Gap Year Programs
for adventurous spirits
Build life skills. Be true to yourself.
Satisfy your thirst for community.
Take a transformative gap year!
Gap Year Opportunities to Discover Yourself
EXPLORE WITH A
TIGHT KNIT COMMUNITY
Here you have the chance to be seen and accepted for who you are. You might feel like you're coming home or feel a sense of closeness we all crave. Share challenging & crazy adventures that create unparalleled friendships.
FIND
PURPOSE
You don’t want to sign up for an ordinary Gap Year program; you want to co-create adventures. Rules? How about choices and opportunities? Here you can be what matters.
FEEL INSPIRED
& PLAYFUL
Join us if you want to feel inspired; if you embrace homespun and informal fun; wilderness adventure; if you're intrigued by dumpster diving, skinny dipping and being real. Be ready to laugh hard and feel high on life.
MAXIMIZE YOUR
FREEDOM
Here you'll find your voice will be respected and heard. We believe that choice matters. You'll find a place where part of freedom is having the courage to take ownership of what you choose.
Upcoming Gap Year Programs
Spring Intensive
Write your heart out with a group of creatives in the Colorado Rockies:
The Writing Retreat
The Writing Retreat is spring opportunity separate from our gap year program. Accomplish an ambitious, self-paced writing challenge in a tight-knit community. Located in Paonia, Colorado take advantage of small group sharing sessions as well as opportinities for one-on-one feedback if you want or opportunities to take part in adventure in Colorado that feeds your creative spirit.
From: May 24th To: June 28th, 2023
Applications Open
FALL 2023
Grow greens, climb mountains, create community, travel off the beaten path:
Join us for the fall semester
Take a semester to challenge yourself and grow in ways you never thought possible. Explore the Colorado wilderness and local rural community living. The program finishes with an immersive group road trip to Mexico. You will emerge from the program with skills and self-knowledge that are strong assets to a college education or whatever life-path you choose to take.
From: Aug 23 To: Nov 15, 2023
Applications Open
Spring 2024
Travel the world with a group of off-the-beaten path travelers and ask big questions:
Join the spring semester
For 14 weeks you will explore themes of community and freedom in three unique locations--Thailand, the desert SW, and Colorado. You will dig into the skills that make life meaningful and exciting as you discover new cultures and build self-knowledge. You will emerge from the program with a greater understanding of the world and the and skills to build community wherever you go.
From: Feb 15 To: May 23, 2024
Applications Closed
What past participants say about our gap year programs
HERO KLIMEK-BROOKS
Seattle, WA
My gap year at the High Desert Center was easily one of the most transformative, rich, and important experiences I’ve ever had. That year spent in the red canyons and tall mountains and juniper forests and small farms of Southwest Colorado brought me more growth, learning, joy and challenge than I ever imagined. Creating a strong, intentional community with the other participants and staff was a challenging and incredibly rewarding experience.
TOWNER SCHUNK
Atlanta, GA
I joined the program unsure of who I was or what I wanted in life, and found a community that not only accepted me, but celebrated me for everything that I am. From day one, everyone wanted to tear down their walls and be as authentically themselves as possible. I grew emotionally, physically, and mentally. I truly believe anybody could gain something profound from coming to the HDC.
High Desert Center is recognized as a top rated Gap Year Program across the web.
Meet Dev Carey, co-director of the High Desert Center and all Gap Year opportunities.
Dev thrives on adventure, outdoors, and connection with others. He’s had “normal” jobs like working for Sterling College, with inner city youth as a VISTA Volunteer, as a counselor at Not Back to School Camp, and as a river guide. He has a Ph.D. in ecology and still now and then writes plant and animal guides with local youth.
While working on his dissertation, he became an advocate for students and families who were looking for ways to learn outside of the classroom. That advocacy turned into the The Vision Program, a charter program of the Colorado Delta County Public School system. The program supports over 600 elementary, middle and high school students to design their own home and community based educations.
He loves building and living in funky sustainable houses, sharing land and meals with community, "adopted" teenagers and his family: Seraya, Huckleberry, and Marian.
His main work and passion is creating off-the-beaten path adventures with teenagers.