A Structured, Purposeful Gap - Discover Year

Discover Year has provided some incredible lessons and opportunities that I will continue to carry throughout my life. For example, before joining I was really struggling to find a job, at 17 and I still hadn't had my first work experience. Thanks to staff and coaches I could land a solid job and start saving my earnings.

DY has also encouraged me to speak up for myself and out to voice my opinions and communicate effectively with others, I myself have witnessed even the shyest students become incredibly confident and outspoken through the year. I think that this course is a great place to build confidence and skills required in post-secondary life and everyone should have a structured gap year like this one.

my experience as an online dy student was great!! i loved getting to meet the people during the orientation period when i was in ottawa and experiencing new things!! the workshops were super helpful and informative,, and the mentors were all very insightful and interesting!! although i was physically not there for majority of the year, i still felt like i was apart of the team!! and even though i was not there during the experiential activities,, i was able to still participate in the activities by creating an experience on my own!!

At 18 I didn´t know what I wanted to do with my life after high school. I did my research and found DY. Since the first moment, every member of the staff was super nice and welcoming. The program itself is a great tool for your gap year. I got to build a lot of skills and learn topics that aren´t taught in school. The community is great and you´ll get to meet a lot of great people throughout the year. DY gave me a sense of who I am and who I aspire to be! Would totally recommend if you want to build new friendships and skills or if you feel a bit lost in life ;)

At 18 I didn´t know what I wanted to do with my life after high school. I did my research and found DY. Since the first moment, every member of the staff was super nice and welcoming. The program itself is a great tool for your gap year. I got to build a lot of skills and learn topics that aren´t taught in school. The community is great and you´ll get to meet a lot of great people throughout the year. DY gave me a sense of who I am and who I aspire to be! Would totally recommend if you want to build new friendships and skills or if you feel a bit lost in life ;)

At the start of the program, I was skeptical as to whether or not I would see positive change in myself. I was nervous about investing money into education that wasn't college or university. I can definitively say now that I am proud of myself for taking a year off of school and taking a gap year through Discover Year. Discover Year helped me hone my communication skills in the workplace, at home, etc. which gave me the confidence I needed to meet new people and build stronger relationships. The staff there always gave me the push I needed to take action on things I wanted to try out and would always check back in with me to see my progress and where I could improve. The program helped guide me through reaching my goals, and whether those goals are completed or not, I am confident enough to go out on my own to achieve them. There were definitely times throughout the year where I struggled and felt isolated, but I found that being open about those struggles to the staff and students at Discover Year helped me persevere and get through those times. The interactions between staff and students on a weekly basis creates a wonderful environment to be open and learn new things. I would say to any prospective student that you will see a lot of positive growth in yourself if you are: open, humble, engaged, patient, and also, interested in learning new concepts. So, if you need to take a year off of school or want to get a better grasp on your interests and strengthen your interpersonal skills then I would recommend taking a gap year through Discover Year.

High school was a really rough time for me. I was bullied and picked on and treated like I was not important. It was not a good time for me at all. After high school I figured I needed to take a year off to learn the skills of being a mature adult and living on your own. I found Discover Year and after one look knew it was the perfect fit for me. I have benefited from it in many ways as a person. It has helped me to build a resume and with the conflicts and struggles I've had with my jobs and finding new ones. It also helped me to prepare to travel on my own. I have been fortunate enough to have had two travel experiences this year. I would not have been able to have looked after myself as well as I did had it not been for Discover Year. I also met lots of great people and felt very included, more than ever in high school. This one year alone has made up for all 4 years of high school socially. We only meet in person once a month but I have still made lots of new friends and felt very included. I am very glad I got to do Discover Year and I would recommend it to anyone in a similar situation as I was.

In my senior year of high school, I started to miss school frequently and avoid schoolwork because the idea of going to college or university the next year and not even being sure what I wanted to take yet was causing me a lot of stress. I believed that my only options were to go to college or just take a regular gap year and stay working. Luckily my school held a college night where different colleges and programs would talk with students that were still undecided. At this college night, I learned about discover year for the first time and was quickly convinced that this was my ideal choice for the next year. Over the past year, I have learned so many skills and information related to school, work, and life as a whole. I discovered what path I wanted to take in school and could not be happier with the feeling of assurance that came from making that decision. I credit a lot of my personal growth to being in this program and the amazing people that helped me along the way.