By Catherine Wang

The Los Angeles Gap Year Fair held Feb. 8 in Chalmers Student Lounge featured over 30 different Gap Year programs.

Students from the Los Angeles area and their families came to the fair to learn about programs ranging from Dynamy Internship Year, a program that pairs students with a yearlong internship, to VisitOz, a program that takes students to work on farms in Australia.

“I was not aware that there were so many companies that organize gap year programs,” Lizzy Pratt ’11 said. “There are so many opportunities.”

Center of Interim Programs representative Jason Sarouhan and author Carol Christen gave a presentation explaining a gap year’s purpose and offering advice to students and parents. Sarouhan, who took a gap year before attending college, said that he “discovered himself” during his gap year and that it was a welcome break before college.

Christen, a former middle school teacher, emphasized that students will be able to take fuller advantage of their college experiences after having taken a gap year.

Both Sarouhan and Christen reiterated that a gap year need not be a financial burden for students’ families.

“I really liked the program Where There Be Dragons,” Raphael Osorio ’11 said. “I think she appealed to me because she told me a lot about the financial aid and scholarship opportunities.”