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Writer's pictureJazzmine Raine
Sep 3, 20228 min read

Everything you need to know about Gap Year Frosh Week 2022


Summary


Did you hear?! CanGap’s Gap Year Frosh Week is right around the corner and it is the PERFECT opportunity to kickstart your gap year!


In this episode, Michelle walks you through the 3 EPIC nights filled with opportunities to meet new friends, participate in activities and workshops, and hear from our phenomenal keynote speakers, whose stories will ignite so much passion and excitement! Not to mention, you have the opportunity to win thousands of dollars in prizes!


Grab your FREE Gap Year Frosh tickets at cangap.ca/frosh and join us from September 13 to 15 from 9PM - 12AM EST. We can’t wait to see you there!


Topics Discussed

  • What is Frosh Week and how it is the ultimate way to enter into the new chapter of your life!

  • Things you can expect from the CanGap Frosh Week, including;

    • How you will be able to build a supportive community of fellow gappers and friends.

    • Connect to valuable resources and gain access to various gap year programs.

    • Participate in insightful workshops that cover topics such as planning your gap year, building your art portfolio, and entrepreneurship.

    • Opportunity to win thousands of dollars in prizes!


Resources Mentioned In This Episode



Connect With The Canadian Gap Year Association



Transcript

Michelle Dittmer - 00:00

Hey there and welcome to the Gap Year podcast. My name is Michelle Dittmer and I am your gap year expert and host of this amazing podcast.


Let me tell you a quick story, I promise it'll only be a couple seconds and we'll dive into the good stuff. But way back 100 zillion years ago when I went to my Frosh week, I remember that week I met two of my best friends that I am still so close with today.

I've been in their Weddings, it's just been incredible friendships.


I joined so many clubs that I stayed with throughout my entire undergrad experience, and I have such vivid memories of all of the wicked, awesome experiences that the school put together for me and it was just such an incredible time, such a pivotal time in my life.


Michelle Dittmer - 02:00

Back then when I went to my Frosh week, they called it welcome week, other schools call it orientation week or O-Week, but they all exist to the same extent.


They're all created to break the ice in your new school environment. They're created to help you make connections with each other and with services that are on campus.They help you get comfortable with the layout of campus. They help you to make memories.

And did I mention that they help you make friends and connections? Because that's so, so crucial.


So it's literally a week to make you feel comfortable with your choice and to celebrate you for entering into a new chapter in your life and to really get you fired up and excited and enthusiastic about this new chapter. So we're leaving, we're shedding our high school experience, and we're opening up to the next chapter in our lives.


Michelle Dittmer - 03:04

And that's why the Canadian Gap Year association has a Gap Year Frosh week!

We exist for the exact same reasons. You, as a gapper, are entering into a new chapter of your life. You are not with your same old friends from high school, you need a new circle of friends who are going to be with you on this chapter, in this journey of your life.

And you deserve to be celebrated for choosing the path less traveled and for choosing to be on this gap year. Those are all truths and that's why we have our very own special Frosh week specifically for students on a gap year.




Michelle Dittmer - 03:43

Now gappers are going to need some of the exact same support as their friends heading off to school, so some support making friends. We want to make sure that we have a whole new network of people that are going through a similar experience and are having some of the same challenges and who are there to lift you up. So we're going to help you make some new friends during Frosh week.


Michelle Dittmer - 04:06

We're going to help you to learn what is possible for you on your gap year. What can you do? What activities exist? How do you plan a really effective gap year? And you're going to leave with so many really cool memories of this time while kicking off your gap.

You're in so much style, and you will leave this event feeling jazzed and prepared and ready and enthusiastic and just shouting from the rooftops how awesome your year is going to be.


Michelle Dittmer - 4:38

But let me actually get down to some of the core highlights for this year, because the schedule this year is out of this world. Oh my goodness! We've been doing this for a couple years now, and I think this is our best schedule yet.


So let's start off with our three bomb keynote speakers. They are, I am so privileged to have them here with us. So on our first night, we got Jigar. He is 25 years old. He is a nature and culture filmmaker from Tanzania, and he's gonna be delivering an amazing keynote on the power of storytelling. And he's going to dip into his experience, traveling to the most remote areas across the country and sharing his adventures with us and inspiring us to get out there and make our own story, so that's night one.


