Location
Multiple Locations +3
  • Canada
    • Ottawa
  • Online
  • United States of America
    • Boston
Length
26 - 52 weeks

Program Details

Timeframe
Year Round
Housing
Apartment Host Family
Primary Language
English
Age Min.
17
Age Max
23

Pricing

Starting Price
6280
Price Details
Discover Year is based in Ottawa, Canada. Therefore, program tuition is $7, 900 CAD.
Discover Year is a Certified Educational Institution recognized by the Canadian Government, which means RESPs (Registered Education Savings Plan) can be used towards program fees. The entire program fee can be claimed as a tuition tax credit.

The program also offers financial aid for students who require it.
What's Not Included
Accommodation Some Accommodation Activities Some Activities Airfare Domestic Airfare Airport Transfers Equipment Some Equipment Meals Some Meals Park Fees Some Park Fees SIM cards Tour Guide Transportation Travel Insurance Visa Wifi
Jan 04, 2022
Jun 13, 2022
15 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

Discover Year is an innovative one-year career and life skills gap year program that helps young adults better understand what they want and build the skills they need to go out and get it. Our students build stronger self-awareness, confidence, communication skills and resilience to thrive in whatever education or career path they take. They achieve these results through:

- Work
- Travel
- Community service
- Essential skills workshops
- Career and Life Coaching
- Mentorship

Video and Photos

Program Highlights

  • Experience a structured, purposeful gap year alongside a truly amazing community of coaches, mentors and students.
  • Gain confidence and independence! Discover Year helps students with things like public speaking, leadership, collaboration and decision making.
  • Learn and develop crucial soft-skills during our weekly workshops, such as interpersonal communication, giving & receiving feedback, psychological safety, financial planning for young adults, and so much more
  • Students travel anywhere in the world during the month of February! Push yourself outside of your comfort zone to experience something new. Gain a new perspective about the world to enrich your feelings of gratitude & empathy, and to gain life experience!
  • Discover Year creates an environment of oppenness, authenticity and vulnerability, which in turn enables young adults to become the best version of themselves.

Program Reviews

4.89 Rating
based on 19 reviews
  • 5 rating 89.47%
  • 4 rating 10.53%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Housing 4.5
  • Support 4.9
  • Fun 4.7
  • Value 4.9
  • Safety 4.95
Showing 1 - 8 of 19 reviews
Default avatar
Ardin
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Discover year - A purposeful, powerful post-secondary program

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.

Pros
  • Real Life Lessons
  • Travel Experience
  • Building Friendships
Cons
  • Covid restrictions
  • Locations for Meetups
  • Sole focus on Group and Teamwork
40 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
katie
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Discover Year

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!!

Pros
  • -getting to meet and make new friends
  • -exploring new career opportunities
  • -opportunities to push yourself outside of your comfort zone
Cons
  • -with the online format,, you’re farther away from the group and therefore it’s a bit harder to hold yourself accountable in the goals you set yourself during the program
42 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Mya
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

DY is a great tool!

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 ;)

Pros
  • Psychologically safe space
  • Career conversations - meeting a lot of people of different industries and learning from their careers
  • Building new relationships
Cons
  • Not all the sessions are in-person
  • DY is highly dependable on the community´s participation
43 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Mya
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

DY is a great program and tool for your Gap Year!

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 ;)

Pros
  • Psychologically safe space
  • Career conversations - meeting a lot of people of different industries and learning from their careers
  • Building new relationships
Cons
  • Not all the sessions are in-person
  • DY is highly dependable on the community´s participation
35 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Mya
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

DY is a great tool!

42 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Jordin
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

My Purposeful Gap Year

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.

Pros
  • Wide range of concepts to learn and use for on the job
  • A very positive social environment where nothing is off limits to talk about and you can be comfortable with just being yourself.
  • Paired up with a personal life-coach for guided personal improvement.
Cons
  • The program in general, is very laid-back, so therefore it requires some self advocacy to be taken by the student in order to get the most out of it.
  • Difficulty remaining focused on a Zoom call for several hours at a time.
  • There is no homework, but referring back to the concepts on your own time is encouraged because there is a lot of concepts that will be new to you.
39 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
James
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

My Discover Year review

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.

Pros
  • Meet lots of great new friends
  • You learn how to build a resume and show up to an interview
  • You learn that you should always be greatful for what you have and that everyone is perfect.
44 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Aidan
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Discover Year - A Meaningful Gap Year

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.

If you did this all over again, what's one thing you would change?
Going into the program I was very closed off because of my anxiety surrounding social settings however I would credit alot of my social progress to being in this program. The only thing I would change was my involvement at the beginning because I could have gotten so much more out of this program from a social standpoint.
75 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers