Taking time off is not such an 'off-full' idea

Author: Nicole Lam, Mary Lane, and Cecilia Goldschmitt

Gurard-Levin takes a gap semester to gain perspective on real world

Like many first-years coming to Middlebury in September 2003, Micah Gurard-Levin '07.5, fell into the trap of believing that college was all about getting through intensive academic courses in order to snag that coveted career. Not realizing that college is actually more about experimenting and achieving a balance between the academic and the social, Gurard-Levin began his first semester at the College by taking pre-med classes along with advanced math courses. Ultimately this grueling drive backfired.

"By the end of my first semester, I was completely burned out after having put myself in a debilitating cycle of falling behind in one subject, then catching up while falling behind in another," Gurard-Levin said. "Frequent all-nighters led to sleep deprivation and ultimately an unhealthy situation marked by depression."

The constant stress and worry led to an inability to focus on schoolwork.

"Procrastination became a major issue and I found that I wasn't turning any work in on time," he said.

After a full year of being on academic probation, the College mandated in Spring 2004 that Gurard-Levin take time off from school. "I agreed that it was in my best interest to step away from the rigorous academic routine and concentrate on resolving personal issues," he explained.

Gurard-Levin spent his fall semester working full time for Gap, Inc. as a retail salesman. "I experienced everything from 3 a.m. shipment arrivals to midnight restocking shifts," Gurard-Levin said. "More than anything, working a rather mundane and trivial retail job motivated me to get back to school where I would be in a challenging environment that fostered personal growth and development - but at the same time, working a menial job gave me a break from the demands of academic life."

While working and seeing a counselor on a regular basis during his time-off from school, Gurard-Levin had "the opportunity to reflect internally in a supportive environment." The valuable time off changed Gurard-Levin's attitude and perception of the College when he returned the spring semester of his sophomore year.

"The semester I returned was more enjoyable and significantly less academically demanding," he said. "I turned to courses that were related to my passions - music and film. I was excited by the crossover of material in my Sight and Sound film class and my introductory sociology class."

Unexpectedly, the sociology class that he took only to satisfy a credit inspired him to switch to a Sociology major. While in control and disciplined in his classes, he became more involved in the College's community by joining MCAB's Grille committee, which related to his passion for music.

"With the continued support of my dean and the counseling center, the return to the College in the spring was a far more positive experience than my initial arrival on campus as a first-year student," he explained.

Gurard-Levin feels that his semester off has allowed him to enjoy a more balanced life back at the College. "I don't stress out too much if my GPA isn't above a 3.0, but I don't see that attitude mirrored among my peers," he explained. Seeing this as detrimental to a balanced college experience at Middlebury, Gurard-Levin cautioned, "the College needs to revisit the topic of workload and determine whether students benefit more by completing overwhelming amounts of work, or by spending more time gaining a deeper understanding of the course material."

Groebe battles Hodgkin's Lymphoma, rallies for Relay

While many Middlebury students choose to take time off to pursue their own self interests and passions, Matt Groebe '08 was forced to spend his fall semester, Winter Term and the first month of spring semester at his home in Winnetka, Ill., battling an unexpected relapse of Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a cancer that typically spreads in but is not limited to a patient's lymph nodes.

"It ruined my senior year and put my entire life on hold," said Groebe. "And the effect that it had on my family, especially my parents, was much worse than on me."

Having suffered from Hodgkin's in his sophomore year of high school, Groebe was accustomed to periodical checks with his oncologist in Winnetka. Abnormal lumps behind his ear located during a check-up in August did not respond to antibiotics, and PET and CAT scans during the next month revealed a relapse of the disease. Groebe was eager to return to Middlebury for his senior year, and his family quickly began looking at treatment centers near the College, including the oncology centers at Dartmouth and the University of Vermont Hospital in Burlington.

"When it became apparent that a stem cell transplant might be part of the treatment and that the treatment itself would be over many months, we decided that he should be treated at a hospital in the Chicago area," wrote his mother Beth Groebe in an e-mail to The Campus.

Despite a treatment plan involving intensive chemotherapy treatments and grueling recovery from the stem cell transplant - which involved sanitized isolation for three weeks - Groebe decided to take courses during his time away from the College in order to graduate on time. "I looked at what schoolwork I felt I could handle, and realized I only needed to do one course in the fall, which was all I could handle with the chemo anyways," he said. "I only needed three credits for spring - one for my major, Psychology, and two random distribution requirements," which he is currently taking through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's online program. Given the extenuating circumstances, Groebe was able to receive administrative approval for his transfer credits relatively easily. "There were some administrative hiccups along the way but there was never any doubt in my mind I wasn't going to let credit requirements get the best of me when I was dealing with something as big as cancer," he said.

"I think it was important for Matt to continue taking classes (as long as he was able to and he was) while undergoing treatment," wrote Beth Groebe. "It gave him the opportunity to concentrate on something other than the treatment and it allowed him to graduate with his class, which was very important to him."

Although keeping up with his schoolwork during treatment for cancer was demanding enough, Groebe's reflections regarding his relapse inspired him to start the Middlebury Relay for Life team "A Cure for Hodgkins," which has raised $17,600 at the time of publication.

"When I look around my town and see $10 million houses, I always think of how that money would be so much better spent helping cure cancer," he wrote in an e-mail to friends while still in recovery from his stem cell transplant. "Researchers and doctors are making big strides in fighting cancer, but they're nowhere near conquering it. It might sound stupid, but I think one of the reasons the cancer relapsed was God's way of telling me to start caring."

Groebe's parents both expressed amazement and admiration for his ability to graduate on time and organize his Relay for Life team, during his time off from school. "He has had to deal with much more than anyone should have to deal with, and he has done it with a positive attitude and with unbelievable strength," wrote his mother. "Being able to organize the team and the strong support and contributions that followed was a positive factor in his recovery too."

Travel abroad supports community-based learning

"I got to get outside of the U.S. bubble for a little bit," said Lewis Merl '11.5 on his time in South America before coming to Middlebury. Even with the February admissions program that Middlebury offers, a majority of the students at the College arrive fresh out of high school. Not Merl, though. Merl graduated hig
h school in 2006, and is currently in his first semester at Middlebury as a first-year Feb after returning from an exciting year and a half of traveling through Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru.

"I didn't feel ready for college. I needed a break," Merl admitted in response to why he chose to take the time off before going to college. In the ninth grade, Merl worked on a project for his Spanish class on Ecuador and got hooked. It was then that he decided that he wanted to take a year off and travel there. "My parents supported it. They thought it was a good idea to get out and travel," he explained, adding that they also were encouraging of his goal of becoming a fluent Spanish speaker.

"I trekked, climbed mountains and volcanoes, lived with families, worked a little bit and went to places that literally aren't even on the map," Merl summarized of his time in South America. His travels began in Ecuador through a program run by GlobalQuest. However, when the program ended and everyone returned to the U.S., Merl decided to extend his stay. He found a job in a hostel for six months in Quito, Ecuador, where he received free room and board but had to work long hours for six days a week.

One of Merl's most vivid memories from Ecuador was his stay with an indigenous tribe called the Hourani. It took a four hour long canoe ride to find the tribe, and in that time, one of the canoes that was carrying his group's bags sunk. Merl described that during this stay, his group ran out of fresh water while with the tribe and ended up having to boil any water that they wanted to drink. "We were drinking smoke-flavored water for days," he recalled. Additionally, Merl and his group learned how to make poison darts. Merl still has many souvenirs to show of his time with the Hourani, including various spears and a jaguar tooth necklace.

Another of Merl's most memorable times during his travels was his one-week stay in a self-sustained town called Kata in the Andes of Bolivia. There was no electricity or running water in the town, and Merl explained, nobody in the town had ever seen white people before. "I don't think they quite knew what to do with us," said Merl, who took part in a huge ceremony led by the town's medicine men.

After such distinct experiences, it was not easy for Merl to come back to the United States. "The culture shock of being back in the States was incredible," said Merl, who returned from his year and a half adventure on Jan. 1. After learning to speak Spanish fluently, Merl described, "It was really tough getting adjusted to English again." Upon arriving at Middlebury in February, however, he did not feel that it was too hard to assimilate to life here, one of the main reasons being that he was entering Middlebury alongside other Febs who had "also done crazy trips." Merl's time in South America has inspired him to work to be a Latin American Studies major at Middlebury, and he is hoping to take a semester abroad his junior year either to Argentina or to Cuba.