Why American Grads Should Take a Year Off to Travel

Why people should take one year off to travel after college? Well first, most American don't travel, only 22% of Americans (State Dept.) have a passport making the majority of Americans ineligible to travel this must change so traveling is not so rare, because the benefits of a population that is culturally knowledgeable are self apparent. Travel teaches tolerance of other cultures, because you have to live in that society dealing with the people to survive. The earlier a person travels the better because prejudices are not so engrained in them. This is why I propose that graduating seniors from college should take a year off to travel and learn from other countries and cultures. The period after college is most desirable because you are legally an independent person who has analytical skills from college, which is important to fully understand cultures and learn from them. When I am finished with my campaign students at CSUN and hopefully other colleges will understand the benefits of traveling after college. My goals will be completed when I successfully get my message out to all seniors at CSUN, and make sure the messages is carried on long after I graduate with the CSUN Year off Travel Club. The club will promote this idea to all future graduating classes. They will keep having annual rallies and regular meetings to track the progress of the movement along with new ways of persuading the student body.

Section II: Audience Segments

The period after graduating college is one where very few liabilities in life exist. Lack of a mortgage, children, and other payments make us more mobile. This is the perfect time to travel, and experience the real world by budgeting money, dealing with diverse groups, and logistically planning events. Besides the experiences gained new graduates receive all sorts of discounts, but for a limited time only. The Eurorail pass (Krueger) offers generous discounts to riders between 16-25 also some airlines and cruise liners will offer student rates. Theses discounts only last to a certain age so timing for recent graduates is perfect, also hostels are built for people our age with prices that can't be beat. Until retirement you will not be able to find better discounts or time to travel. Once we enter the workforce and start a family the American dream keeps us firm on the payment. A recent study by Columbia University (Universities) studied people who just entered the workforce after college without a break, and found that 75% of those who entered the workforce right away regretted the decision.

Section III: Promotion

Identity: A great tool for travel promotion are pictures from the actual destination. This is very effective for travel agents and airlines so I will employ the same strategy. Using beautiful pictures from exotic destinations always brings people towards flyers as it is very eye catching. A verbal campaign will also give more attention to our cause by using the newly created travel club to hold rallies on Oviatt library lawn. Passing out flyers at these rallies with pictures of exotic sites and our slogan One life, One year off. A huge help will be social networking sites like Facebook. Setting up a awareness page on that site will give us a forum to display travel stories, pictures, and discounts. Also it will be an great way to introduce the website couchsurfing.org, which is the perfect new social networking site used to travel the world by staying on peoples couches for free.

Credibility: Trust will be established through testimonials from student who accomplished this goal of traveling a year after college. Peer testimonials will be most effective in moving the ethos of the audience. Also we will establish a club at CSUN that will also give a more legit backing to our movement. With the club established an article in the CSUN Sundial newspaper will get the word out to student in a credible more professional media. Finally having a rally with music and destination brochures that would speak to students, like Caribbean music playing with pictures of Jamaica or Trinidad and Tobago. These displays along with the live peer and online testimonials will show the legitimacy of our goal along with the practical ways of accomplishing it.

Case-Building: I will employ pathos heavily in my campaign. The emotions are a powerful things and appealing to them as a method of persuasion is a proven method. Relying on the emotions that exotic beautiful beaches and amazing scenery instill in people will be my bread and butter, but will not be sufficient enough to fully implement my campaign. These picture will need to be accompanied by real cheap prices marrying these exotic destination with real world possibility of visiting them. This overwhelming pathos to visit the destination along with the logos of traveling for cheap will add another method of persuasion. Finally to employ all the methods of persuasion I will employ ethos by adding person testimonies from peers who have traveled aboard for long period of time including myself. These testimonials will be key in convincing the students that these destinations and prices are actually realistic by sharing stories of successful trips. General systems theory tells us that we all effect each other in ways beyond our comprehension. Our actions here in America affect the whole world, and most Americans can't see that affect because they lack the travel experience to watch it in action. The more we learn about a culture the better we can understand them the less likely we are to stereotype them or scapegoat them for problems. This combined with the persuasion methods of pathos, ethos, and logos will propel our campaign into the students minds, and convince them that traveling is not only fun but essential to becoming a well-rounded world citizen.

Section IV: Activation

Awareness is key to getting people their passports and showing the benefits of travel after graduation with personal stories and studies. Besides spreading awareness to people in class branching out into clubs and groups will better spread the message. Also I propose career counseling should become mandatory for all graduating students to better weigh their options with a professional who can give real world experience and advice. A lot of fears about taking a year off is that there will be no jobs when you return. This is simply not true and having a professional explain this better further fans the flame for travel. Jobs will always be there the experience of travel won't. Also advocating for gap year web sites and business, which follow a European model of encouraging and supplementing gap year travel with incentives and volunteer/work abroad, will further awareness for a gap year. This will first be implemented next fall during the first weeks.

9/14/10- The first phase will start with bringing awareness to the students by setting up a CSUN Year Off Travel club. This will give us the ability to hold rallies on the library walk and pass out club flyers to students.

9/28/10- With the first phase complete we will start to hold lectures in the Sol center where people like myself will give speeches about the discounts and experiences one can have while traveling after graduation. Now with the first two phases completed the awareness of our cause should be well known around campus.

10/05/10- Now we move to phase three which involves the Career Center. Having students visit the Career center will give them valuable information about the job market and integration of your travel experience into your resume. This will also be useful to see if there are any job opportunities that include travel. Working aboard after college is a great way to pay for your vacation without a large initial financial commitment. The resources the Career center have are invaluable for any new graduate trying to find his/her place in the world. Finally a huge social networking campaign on Twitter and Facebook will promote the idea with links to travel discount websites and our flagship website couchsurfing.com which embodies our traveling paradigm. The social network sites will prove invaluable for future members of the CSUN One Year Off Travel club as they recruit new members with each passing year. The club will be the cornerstone of a long lasting movement to get American kids to travel after college. Hopefully then our movement will spread beyond CSUN to other campus, with the use of viral videos from our rallies and travel pictures. This will hopefully lead to a national movement like in some European countries to travel after schooling, and to have the government add incentives would be the climax of my movement.