Emily Rifkin’s plans for the fall changed dramatically in just the past month. The Belmont High School recent graduate was hoping to take a gap year and then attend Oberlin College in 2012. “I wanted a break from academics for a while and was hoping to perform volunteer work in a developing nation, possibly teaching English in the western part of Africa,” she said, explaining that’s a part of the continent where the people speak French and she wanted to improve her skills in the language. In addition, Rifkin just didn’t feel ready to go to college right away. “I wanted a rest from the stress …

Adrian Pearson plans to spend the next 10 years – and more, if possible – seeing as many places and meeting as many people that time and opportunity allow. “I want to see the whole world,” said the Belmont High School senior on Friday, May 20, his last day of classes. “I’ve been going to school with the same kids for 13 years and sleeping in the same bedroom for 17 so I’ll miss people and home. It will be weird at first but worth making the break.” Pearson will certainly be going far from Belmont, traveling across an ocean to live on another continent. In September, he will begin studies at …

From now until June 5, Belmont Patch will feature High School seniors who are graduating this year. Cassandra Biette often jokes with her father that the perfect job for her would be going camping and being paid for doing so. Even mentioning it makes the Belmont High School senior laugh a bit. But Biette has a plan after graduation that just may turn her fantasy into reality. She has decided to postpone college and instead take a gap year to pursue an educational experience that is “totally different” from her schooling over the past 13 years. After working as a counselor for her second year …

From now until June 5, Belmont Patch will feature High School seniors who are graduating this year. Although Kathleen Zhu wasn’t accepted to her first-choice college, she firmly believes the next four years of her life will work out even better than she could have foreseen just a few months ago. “In life, you’re going to get rejected in some way – either by a college, a boyfriend, a girlfriend or a job,” said the Belmont High School senior. “The best thing you can do is accept it, get over it and move on to find happiness elsewhere.” And that’s exactly what happened to Zhu. In the fall, she …