Bridge-year program expands, changes sites

The 3-year-old bridge-year program, which allows incoming freshmen to defer their enrollment for a year and spend nine months participating in service abroad, will expand from 20 to 28 students this fall. 

In another change, students will be placed in China and Senegal, replacing Serbia and Ghana. The program will continue to ­operate in Varanasi, India, and Urubamba, Peru.

Students traveling to China will spend the year in the city of Kunming working with health, education, and environmental organizations and studying Mandarin. In Senegal, students will volunteer with environmental conservation, health care, and refugee-support groups, and will study the Wolof language. Sixty students have participated since the bridge-year program began in 2009.