year off is going to do anything to help their child discover their calling. There also is truth to this. Often if students take a year off and don’t plan it with intention then the year ends and they are no further ahead than where they started. They haven’t researched careers, developed skills or taken any meaningful steps to become more University ready.
A Gap year can be helpful for students if it is planned with intention and purpose. Fusion Collegiate has partnered with post-secondary institutions to design meaningful and impacting more confident, ready and excited about their future.
Fusion Collegiate students can take 1-3 University of Calgary courses for free. They have the support of a high school teacher and they will conduct career exploration throughout their courses.
Psychology 203- Psychology for everyday life: Designed for non-Psychology majors. Provides students with an understanding of the key theories, research methods, and discoveries of psychology, with an emphasis on developing the knowledge and skills necessary to be effective consumers of psychological theory and research. Through a focus upon issues that arise in everyday life, this course will demonstrate some of the ways in which psychology can be of use to students in their personal and professional lives.
UNIV 205 Effective Learning Strategies: This course will help you to become a self-regulated learner by teaching you how to cultivate the kinds of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are key to academic success.
Have a sense of your strengths and weaknesses as a learner, as well as your values
- Be able to create SMART goals in line with your strengths, weaknesses and values
- Be aware of university resources that can help you to achieve your goals
- Be able to formulate and apply strategies to attain your goals
- Be able to self-monitor and self-assess your progress towards your goals
- Be able to adapt your strategies based on the outcome of your efforts
ENTI 217 (Entrepreneurship and Innovation) Design Your Life:
In this course students will learn the design thinking methodology and apply it to your own life. Specifically, what could your academic and career journey look like,
and how do you start experimenting with this journey? Through applying seven Entrepreneurial Thinking skills, students will gain awareness of personal values and
goals, define areas of life, and work they want to grow in, ideate multiple life paths, prototype elements of careers that interest them, and take small steps to try these
out.
The answer to the age old question, “Is a Gap Year Helpful?” is…. It will be with Fusion Collegiate.
About: Fusion Collegiate is a brand new Charter Collegiate High School opening in September of 2024. They will specialize in Gap Year programming.
