Gap Year Organizations for University Students
At this point the world is very much your proverbial oyster. However, there are some options that are particularly useful for students or graduates.
British Universities North America Club (BUNAC)
BUNAC
16 Bowling Green Lane
London
EC1R 0QH
Tel: (020) 7251 3472
Web site: www.bunac.org.uk
You can also join through your local campus club. Since the early 1960s BUNAC has been known as an excellent outlet for an area that it notoriously difficult to penetrate employment in North America . While this aspect of BUNAC is going from strength to strength they have added Australia , Jamaica and Malta to their repertoire. They also have a number of other strings to their bow.
Summer Camp USA
A well established and popular programme which sends camp counsellors to children's summer camps in America and Canada . They offer formal instruction in sports, arts and crafts, drama, nature, computers and science. Anyone between 19 and 35 is eligible to apply (students and non-students), but you must enjoy working with children and preferably have held a leadership role such as school prefect, youth leader, scout or guide. A qualification in sports, crafts or music may help you obtain a position as a specialist counsellor but this is by no means essential. The most important qualification is a positive personality and a keen participation in a relevant hobby or interest.
There are three types of camps: agency camps, which are general camps with scouts, guides and inner-city children, camps for children with special needs, and specialist camps teaching one sport, such as tennis. The counsellors work for approximately two months and they are then free to travel around America . Interviews take place during the first and second terms of the university year and interested parties should get their applications in as soon as possible, as interviews are arranged on a first-come-first-served basis. Having said that, all first-time applicants are interviewed.
Successful applicants will have to pay a registration fee and join BUNAC. For camp counsellors proof of funds is required. For this BUNAC will provide you with:
- Return airfare.
- J-1 Work and Travel Visa.
- Insurance which costs approx. £130 for the duration of the camp.
- Travel to and from your camp.
- Your food and lodgings for the period you are at the camp.
- A salary of $820 for under 21s and $880 for over 21s. This is in total for your time at camp and includes deductions for your airfare and suchlike.
One Bunacamper summed up the programme:
'The organisation makes everything easy and straightforward for someone going to America for the first time. It was possibly the hardest thing I have ever done, but the most valuable. I learnt organisation, patience, common sense and a lot about myself.'
Work America
One of the best ways to work in America - and one of the very few that will allow you to legally do casual work in this country.
Any current, full-time student doing a tertiary or postgraduate course at degree or HND level in England , Scotland or Wales (students in Northern Ireland should apply through USIT) is eligible. The programme provides students with a place on the 'Exchange Visitor Program' and the invaluable J-1 visa with which you can then travel and work in any part of America. You can either arrange a job before you go - BUNAC will aid you in this with their free Job Directory - or you can be sponsored by an American citizen. If you know someone in America who would be prepared to do this it is the ideal situation because you can then go your own way and find work as you go.
