Harvard College encourages all students to take a gap year. From traveling across the country to working pre-professionally, COVID-19 drove students to take time off and explore through different environments. A year beyond academic restrictions gives gap year students more maturity and clarity towards how to maximize their undergraduate experience.
Chris Kim ’26 explained his reasoning behind taking a gap year. “I would have been seventeen years old coming to college,” said Kim. “I wouldn’t have the same level of personal discipline with getting work done or handling myself.” Kim believes the daunting aspect of a gap year creates the same adrenalin as the first few weeks of college. “Everyone has a safety net back home. When you take that away, that’s when you really realize what you can do by yourself.”
Though COVID protocols were strict and travel was partly shut down, Kim was still able to partake in a 90-day excursion throughout Asia, driven by a dream to learn Mandarin and connect with his culture. He completed community service with the local native population and studied oceanography, often through scuba diving.
Like Kim, many gap year students worked pre-professional internships to help direct their academic path at Harvard. Lexi Monk ’26 regrets not taking a gap year. “Being pre-med and having a minimum of eight years of school ahead of me really makes me wish I had taken some time off,” said Monk. “I wish I had explored this path of unconventional learning before throwing myself into college.”
After his semester abroad, Kim transitioned to two pre-professional opportunities: working as a dermatologist assistant in New York City and later interning at a quantitative fund in Florida. He delved into two differing but possible career interests—an opportunity that many undecided Harvard concentrators would find useful. “The gap year really allows you to branch out, especially if you are not sure about what you want to do. At the very least, you figure out what you don’t want to do,” said Kim.
Like Kim, Matthew Thompson ’26 segmented his gap year between a pre-professional internship and international travel. He began as an intern for New York congressman Gregory Meeks on Capitol Hill. For Thompson, the most important part of this experience was exploring the Hill, sitting in on intense briefings, and making connections.
For the three months following his internship, Thompson left his phone at home for a Senegal travel abroad program through Where There Be Dragons, a group travel abroad program. The trip consisted of three different home-stays with families that became genuine connections for Thompson, so much so that he still remains in contact with them. “I feel like I have three homes in Senegal. It’s a crazily hospitable place, you just show up and people have food for you,” he said.
Thompson hoped to solidify an occupational interest field, but rather learned what he didn’t want to do. “That isn’t a bad thing,” said Thompson. “I’m really glad I took on the experience, and I would recommend it for everyone.”
Unlike Kim and Thompson, Grace Bida ’26 always knew she wanted to take this time off before college. “Instead of memorizing facts and being confined in a space, I always wanted to learn experientially,” she said. “Why do I want to learn? Why did I want to explore different subjects? I wanted to explore my own internal compass.”
Grace Bida ’26 began her gap year with roughly no planning except clarity in knowing that she wanted to work with kids. After extensive research, support from her father, and a contact from the Harvard Gap Year Society, she came across the opportunity to be an au pair for four families in France, Austria, Scotland, and Italy. Working as an au pair only fueled her budding interests in sociology and early childhood education, and more specifically, reshaping learning opportunities for students both inside and outside of the classroom.
Bida appreciates gaining a footing by yourself before entering college. “Sometimes traveling by myself was incredibly stressful, but in the end, it was really amazing because I could choose what I wanted to do at any given moment, she said, “Always take a minute to examine what is truly the right path for you.”
Some salient moments will always stick with the three students. Kim raved about the gleaming bioluminescence when looking down into the ocean and up toward the glittering sky of stars above; two things that we never see on campus. Thompson recalls coming home in the evenings and breaking fast with his home-stay families when the sun went down during the month of Ramadan. Bida reminisced about her first home-stay in a beautiful farm in the alps of Austria during November, coincidentally the same time as Taylor Swift’s release of Red, the re-recording. “As the first snowfall began, I put on my headphones and listened to ‘All Too Well’ while the snow ‘glistened as it fell,’” she said.
Gauri Sood ’26 (gaurisood@college.harvard.edu) wishes that she dropped out of Harvard for a year.