The Meantime gives first donation to program for sophomores to take gap years

The Meantime Coffee Co. has been serving coffee in the Campus Y since September, but now it's offering something else for students.

The Meantime is partnering with UNC’s Global Gap Year Fellowship to fund a Bridge Year — a new program for second semester sophomores who want to take a year off from school to engage in social service projects. Before, fellowships were only offered for gap years between high school and college.

Keegan McBride, one of the co-founders of The Meantime, was a Gap Year Fellow. He spent a gap year between high school and college doing research and teaching English in the Galapagos, volunteering on an organic farm in Costa Rica, working as a camp counselor for a YMCA in Peru, walking 500 miles across Spain along El Camino de Santiago and working for a youth civic engagement NGO in Budapest, Hungary.

“I think the gap year was an experience that really changed my trajectory at Carolina and really beyond that,” McBride said. “I think for a lot of incoming first-years, the gap year is not always something that’s on their radar. I think for a lot of people, they come to Carolina and they realize that maybe a gap year is something they could have used, but at that point it’s hard to find the resources.”

The Meantime will fund a $7,500 fellowship for the Bridge Year program with some of the profits they have made this school year.

“This could be a cool way for The Meantime to invest in a concept that has been really important to me and a program that has changed the lives of a lot of students, but also something new that makes it more accessible for other students,” McBride said.

Scott Diekema, a co-founder of The Meantime, also took a gap year.

“Each of us benefited from that time abroad and we each saw a lot of merit in taking that time away from classes and away from a formal academic setting to learn in different capacities,” Diekema said.

“That was kind of just something on the side we both had experienced. With us working in the Campus Y and Keegan being in the Global Gap Fellowship, we were familiar with the program. It’s really well-run and they already have the infrastructure in place to allocate the money properly toward a new scholarship. It made a lot of sense to make our first donation toward something we could trust and know they’ll use it properly.”

Sarah Smith, director of the Global Gap Year Fellowship, said she believes the program will be beneficial for students.

“What we’ve seen with the gap year model is that students come back with this real-world experience,” Smith said. “They’re more confident, they’re more independent and often they’re more focused on their studies because they have a clearer idea of what they want to do.”

Smith said they are currently accepting applications for the Bridge Year program.

“We’re looking for a student who is intellectually curious,” Smith said. “Somebody who already has a commitment to social justice and serving the community and wants to further that through this opportunity.”

The application is due March 15 and is open to any sophomore who is in good academic standing.

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