Senior Ezra Garfield will be expanding his horizons while working and travelling in South America this coming year.

“I wanted to do something that was not related to school or academic learning, just to give myself a break. I’ve always liked a physical challenge and a mental challenge as well,” says Ezra.

For his new experience, Ezra will first be backpacking, sea kayaking, and mountaineering in the wilderness for a few months in Patagonia on a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) program. His plans then shift to volunteering at either a microfinance organization or social entrepreneurship to get involved with small local communities.

“I’m 17 years old because I skipped a grade, so I’d be going into college a year younger than everyone anyway so I think I had an extra year,” says Ezra about his decision to take a gap year. “After high school is one of the few times where you have a lot of freedom and can be unattached for a year, so it’s one of the few opportunities where you can just go somewhere for a year and explore and learn.”

Once he has finished his gap year, Ezra plans to attend the University of California, Berkeley. He hopes that his gap year will make him more successful in school the following year because he’ll have a chance to reset and refresh himself.

Ezra has traveled a fair amount in his life, but is eager to see more places and explore new things. “I’ve seen how cool and what a great place the world is and there’s so much to see still, so I’m excited to experience these new places that I might not have had a chance to go to otherwise,” says Ezra.