In our combined years of guiding programs for young people from ages 7 – 25, we have found that community connection, adult support, cultivating personal wholeness, and immersion in the natural world are keys to addressing this youth mental health crisis and to creating road maps for how young people can be inspired to create meaningful, engaged lives that focus on personal resiliency and regenerative culture.
At both Pompanuck and Spirit Hollow, we have been dedicated to culture change, skills building, creating resilient communities, and teaching and sharing hands-on, experiential resources with people for 30+ years.
What we believe:
The answer isn't "do the same thing", but to respond to the needs of these young ones. And there are so many life-affirming options.
An effective and life-altering response is providing a supportive environment wherein students can explore and develop their innate gifts and talents, dive deeply into their interests and passions, and engage in profound, nature-based experiences that encourage personal inquiry and reflection, and develop the tools to establish their unique path moving forward.
Dear Parents
There are so many compelling reasons to encourage your young adult to take a gap semester or year, whether that happens between high school and college, as a break during college, or directly after college graduation.
What Does the Research Say About a Gap Year for Your Child?
From Forbes: “Why High School Graduates Should Consider a Gap Year”
The college consultant adds that a well-planned gap year can give students "an opportunity to arrive on campus with a greater perspective, heightened self-awareness and a clear intention of what they want out of their college experience."
From Harvard “ReThink the Gap”
When Duncan arrived at Tufts, she noticed commonalities among the students who had taken gap years. “We had a clearer sense of what we wanted from our education,” she says. Research confirms her observations.
From Parent Magazine: “What a Gap year Is and What it Isn’t and How to Know if Your Child Should Take One.”
Meyer of EF Gap Year Tours says a gap year doesn't have to be as exotic as traveling abroad: "But it does mean dedicating some time to examining yourself through the lens of new environments, people, and ideas outside of the education system so that you can step back into it with renewed confidence and drive."
From the Gap Year Association (GYA): “Data-Benefits”
In fact, in the United Kingdom and in the United States, students who had taken a Gap Year were more likely to graduate with higher grade point averages than observationally identical individuals who went straight to college, and this effect was seen even for gap year students with lower academic achievement in high school (Crawford and Cribb 2012, Clagett 2013).
From the Chronicle of Higher Education: “The Best Freshman Year is a Gap Year.
We recently worked with a group of experts to define the following key characteristics of a transformative gap year: It is purposeful and practical, involving some element of service to others; it takes students out of their comfort zone, challenging them to learn new skills and try on new perspectives; it offers the right balance of autonomy and mentoring to help students build self-confidence and a sense of purpose; it is accessible to students from all economic backgrounds.
Young adults are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and disconnect. This isn't story, it's fact.
Young adults in the United States continue to be more likely than their older counterparts to be experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression, according to the latest federal data.
Having dedicated our lives to the healing of the world, we feel Earth Craft is one powerful solution to this crisis.
The analysis of the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey finds that half (50%) of adults ages 18-24 reported anxiety and depression symptoms in 2023, compared to about a third of adults overall. The data also show that young adults are more likely than adults of any other age group to experience mental health symptoms.
We find it alarming that HALF of young adults are reporting pervasive depression and anxiety.
As parents and educators ourselves, our EarthCraft staff feels the moral obligation to show up for them now in very real, tangible ways, to help combat the despair, anxiety and hopelessness that so many of them feel— and mostly, to provide them with alternative ways of seeing the world, with tools for self care, with a sense of deep belonging to community, and practical life skills to help re-ignite and inspire them.
A Note to Parents on Investment
In these times of so much uncertainty on Planet Earth, we are witnessing major shifts in our economy and the old trajectory of a college education leading directly into gainful employment is no longer as clear cut as it may once have been.
As of March 2024, the debt for college graduates averages above $26,000. Furthermore, a recent CBS study reports that more than half of graduates do not find work using their degree in their chosen fields.
We believe it can be a disservice to ask our young ones to already know who they are at the very threshold of their blossoming, and to commit to a lifelong path at such a tender age. We have heard far too many stories of people who are forced to continue in fields that are no longer resonant with their souls true calling, because of the burden of debt they’ve accumulated from their education.
In carving out the time to truly explore their unique gifts and vision the full range of possibilities that life can offer, our program offers an invaluable opportunity for our young ones to deeply resource and reflect on the myriad roads laid out before them, rather than getting swept up in a traditional and potentially limiting trajectory which by no means guarantees fulfillment, nor even financial security. The skills offered in Earth Craft serve to shape well-rounded and resilient young ones who will be ready and able to carve out their own path no matter what twists and turns befall our current institutions.
How Earth Craft Gap Semester Was Born
I’m Tracey Forest, Director of Spirit Hollow and the Earth Craft Gap Semester. My own children are ages 19 and 22, so I am right there with you in this very tender time of preparing for your child to take flight. Congratulations on all the hard work you and your family have done to raise your child with all the love and care you have no doubt poured in. And I know firsthand that the empty nest is real. My eldest graduated from Bennington College last June and is living in Portland, Maine. My youngest took a gap year after high school, and he feels it was crucial in his readiness for college. He is now a freshman at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. I miss them every day, and like you, I am bursting with joy to see them thrive independently.
If your young adult chooses to join us for this special gap semester experience, please know that the Earth Craft staff and I will care for them deeply and treat them as if they are our own kin. Thanks for considering us in your Gap Year deliberations!
I thought you might enjoy reading my little blog on how Earth Craft Gap was born. You can read it here.