Check out our Travel Programs Table for a list of program options and their characteristics.
Download our International Travel Worksheet to help you organize your research around some specifically recommended travel programs and consider important criteria related to them.
Books, brochures, and reference guides are available in the Career Center on the following topics:
- Study-abroad programs: Yearlong, semester long, or summer length
- Service opportunities in foreign countries
- International trips organized for high school students
- International colleges and universities
- The National Registration Center for Study Abroad is a database of study abroad with language-immersion programs. It includes a teen section.
- The American Gap Association is a nonprofit accreditation and standards-setting organization for gap-year programs. Its website identifies gap-year programs that it deems to be safe and of high quality.
- The CSIET (Council on Standards for International Educational Travel) evaluates and certifies long-term international student-exchange programs at the high-school level.
For Students Considering a Gap Year of Volunteer Service:
- I Am the Voluntourist website: promotes responsible and sustainable voluntourism, provides the knowledge, motivation and inspiration to anyone who wants to make a difference close to home or while falling in love with another corner of the world.
For Students Considering a Gap Year of Au Pair Work:
- Recommended (but not vetted): aupairworld.com
- Reader Story: How Angela Travels the World as an Au Pair is one woman’s story about navigating the au pair world.
- Blogs about the au pair experience can offer personal insights.
- Facebook groups for au pairs working in specific areas can offer local insights.
- Suggestion from one South student: “[F]or any future people you have looking into this, I found out why most au pair-ships are about 3 months… its because getting a visa into Europe for more than 90 days, is sooo hard. If you go for a student visa, you have to be in school 20 hours a week, and work visas are hard to get, plus the border patrol is really strict about not letting people stay for longer than 90 days….”