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A Global Gap Year

Before and beyond college, Baret Scholars explore seven regions of the world, their passions, and their purpose. This will be their best year yet.

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The Route Map

ORIENTATION
New England
Sep 15 - Sep 20, 2025
UNITED STATES
New York
Sep 20 - Oct 10, 2025
Fellowships
Oct 4 - Oct 12, 2025
Including
  • Los Angeles
  • Washington DC
  • Mexico City
SOUTH AMERICA
São Paulo
Oct 18 - Nov 7, 2025
Fellowships
Nov 4 - Nov 15, 2025
Including
  • Rio de Janeiro
  • Amazon
  • Patagonia
EUROPE
Paris
Nov 15 - Dec 4, 2025
Fellowships
Dec 9 - Dec 18, 2025
Including

  • Seville
  • Tuscany
  • London
BREAK
Dec 18 - Jan 18, 2026
MIDDLE EAST
Istanbul
Jan 19 - Feb 8, 2026
Middle East Fellowships
Jan 31 - Feb 9, 2026
Including

  • Jordan
  • Dubai
  • Saudi Arabia
AFRICA
Nairobi
Feb 16 - Mar 7, 2026
Fellowships
Mar 3 - Mar 14, 2026
Including

  • Kigali
  • Cape Town
  • Kilimanjaro
INDIA
Delhi
Mar 15 - Apr 4, 2026
Fellowships
Apr 4 - Apr 12, 2026
Including

  • Varanasi
  • Mumbai
  • Rajasthan
CHINA
Beijing
Apr 12 - May 2, 2026
Fellowships
May 5 - May 16, 2026
Including

  • Shenzhen
  • Shanghai
  • Ho Chi Minh City
GRADUATION
North China
May 10 - May 15, 2026
ORIENTATION
New England
Sep 9 - Sep 14, 2024
UNITED STATES
New York
Sep 14 - Oct 4, 2024
Fellowships
Oct 4 - Oct 12, 2024
Including

  • Los Angeles
  • Denver
  • Mexico City
SOUTH AMERICA
São Paulo
Oct 13 - Nov 4, 2024
Fellowships
Nov 4 - Nov 15, 2024
Including

  • Rio de Janeiro
  • Brazilia
  • Manaus
EUROPE
Paris
Nov 16 - Dec 9, 2024
Fellowships
Dec 9 - Dec 18, 2024
Including

  • Athens
  • Tuscany
  • London
BREAK
Dec 18 - Jan 12
MIDDLE EAST
Istanbul
Jan 12 - Jan 31
Fellowships
Jan 31 - Feb 9
Including

  • Jordan
  • Dubai
  • Saudi Arabia
AFRICA
Nairobi
Feb 9 - Mar 3
Fellowships
Mar 3 - Mar 14
Including

  • Accra
  • Lagos
  • Kilimanjaro
INDIA
Delhii
Mar 15 - Apr 4
Fellowships
Apr 4 - Apr 12
Including

  • Varanasi
  • Kashmir
  • Karnataka
CHINA
Beijing
Apr 13 - May 5
Fellowships
May 5 - May 16
Including

  • Shenzhen
  • Manzhouli
  • Ho Chi Minh City
GRADUATION
Hokkaido
May 17 - May 22

The Program
Overview

The 4 key elements of the Baret Scholars program are meticulously crafted to offer a sense of structure within a realm of freedom.

1

The
Morning

Program

In every region, we will bring expert speakers, thinkers, performing artists, and leaders to inspire a nuanced understanding of the world they’re exploring and the lives they’re planning: like a traveling TED. Every month as students transition to a new region, the Morning Program will shift its focus, dedicating itself to unraveling the intricacies of that specific culture. From the rich history and traditions to contemporary advancements and challenges, it will be their intellectual compass, the spine of their gap year experience.

2

Independent Exploration

Students choose how to spend afternoons, evenings, and their long weekends. They can volunteer at a local NGO, teach or learn a language, assist a fellow with research, explore neighboring towns and cities, form interest groups, watch films about the region, or pick a book from our reading list. They will never be at a loose end. Nothing is forced - but everything is on the table. We make sure that our students will always have exciting, safe and well-researched options, enabling them to experientially engage with the city, its people, its problems, and people working to solve these problems.

3

Advising
Program

Traveling with the 180 Baret Scholars will be 15, full-time, carefully chosen advisors who come from all corners of the globe and are experts in all corners of life. We call them Fellows. Each Fellow will serve 12 students, meet them as a group everyday, and one-on-one every week. Modeled after the Oxford/Cambridge tutorial system, these sessions provide students with the guidance they need, life design techniques, and inspiration for their independent projects. Fellows help students plan to get the most from their coming college experience and imminent adult lives.

4

Fellowships
— 70 to
Choose From

In each region, students will choose how they spend their last week. A panoply of opportunities will be given to them, all educationally themed and led by Fellows. In small groups of 12, they will go off-the beaten-path to pursue their interests, develop skills, and discover the region. Over the year, they might trek the Appalachians, examine the biodiversity of the Amazon, walk the pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago, discover the future of urban planning in Saudi Arabia, create art in Nigeria, help preserve the endangered world of India’s Royal Bengal Tiger, and engage with entrepreneurs in Shenzhen.

The Book

Life presents to us precious windows into creativity, transformation, and self-discovery. Rarely convenient, these portals to growth close as quickly as they appear. For most, that moment lies between the end of high school and the beginning of college. There is a chance, perhaps a last chance, to get off the often spirit-killing march that goes from early youth all the way to post college employment. This book is about the unique period that recent high school graduates possess and the importance of seizing it.

Note: We will be releasing Volume 3 of the book very soon! Volume 3 contains updated information about the program. Please contact us if you have any questions

Benefits

1

A Purpose Filled College Experience

Across the year, we help each student think through their college time which lies ahead. Each student completes the Baret year with a personalized, purposeful college plan.

2

Broader Career Opportunities

Baret experience will be viewed by interviewers as something distinct from virtually every other competing applicant, as companies increasingly seek team members with extensive international awareness and experience.

3

Understanding the World

Baret allows students to become real citizens of this planet and geographers in the broader sense of the word, understanding not just maps, but the human constructed phenomena going on within those lines.

4

Seeing Home Through a New Lens

When in their home regions, Baret participants will act as hosts or cultural interpreters for their visiting Baret colleagues. As they help them understand their home country, they learn too.

5

Road to a More Desired College

Baret graduates will be highly sought after as they begin their college careers with maturity and a wholly different set of experiences, enhancing their chances of admission into more prestigious colleges.

6

A New World of Friends and Worldwide Network

Baret students will be drawn from every region of the world, and some number of those students will become lifetime friends. Baret plans an extensive alumni program to keep its graduates in touch.

7

Advancement of Skills and Interests

Each Baret cohort will include those with a wide range of interests. There will be coders, artists, musicians, budding entrepreneurs. All students will be highly encouraged to advance existing or newly discovered interests.

8

Self Development

Baret is a way to accelerate the student’s possibility of understanding their old self while creating who they want to become, an opportunity for growth and discovery.

Register Your
Interest

Thank you for your interest. For further information, please complete the form below or email us at info@BaretScholars.org.

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