Hi everybody, my name is Mia and I'm an advisor in Cornell Career Services. I'm here today to talk to you about gap years or bridge experiences, and first we'll start with just a basic 101 level of what that means and why have these two different names for it. So, a gap year is probably the term that you're more familiar with: that idea of taking some time off between either high school and college or college and graduate school. We're getting some more high school students reaching out to us about this. I'd suggest you consult with your college admissions counselor and or your high school counselor in your current school about doing this. This video is going to be more targeted for college students who are considering  opportunity after their bachelor's graduation. So, a gap year is, you know, kind of the more traditional term, but I do like to introduce the idea of a bridge experience, because, well, for two reasons. One is that, you know, a gap year implies that it's just one year and a lot of times this period can be longer than a year, and that's totally ok and actually sometimes beneficial, so experience is a little bit more all-encompassing, and gap kind of implies this idea of like a void in time, or something when you're not doing anything. So I have this corny picture here of a bridge because I like to think of these opportunities as a bridge between one chapter of your life and the next, a way to kind of connect those two areas together rather than a space or a void in between the two. So, we will talk a little bit more about what these are. So, one way to think about it is an opportunity to learn through doing. In your classroom experiences you may feel like you're doing a lot of talking or theoretical concepts, but not actually getting your hands dirty or your boots on the ground to do the work that you're talking about, so a gap or bridge experience can be really helpful to actually test it out and see if you like it. It does help deepen both a practical understanding, but also a personal awareness of things that you're good at, things that you still want to work on, it just can often provide some time for reflection and thinking critically about what you would like to do next. So, that can provide a lot of clarity about what your next step is. Sometimes people take the gap or bridge experience to help better prepare them for maybe a medical school application or something like that, but sometimes people take a gap experience to test something out and see if they want to go to graduate school for that topic or area, and they actually find out that they don't really like it, and that is totally ok. The idea of a gap or bridge, again, is to help you kind of explore what your options are and help you feel more confident going towards whatever that next step is. So ultimately, these experiences are intentional choices to move towards your goals, whether that's finding better clarity, or gaining more skills to be more marketable. Ultimately, these are choices you make, not just kind of a passive, "Oh I guess I'll, you know, take some time." So these are just a few examples of some different gap or bridge experiences that you might look into. I won't read all of them to you, but there is everything from formal programs like the Peace Corps or Teach for America. You could do something really informal like kind of exploring the world on your own, and anything in between, like maybe you take a job in a research lab, or with a nonprofit or something like that. So, the opportunities are really endless, there's nothing saying specifically what you have to do during a gap experience, so the world is your oyster. Do whatever will help move you towards your goals, which is ultimately why I always say, over and over, that there is no one way to do this. Think about what makes the most sense for you and your goals, your circumstances. A gap year or bridge experience is what you make of it, so feel free to consult with one of our advisors about what that might look like for you. This is just a few of our advisors that are in the office. People who are probably most likely to help students who are interested in gap experiences, so feel free to reach out to any of us, book an appointment online and we're happy to talk with you. But you may also want to watch my additional video about what considerations might you want to think about when you are debating about whether to take a gap or bridge experience, so feel free to reach out to us or watch my next video. But we look forward to working with you and wish you the best of luck.