Morgan Christensen, an NDA senior, has decided to take a less conventional, life-altering path for her first semester of college.

This path is the SNC gap program which takes 16 college freshmen around the country to experience leadership opportunities, social justice, immigration injustices and another culture in Guatemala.

Along with the students, a director and professor go along. The professor teaches while they are on the trip and has them write papers and do other assignments.

With this program she will still be getting all of the college credits she would get by doing classroom learning but without entering a classroom.

“I had actually considered doing a gap year because I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go straight back to classroom learning,” said Christensen about why she chose this program.

She believed it was a very good combination of learning without the pressure of a classroom and an opportunity to do service.  

The students attend the SNC welcome week and the day that the rest of the student body starts classes they head off to Minnesota.

“I am most excited for all of the different opportunities and all of the different things I will be able to experience,” said Christensen.

Many people come back from this trip knowing what they want to do with their lives and Christensen hopes she will as well.

She hopes to gain a better understanding of the world and what she can do to make a difference in it.

For the leg of the trip in Guatemala she is planning on learning some Spanish so she can immerse herself better.

“I think it will be nice to know a group of people really closely and have so many shared experiences,” Christensen said about her fellow trip participants.