Taking a break between high school and college was typically thought of as a time to “find oneself.” A generation ago, Americans generally frowned upon the idea. Now more high school graduates and their parents are embracing what Europeans have long called a “gap year.”

Director of Admission Peter Osgood said that each year, several students accepted to Mudd ask to defer their admission until the next year. Three students each in the classes of 2008 and 2009 did so. He said HMC encourages deferral for students who have a plan.

Osgood knows firsthand the benefit of such a break. He spent his gap year working at an aluminum factory to earn money for his college education. He observed that the lives of factory workers who hadn’t attended college were quite different from those who had. “I  realized how sheltered I had been,” he said.

The kinds of HMC students who ask to defer vary, said Osgood. Some are those younger than their peers who want to enter at the same age level as fellow students. Others want work experience and money for college, and many decide to travel. Osgood said that most planned activities will usually “make them more excited about coming to HMC and give them a better perspective.”

Lauryn Baranowski ’09 said that gap years are a great time for personal growth and reflection, not to mention fun. She was offered the chance to be a Rotary exchange student when she was accepted at Mudd. She decided to defer her admission in order to take advantage of what she thought could be a one-time opportunity.

Baranowski lived with a host family in Copenhagen, Denmark, for 11 months while attending gymnasium, the Danish equivalent of high school, and a Danish language school. During her stay, she traveled to Sweden, Spain and Germany, and toured Western Europe on a three-week bus tour.

“I learned to speak Danish, but more importantly, I learned how much I am capable of,” she said. “I landed in Denmark not knowing anyone, and after 11 months, I was a functioning citizen. I learned self reliance because I was alone a lot in the beginning. However I also learned never to be ashamed to ask for help, as I had to do often in the first months.”

Maturing intellectually is one of the many benefits of the gap year, both Osgood and Baranowski can attest. Baranowski said she feels more prepared for college now than she was a year ago. “Taking a year off has made me realize how much I like learning, and I am excited to go back to school. I also feel much more secure about leaving home and living on my own.”

One downside for Baranowski is that she forgot much of what she learned in high school and had to review over the summer to prepare for entrance to HMC this fall. Osgood also mentioned that there is some concern from students about this, but that the freshman first semester pass/fail system at Mudd helps to allay this fear.

Another challenge for some is that a gap year can be pricey depending on the activity, therefore limiting such an exploit to middle- and upper-income students. But many programs like AmeriCorps and the Rotary exchange student program that Baranowski took advantage of, offer partial or full support for participants.

Baranowski has a new confidence that she believes will benefit her throughout her years at Mudd and beyond. “My gap year shows my willingness to experience new things and that I can succeed even in difficult situations.”

Space Policy Paper Takes Physicist to Europe
After presenting a paper on European space policy at the Scripps College Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union (EU) in April, physics major Ryan Yamada ’06 was invited to participate in a two-week seminar in Rome, Italy. Along with two students from The Claremont Colleges and two others from the University of San Diego, Yamada traveled to the University of Rome, Tor Vergatato, to focus on topics related to the European Union. “We talked about security issues, economic policy, the role of the EU in the Mediterranean, United Nations reform, and its relationship with nearby non-member and accession states, such as Ukraine, Norway, Romania and Turkey,” said Yamada. His paper was reviewed by a professor at the university, who complimented his work and remarked that it was worthy of being published in one of the university’s online journals.

Yamada, whose trip was supported in part by the Garrett Fund in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, stayed extra days in Rome and also traveled to Paris and Florence, where he met with a political scientist whom he had met in an EU course at Scripps. Ever the physicist, he also found time to visit the Arcetri Observatory in Florence, where he met with an astronomer who studies ultraviolet detectors and micrometeorites.

At home in China
In his quest to master a foreign language, mathematician Andrew Murphy ’07 is spending six months in Beijing, China. His prowess in mathematics allowed him to “pass out” of most of his core math classes, enabling him to focus more on his other passion, linguistics. Hindi and Norwegian were his first choices, but he finally decided on Chinese, which he considered another “useful language.” He learned about Associated Colleges in China, Beijing, (ACC) and was on his way in May.

He has taken a language pledge—no spoken English allowed—and spends four to five hours in class each day. Each Friday after a weekly test, he and classmates participate in a “language practicum,” which requires completion of specific projects. In July, he played with and talked to children in a primary school and, on another occasion, performed in ACC China Night. “All the ACC students did some special something—skit, singing, dance—in front of all the teachers, our Chinese families and friends,” said Murphy by e-mail. “I was a narrator for one skit, and I dressed up in drag to play the part of a Chinese teacher in another skit (a comedy, of course).”

Murphy has been on group excursions to see the Hanging Monasteries in Da Tong, the Yungang Grottoes, and the Great Wall (above). During upcoming travels he will visit Sichuan, “and get a feel for the landscape that might not exist in 10 or so years.” China, he said, seems like a new home. He will return to Mudd in the spring.

ace Experience
“Many friends teased me about studying abroad in Australia, because I am Jamaican, and so I am already studying abroad in the United States,” said engineering major Donya Frank ’06. But she didn’t let that stop her from spending February to June 2005 in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast City, Queensland, Australia. She shared a three-bedroom house on the beach with two American students and attended the Gold Coast Campus of Griffith University.

She studied mainly engineering courses, two of which are not offered at HMC: Coastal Engineering Design and Pollution Control in Civil Engineering. “The academic experience was very beneficial because I want to do my graduate studies in environmental engineering, and so I am positive that this knowledge will prove very useful,” said Frank. She also enjoyed experiencing the Australian culture, which is much like her native Jamaican one. “Australia and Jamaica are both in the Commonwealth and so there are many aspects of our culture which have been influenced by the British. It has made me think about the little things in my culture that I take for granted without wondering how they originated, such as certain traditional food items and customs.”

In addition to the academic experience, she tried some new things: sleeping on an island beach, sand-surfing, holding a koala and feeding an elephant. “I met many wonderful people and now have great friends and even an Aussie family,” said Frank.