Joren Dawson (’09) is living every kid’s dream; he's running away to join the circus.
Instead of heading to a traditional four-year college next fall, Dawson will be attending Montreal’s National Circus School of Canada for the next three years in order to pursue his dream of performing professionally as an acrobat.
"It's not that I'm not going to regular college for no good reason," says Dawson. "The point is that I am going to a college that I have been looking forward to for years to pursue something I have always wanted to do."
While Dawson’s path is an unusual one, he is not the only senior who is considering it. Whether it’s due to a strong interest in the arts, a desire to get out into the world or just plain fatigue, some Urban seniors are going off the traditional path and taking time out for a gap year or special program.
The National Circus School is devoted to circus arts, but it also incorporates other classes pertaining to being a circus professional. Dawson will be learning French, business, physics, anatomy and circus arts for up to 12 hours per day. All of the classes are taught in French (At Urban, Dawson is in French 2).
Dawson began circus training by taking gymnastics classes at the age of three. The years of hard work paid off when he was chosen as one of just 25 students to enter the school out of the 130 who auditioned. A panel of 15 admissions officials oversaw the audition, which took four days. The National Circus School was his first choice for next year, and the only circus school to which he applied.
Dawson’s parents are very supportive of him and his circus aspirations. Dawson says he looks forward to living in an apartment in Montreal, but will miss the Bay Area.
Legislators, too, are beginning to see that students do not necessarily want to go from high school straight to another academic setting. On March 30, the Senate passed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act in favor of one of President Obama’s central causes: community service. The newly expanded Nation Corporation for National and Community Service will include more service opportunities for baby boomers, bilingual citizens, and students. An expanded AmeriCorps and Peace Corps provide more opportunities for high school seniors looking to take a gap year or two before college.
Private companies and nonprofits also offer opportunities. A travel and cultural exchange program called “Where There Be Dragons” caught the eye of Kelsey Cox (’09), who is going on the "Visions of India" trip next fall. Cox first became interested in India during her history of South Asia class at Urban. Along with 12 other students and a chaperone, Cox will spend three months living in India, two of them on a home stay with an Indian family.
Cox says that she is “figuring out what to do next spring as we speak.” Options including more travel, a job, or perhaps a course in art history.
Cox decided to take a gap year in March, before the college decisions had been mailed. “I went to a gap year fair and it got me really, really interested,” she says. Her parents, too, found the prospect exciting. “My mom was one of the first people to ask if I had thought of (a gap year),” she says. “With my dad, it took a bit more convincing.”
Most importantly, though, her college was on board. Cox was accepted to Carlton College in Northfield, Minn., but she decided to ask for a deferment after sending in her enrollment forms.
Any worry that her college would protest quickly evaporated. "(Deferring) has been a very easy process," says Cox. In fact, Carlton "(was) really excited about what I wanted to do — I just had to write a letter about it.”
Though she is not receiving credit for the classes she takes in India, Cox may be learning more during her gap year than she will in college. In India, she'll take classes in history, anthropology and Hindi, and do an independent study project about anything from “gender roles to art to cooking.”
A gap year appeals to Cox because of the freedom it gives students. “It’s a year to do what I want to do," she says. "I get to pick it; no one’s dictating what I should be doing. The college let me propose it, my parents were open, and now I have the freedom to explore and learn. When else will I get a chance to do a lot of these things?”
Despite the potential benefits, Suzanne Schutte, a college counselor at Urban, has not had many students take gap years.
"There’s usually a lot of talk about it before people see where they got in," says Schutte. But "once they have the acceptances, people are more excited to go (to college).”
Still, the option's there for those who are interested. Schutte often refers students who are contemplating a gap year to an article written by William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions at Harvard University; in it, Fitzsimmons writes about the new perspectives and better sense of direction that students who have taken gap years often bring back to college study.
Schutte says that Urban's college counseling office has a wealth of material on post-graduation work, study and travel programs. Interested students should ask for help from Schutte or her colleague, Urban college counselor Susan Lee.