The 2013 Challenge-Marist gap-year students graduated on Sunday 1 December in a ceremony held at St Joseph’s Church in Wellington, New Zealand.
Parents, friends and former gap-year students listen as each of the 8 “Gappies” described the challenges they had faced and related the lessons learned in the course of the year.
They spoke enthusiastically especially about the placements they had been given which had provided an the opportunity to goes places they had never been before and to meet people from different ethnic groups, work with children, teenagers and people with disabilities.
Near the end of the course each person was given a month-long placement, working away from their familiar surroundings, in Okaihau, Auckland, Dunedin, Mexico and Samoa.
The gap-year is a one year programme that involves holistic formation, NZQA youth work training, work placements, experiences, and local and international travel. The Gap Year offers the chance to develop the social, spiritual, intellectual, employment, well-being and physical elements that are required for a positive, successful and balanced life.
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News category: New Zealand.