“Life moves pretty fast,” Ferris Bueller famously said. Especially after high school, when we grab our diploma like a baton and hit the ground running. It’s not easy to make the transition from being a living-at-home teenager to becoming an almost-adult who’s expected to make a decision about what’s next. In fact, it can seem overwhelming to many graduates.
With that in mind, the Logan County Chamber of Commerce has created the LoCo Gap Year, a faith, character and career program for 17- to 20-year-olds. This new initiative offers 10 students an alternative to jumping right into college.
According to Logan County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Ben Vollrath, local businesses are “hungry for new employees.” He added, “Everyone is in the same boat.” In response, the chamber sought a way to meet that need while also helping recent grads.
The result was the LoCo Gap Year program, which includes a local full-time job with benefits plus living quarters. Ten participants will share a large house—five girls on one floor with a separate entrance from the five boys on the second. It will run from August 1, 2022, to July 31, 2023.
Besides leadership development and real world experience, the LoCo Gap Year has a faith element. Leaders from Bellefontaine Grace Church will provide one-on-one discipleship and small group study, guiding the young people toward a greater knowledge of the Bible as they learn how to apply it to the workplace, their relationships and their neighborhood. The church also assisted in supplying the house the graduates will live in, which is located in Bellefontaine.
While the participants will receive plenty of support throughout the year, they’ll also work, make their own meals, and cover their own expenses for things like rent and food. “It’s a big step of independence,” Vollrath said, “but they’re in a community at the same time.”
Since this is the inaugural year, the chamber has set a deadline: according to Vollrath, they need to have at least six applications by the end of June in order to move forward. Eventually, he said they would like to partner with a sister town for a student exchange. His research has found that while kids might like it here, they still have a desire to leave and explore other places. Sending them to an area similar to Logan County would give them that opportunity.
For more information, or to apply, visit logancountyohio.com/loco-gap. You can contact Vollrath directly by calling 937-651-3030 or emailing him at [email protected]. The program also has a Facebook page—LoCo Gap Year.