After graduating from Germantown Academy, Angie Wang ‘24 followed an unconventional path before starting her college journey. Instead of heading straight to Georgetown University, she decided to take a gap year – one that has taken her across multiple countries and given her new experiences along the way.
In the fall of 2024, Wang set off on a two-and-a-half month international trip with a gap year organization called Education First, also known as EF.
“We went to three countries – Australia, Thailand and then Japan,” Wang said. “We did a lot of really cool things. For example, in Australia, we got to take a tour of the Sydney Opera House, and we also went snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef.”
Thailand stood out as Wang’s favorite country during the trip, where she worked with many local elementary schools to build infrastructures like gardens to help provide students with lunch.
“It’s so different from anything over here. It’s definitely a more developing country, but just the richness of the culture and the hospitality of every single local that I met, even though I can’t speak a lot of Thai, everyone was just so welcoming,” Wang said. “Just all of the architecture, like the temples, the markets, the traditional clothing, dancing and sports was just so unique and really beautiful to me.”
Apart from the cultural and service experiences, Education First’s abroad program aims to help develop new life skills.
“I feel like I’ve really benefited a lot from this whole experience. For example, being able to be in such new environments in foreign countries with different languages and cultures where everything was new,” Wang said. “I had to rely on myself and learn all these different things. Having to be in all these new situations, and being surrounded by all these new people, having to live with them, just made me develop a lot of skills that I couldn’t at school.”
Now that her travels are over, Angie has shifted her focus to internships and part-time jobs. She has been exploring different areas within the business field to better understand what she wants to pursue.
“I’m in the business school at Georgetown, but there’s a lot of different disciplines in business, and I wasn’t super clear on what I wanted to pursue specifically within the world of business,” Wang said. “So this past year I’ve been able to talk to a few professionals who are in different fields, like finance or operations.”
Through these conversations, Wang has begun to narrow down her interests and gain a clearer sense of direction.
“Through talking to them, I realized that I am interested in pursuing finance in college, possibly along with something else,” Wang said. “So I’m also trying to learn more about that and get some experience in that before I head to college.”
When asked about her decision to take a gap year, Wang revealed that she made her decision later in the college application process when most students had already committed to their college plans.
“I decided in March of my senior year, which was late in the college application process,” Wang said. “I realized some of the reasons why I was doing things wasn’t because I truly wanted to, but because of all the outside noise from teachers, students and family. All that really can impact what you choose to do in high school, especially since that’s the time that you’re trying to figure out a lot of things about yourself and about life.”
As she considered her next steps, she thought more about whether her choices truly reflected what she wanted for herself.
“I realized and realized that I wasn’t happy with a lot of the decisions I made, not because of the outcome, but because of why I made those decisions,” Wang said. “I realized that I wasn’t living a life that satisfied my personal values. I thought a gap year and having all that time to do stuff that I enjoyed or learn what I enjoyed sounded really appealing and something that I thought would benefit me a lot.”
For Wang, the gap year was an opportunity to step back, reflect, and take control of her own choices. She encourages others to view it as a chance to shape their own experiences in a meaningful way.
“I’d say, a gap year, you’ll benefit from it what you put into it,” Wang said. “It’s a whole year of essentially free time for you to do whatever you want. You can use that time to really dive into your passions and do something that you care about or learn a new skill.”