Michelle Dittmer: Founder and CEO of the Gap Year Association

Michelle is an Ontario Certified Teacher and holds a B.Sc. from McMaster in Biology, a B.Ed. from the University Of Ontario Institute Of Technology and an M.A. in Leadership from Royal Roads University. As a high school teacher, she realized that many of the essential skills to thrive as a young adult were being squeezed out by hard curriculum, leaving students feeling stressed, rushed, without direction and purpose and a sense of being unprepared for life outside of the classroom. All of these experiences have culminated in 10+ years of gap year advocacy and gap year planning support and lead to the founding of CanGap. She believes that gap years are a truly educational experience and should be part of more young people's educational and career journeys.