The BAEF Gap Fellows Program
Many British schools welcome selected students with leadership ability as interns or fellows during their gap year between high school and college.
These Gap Fellows help out with coaching, music, drama, tutoring and dorm duties, particularly with younger students. They are called differently by different schools (Gap students, Gappers, Gappies, etc.). At the BAEF we call them Gap Fellows to acknowledge that they are joining an academic community in a kind of teaching fellow capacity: no longer a pupil (a primary or secondary school student in America), a Gap Fellow helps run the community, sets an example, can be a mentor, but is not yet a full tutor or professor.
See "What is a Gap Fellow?" for a description of a typical Gap Fellow position. Clearly, it requires some expertise in sports or arts and a mature commitment to the program.
Ideally, an American high school student should decide by the end of his or her Junior year (and certainly no later than the fall of Senior year) to apply for the following academic year, with the expectation that he or she will not matriculate to college immediately following high school graduation but is choosing instead to take a gap year.