Night two, we have the phenomenal Sam Demma. Sam Dema is 22. Years old, he is a Ted X speaker. He's an author. He founded a volunteer group called Pick Waste. This is his third time back speaking a gap year Frosh week because he is that good. He is one of the highlights every year from the feedback we get from Gap Year Frosh week.


Night three is our very own amazing Jazz. Jazz is a 30 year old superstar from Toronto, but she's currently residing in the Himalayas in India. She is the founder of Hara World and Hara House, which is India's first zero waste hospitality space. And Oh my goodness, she has a story to tell and she's going to talk about how do we reframe failure.


So, so much good content in those three keynotes, one happening each and every night of Frosh week.

Let me tell you, they have two things in common. All three of these people are amazing, captivating, inspirational speakers that you need to hear and #2 they have all personally taken a gap year, so whatever they have to say is going to be super relevant to those on a gap year, obviously done intentionally. We love our speakers and they have so much value to share with us. So those are our keynote speakers, but the event doesn't end there. We have so much else going on!


Michelle Dittmer - 07:00

We've got workshops from how to plan your gap year to how to build your art portfolio to entrepreneurship on your gap year. So many great places to learn about how you can leverage your gap year or how you can work within your gap year, so there's that content piece too. But we've also got alumni coming to speak. These alumni are fresh off their gap year. They're going to share the inside scoop, answer your questions.

Give you their tips from just having been there and started back at university. So a great panel of young people to come and learn from.


Michelle Dittmer - 07:38

But not only that, what we hear most of all is that gappers want to meet other gappers. They want to make friends, they want to be connected, they want to find people that have similar interests to them. So we've created tons of space within the event to interact with other gappers. So this is not just sitting at home, go on zoom. We have an incredible platform, called Hopin, that allows interaction, connecting with other people.

Lots of rooms to hang out in. So while it is a virtual space, we have specific opportunities for you to network with other gappers create your own interest group rooms where you can connect with other people who like gaming or crafting or photography, whatever that might be. You can get to know the other people in this community, and we've got fun social events. You've got a trivia night, we've got an improv show and even an open mic, so if you have a talent, bring that to Frosh week.

We'd love to see it there.


Michelle Dittmer - 8:38

Honestly, this is an event not to be missed. It is 3 nights happening in September, so right when all of your peers are heading off to their Frosh week, we're just kind of a week behind there. September 13th, 14th, 15th happening for three hours in the evening. So from 9 to midnight Eastern Standard Time. Wherever you are, hopefully you can tune-in for some of it or all of it. I can almost guarantee if you get a little taste of what we're offering you're going to come back for the majority of it, but we would love to have you there, whether it's for a little bit or a lot.


So that's what we've got going on there.

Michelle Dittmer - 9:18

The gappers from last year are going to tell you how this event inspired them, empowered them, and got their gap year off on the right foot. So we've experienced it, we've seen it first hand, and I can't even communicate to you how impactful this time is.

So definitely come on out and if the impact isn't something that's going to draw you out, maybe it might be all of the different prizes that we have going on. We've got thousands of dollars in prizes to be given out, so you gotta come check it out. Maybe even a flight voucher if you want to travel! I don't wanna say too much so I'm going to leave the prizes there.


Michelle Dittmer - 10:03

But even if you are just going to come in and check out our virtual Expo, on the platform we've got an Expo that will link you with different gap year programs, opportunities, scholarships that are out there, support programs for you to get your gap year off on the right foot. So come in and check out the Expo.


Michelle Dittmer - 10:23

Like I said, there is just so, so much value here and whether you're on a gap year, considering a gap year, or just want to come out and have a great time, this is an event not to be missed. So I'm going to say one more time, come and join us at gap year Frosh week and you just might meet your gap year soul mate, your kindred spirit, your bestie.


But you could be guaranteed to leave with so many memories and so many tools to make this the best year ever! So sign up today cangap.ca/frosh will put that in the show notes for you and I can't wait to see you inside the platform for Gap Year Frosh Week.



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