Student Support

A year away

Published on August 17, 2016

“I grew a lot from a gap year. I like traveling and it was good for me.”

By carstories

Photo: Leah Simon (middle) partakes in the closing ceremony at an English summer camp in Burma. Simon, an incoming first-year student, spent her first year as a Tar Heel volunteering around the world as part of the Global Gap Year Fellowship.

Growing up in Chapel Hill, Leah Simon always wanted to go to her hometown university.

But as she got closer to high school graduation, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill became less of a certainty.

In the end, it was the chance to get out of her hometown that brought Simon to Carolina.

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