CGS Gap Semester Opens the World to Students

They can study abroad in Florence, Prague, Seville, and Buenos Aires, thanks to a new partnership with Verto Education

By Chelsea Feinstein

Before her gap semester this past fall, Elyssa Rosen had never been out of the country. But she had always dreamed of traveling to Italy, where her mother’s family is from.

So when she received an email about the Verto Education study abroad program from CGS, Rosen took the opportunity to spend her gap semester living and learning in Florence.

Throughout the fall, Rosen (’26) spent her weeks studying Italian, Renaissance history, psychology, and drawing. She toured cultural sites around Florence and explored the city’s cafés and markets. On the weekends, she traveled to Paris, Rome, Venice, and other nearby cities. The experience was excellent preparation for her upcoming CGS summer semester in London.

“My gap semester seriously helped me grow in independence,” Rosen says, citing the need to plan and cook meals, book weekend trips, and maintain a budget. “I am so glad that I have gotten to build up that responsibility, and I know that skill will carry over to all sorts of other areas in my life.”

Verto Education offers first-year college students an opportunity to jump-start their global learning experience, offering classes for credit at a partner institution in cities like Florence, Prague, Buenos Aires, and Seville. For CGS students, Verto provides a structured way for them to study abroad during their gap semester. As part of the partnership, the CGS Student Services Office worked with the Verto team to identify classes that would transfer to BU and count toward students’ majors and minors. Verto also offered financial aid to qualifying students; about half of the fall’s CGS Verto students received financial aid, according to Dean Natalie McKnight.

“Verto has given us a really exciting means of evolving our gap semester programming,” McKnight says.

Jakob Brinkmann (’26), who spent the semester in Seville, Spain, says the choices Verto gave him—where to study, which classes to take, how to spend his time—fostered a sense of independence.

“It really opened up many doors that I don’t think I would have had the chance to unlock if it hadn’t been for the gap semester,” Brinkmann says.

Zachary Furmanov (’25) studied in Prague and traveled to other countries most weekends, finishing his fall semester by backpacking through Eastern Europe and Spain. He says that Verto provided structure to his abroad experience, which he appreciated. And yet, he came away more resilient to change and uncertainty.

“Being alone and exploring new countries, seeing things through a different lens, and living in a completely different culture makes anybody able to adapt to any change in your life,” Furmanov says.

McKnight says the gap semester is a time for students to learn about themselves and the world, including by traveling abroad.

“I hope students gain confidence in themselves as world travelers, and I hope they continue to develop a sense of who they are within a global context,” McKnight says. “We all tend to see the world through the lens of where we grew up. It takes traveling abroad to realize that those perspectives are not the only valid ones.”