From Gap Year, to Graduation Day and Beyond: Where Our Alumni Are Now
From Gap Year, to Graduation Day and Beyond: Where Our Alumni Are Now
That first walk off the plane in Madrid is filled with many emotions. Nerves, excitement, no real idea of what the next few months are going to bring you. Every year, we get a front row seat to that moment with every gapper who comes through Spanish Gap Year. What we don’t always see is what happens after: graduation, their first real job, or how their time in Spain has continued to stick with them and play a key role in their everyday lives. The confidence our gappers pick up in Spain doesn’t just end when they board their flight back home, it follows them for the rest of their lives.
We wanted to close that loop. Let’s meet one of our Spring 2022 Gap Year students, Brett, to see what he has been up to since finishing his program.
Meet Brett, Spanish Gap Year Spring 2022 Gapper
Brett joined our program in Spring 2022, and if you ask him, Spanish Gap Year struck a rare balance: real teamwork with his group, paired with personal moments living with his host family. He pushed past his comfort zone constantly, whether that was by asking for directions in his best Spanish or traversing across a Tibetan bridge two hundred feet high.
What stayed with him wasn’t any single moment. It was the mindset he adapted, “seize the day,” wherever it takes you.
“This was not meant to be just a phrase but also an intentional act.”
Brett also repeatedly talks about Arantxa’s influence to push the group to discover and collaborate, not just watch from the sidelines. This is how real personal change begins.
The Skills That Came From It
Brett doesn’t just talk about his gap year as a break. He talks about it as where he first started acting like a leader.
“The experiences of Spanish Gap Year and my gap time certainly helped me develop the attributes of a leader, which I define not only as guiding a group but guiding a mission or goal.”
Some of that showed up in small ways, like figuring out how to budget a grocery stipend for a team meal, or bigger ways like building genuine relationships with his host families and new friends using Spanish he was learning in real time.
Those aren’t just small things to walk away with at 18 or 19 years old. These are the attributes that end up mattering years later, when managing a grocery run turns into overseeing a group project or managing a client relationship.
What He Carried to College
Brett took that mindset straight to Boston College, where he studied International Studies with a focus in Spanish. The lesson he leaned on most wasn’t his language skills, but adaptability. He stayed flexible enough with his courses to squeeze real estate seminars into his busy schedule, chasing a passion that didn’t quite follow the usual path.
Despite the popular trajectory from strictly economics or finance into real estate, he successfully found himself with a job in commercial real estate while majoring in his passion for global studies.
Where He Is Now
Today, Brett works as an Asset Management Analyst for a commercial real estate firm in the New York metro area. He still leans on what Spanish Gap Year and Arantxa taught him:
“I have continued to leverage my gap time and the Spanish Gap Year program with Arantxa as a period of growth and progress, and a reminder that not all journeys need to be the same. I am proud to reflect and appreciate the milestones; from my gap time, to graduating from BC, to now working in an industry I always wanted. “
His Spanish skills are still strong, and he’s planning a trip back to Spain soon to reconnect with the friends he made during his time here.
What Brett’s Story Teaches Us
Independence, confidence, and adaptability are just some of the words that run through Brett’s story from start to finish. From host family dinners, to a lecture hall at Boston College, now to a desk in a New York office. None of these are just gap year takeaways, they’re career takeaways that he will be able to carry with him for the rest of his life.
Ready to Write Your Own Story?
Wondering if a gap year is worth it? Just look at alumni like Brett: fluent in Spanish, adaptable, and thriving in a career built on a foundation started with one semester abroad. His gap year didn’t end when he flew home. In many ways, it’s still going.
Ready to start your adventure? Book a call with us, and let’s see where it takes you.
¡Vamos! Your story is waiting.
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