{"id":2319,"date":"2026-10-02T15:45:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/?p=2319"},"modified":"2026-10-02T15:45:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:45:22","slug":"gap-year-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/gap-year-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Gap year growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo courtesy of BVS<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Photo courtesy of BVS<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I can remember traveling to Colorado for my BVS orientation, still a little unsure about what I was getting myself into. I had planned to go to graduate school immediately after graduating from college but ultimately decided that taking a gap year would be more beneficial; it would give me a break from being in a classroom and I could learn some practical job skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started my year, still wondering if I made the right choice to take a gap year. Of course I loved my placement, enjoyed working with my supervisor and co-workers, and was excited to explore a new city. Yet, I still wondered how my life would have been different if I went right to graduate school instead of into BVS. And somehow, I still chose to do a second BVS year, in a new role, but in the same city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I often found myself wondering how my life would have been so different if I spent two years in graduate school instead of taking two gap years. I could be almost done with a graduate program; I could have spent two years settling into adult life. But I would have missed out on so much growth during my two volunteer years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember telling my supervisor about one month before my second year ended, \u201cwow, I have learned more in my BVS years than I learned in college.\u201d Of course, college taught me a ton of important and valuable skills, but I learned so many practical and real-life skills during my time in BVS. I gained more confidence in my abilities and the knowledge that I had while serving in BVS than I could have in two years of graduate school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rachel Johnson. Photo courtesy of BVS. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Rachel Johnson in her office at the Church of the Brethren headquarters in Elgin, Illinois. Photo courtesy of BVS. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Rachel Johnson speaking at Annual Conference 2025. Photo by Donna Parcell. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I have also made so many connections that I wouldn\u2019t have been able to make in graduate school. I met so many people that encouraged me throughout the two years and continue to. I now have such a long list of people to call when I am struggling, need a reference, or want to debrief something. I could have made connections in graduate school, but not these exact connections, which I am forever grateful for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that I have been done with my two years of volunteer service for a few months, I look back and still sometimes wonder how my life would be different now if I hadn\u2019t taken those two gap years. However, I also don\u2019t think I would do anything different if I was given the opportunity to. Those two years taught me so much more than I ever could have anticipated, and knowing what I know now, I wouldn\u2019t want to miss out on the skills I learned, the people I met, and the opportunities I was given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is so much to learn, experience, and grow in during a time of service in BVS, and even if it means putting something else off temporarily, serving in BVS is still always worth taking a year off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Becky Ullom-Naugle, director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries, and Rachel Johnson at NYC 2026. Photo by Chris Brumbaugh-Cayford.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Anna Schweitzer, assistant coordinator, and Rachel Johnson, NYC coordinator, at 2026 National Youth Conference. Photo by Glenn Riegel. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel Johnson, Unit 335, Church of the Brethren headquarters, Elgin, Illinois<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[131,130,137],"class_list":["post-2319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-youth-young-adults","tag-brethren-volunteer-service","tag-bvs","tag-unit-335"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2329,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319\/revisions\/2329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/bvs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}