Charting the highs and lows of independent travel, this informative and inspirational guide helps readers make the most of a gap year-parents and children alike. Besides stories of bungee-jumping and swimming with sharks, teaching children English in Africa, tending baby jaguars in Bolivia, and studying film in New York, author and journalist Tammy Cohen has selected some remarkable accounts of students who've helped save communities, single-handedly rebuilt the hospital that cured their malaria, and transformed the lives of their own parents by introducing them to the third-world village that has more or less adopted them.