Below is a rundown of the steps you’ll need to take to get your passport for the first time. It’s intended to point you in the right direction, not as an exhaustive or authoritative guide. Make sure you visit the U.S. Department of State website for full details.

It generally takes 4 to 6 weeks for the government to process passport applications, but times vary. Plan ahead and avoid the drama of facing a fast approaching departure date with no passport in your hands.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

First time applicants must present the following documents in person at an Acceptance Facility or Passport Agency (see links below for locations). If you don’t have documents that fulfill the requirements listed below, consult the Department of State website for acceptable alternatives.

1) A completed Form DS-11: Application For A U.S. Passport – This form can be filled out  and printed from the U.S. Department of State website or obtained from a Passport Acceptance Facility or Regional Passport Agency

You’ll need to know your social security number for the form and you should wait to until the Acceptance Agent tells you to sign before gracing the form with your John Hancock.

2) Proof of U.S. citizenship – you’ll need one of the following documents:

• Previously issued, undamaged U.S. Passport
• Certified birth certificate issued by the city, county or state
• Consular Report of Birth Abroad or Certification of Birth
• Naturalization Certificate
• Certificate of Citizenship

3) Present Identification

Another form of ID in addition to your proof of citizenship. Can be one of the following:

• Previously issued, undamaged U.S. passport
• Naturalization Certificate
• Valid Driver’s License
• Current Government ID (city, state or federal)
• Current Military ID (military and dependents)

If you’re submitting your documents at an Acceptance Facility outside of the state where your ID was issued (for instance, submitting a Virginia driver’s license at a Maryland facility)  you must present an additional ID document.

Consider bringing more forms of ID than you think you need, if you have them. Just in case.

4) Submit a Photocopy of the Identification Document presented (from the previous step)

You must provide a photocopy of both sides of the ID from the previous step. The photocopy must be on a single, plain white piece of 8 1/2 x 11″ paper. Again, the state department website for more details.

FEES

The cost varies over time — going up, no doubt — but at the time this was written, it cost $100 for anfirst-time  U.S. adult passport. Those who put off getting their passport and need it in a rush, can pay an extra fee (currently $60) to expedite the process.

The accepted forms of payment vary depending on whether you go to a Passport Agency or an Acceptance Facility. Passport agencies take credit cards, checks and money orders. Acceptance facilities take checks, money orders and, in some cases, cash for the applications fee and money orders. For details visit the payment section of the State Department website.

PASSPORT PHOTOS

The government has strict rules governing the photos used for passports. They must be identical, 2×2-inch portraits and follow a number of other guidelines.

Example of passport photo specifications from the U.S. Department of State.

Visit the Department of State website for more details, then find a photographer or passport photo service that knows what they’re doing. Photos taken in a photo booth may or may not work. You don’t want to get to have to make a repeat trip to the passport office because they rejected your photo.

FURTHER INFORMATION

For authoritative info, visit the U.S. Department of State passport site. To talk to a human being, call the the National Passport Information Center at 1-877-487-2778

If you lost your passport or it has expired, visit the State Department’s page on renewing passports for guidance.

Fewer students are travelling aboad during the economic downturn.

With the economic flagging and money tight, fewer students are enrolling in study abroad programs, a new report found. Almost 60 percent of schools and study-abroad programs surveyed by the Forum on Education Abroad in September saw lower enrollment this year compared to before the economic crisis started.

The Forum’s Survey on the Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Education Abroad received responses from 165 institutions between August 24 and September 4, 2009. The majority of the respondents were U.S. colleges and study abroad organizations, but also included nearly two dozen international institutions. The report found that U.S.-based provider organizations and public universities were most impacted by the economic downturn, with 69% of U.S. public colleges reporting drops in enrollment.

The US Congress is considering providing millions for study abroad programs.

The US government will allot $120 million for study abroad programs, if a bill intended to send a million more students abroad by 2020 passes congress.

The Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act, named after the late senator who originally proposed the legislation, would provide grants to students, colleges and
nongovernmental institutions. It currently authorizes $40 million in funding for study abroad programs in 2010 and $80 million in 2011.

The bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June as part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 (H.R. 2410). Next step: the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The funding would focus on supporting study abroad programs in developing countries and would channel funding through a range of institutions, including “2-year institutions, minority-serving institutions, and institutions that serve nontraditional students, and 4-year colleges and universities demonstrating an institutional commitment to increasing study abroad participation.”

Hanah Barg is postponing colleged to spend a year in Isreal.

I needed to do something different. After eighteen years of following the standard American path, I felt an intense desire to break it and take a gap year before college. A gap year, although not part of the typical American teenage trajectory, is gaining popularity—especially among Jewish teenagers. I am thankful that a large amount of gap year programs exist for the Jewish teen that desires to learn and volunteer in Israel; however, those programs were never right for me. I could not grasp the idea of living in a foreign country with people exactly like me, from similar families, cities, communities. There is much more to learn from those who come from different backgrounds.

The purpose of the gap year is to push oneself, and to make it the most meaningful experience possible. For me, it was the opportune time to challenge myself. I wanted to acquire the most real experience. However, in order to do that I had to completely step out of my comfort zone and embrace a new country, culture, and language.

I took a small leap. I veered in a different direction, and decided to participate in a Mechina program in a city that bares no similarities to my hometown. The literal translation of Mechina is “preparation.” Essentially, it is an Israeli form of a gap year before the army. Those who choose Mechinot are a very self-selecting group, for they come with the understanding that they will undergo an incredible amount of personal growth. Within every Mechina participant is the intense desire to learn. Everything we do is a learning experience, but in no formal manner.

The basic structure of the program, which includes classes, volunteering, and group living, lends an incredible amount of valuable life experience. We spend the first half of the day in classes learning about prayer, Talmud, yoga, identity, and psychology; while the second half of the day is spent volunteering with the true populations of Jaffa, and trying to understand the complex situations from which they come.

Over the past two months we began the process of learning how to function independently, live in a group, how to interact with others in volunteering, and mostly, how to be tolerant and patient. I am patient with this process for, after two months, it still feels unbelievably new to me. And the group shows me unending patience as well, while we all adjust to our new home, city, program, and the barriers that stand between us (they continue to diminish). At moments, the Mechina can be intense, frustrating, amazingly fun, refreshing, intriguing, difficult—but always rewarding.

Nothing in the Mechina is static. The program and its obstacles, answers, activities, as well as the group dynamic, are constantly in flux. I feel lucky to be spending my year in a framework that forces my mind and beliefs to perpetually stretch; for I will leave this year far more mature, capable, and prepared than when I arrived.

She participated with many Jewish groups, including: USY, Nishmah, Student-to-Student, iTag, b’nai mitzvah tutoring, and B’nai Amoona Religious School.

Hannah is also interested in all types of art, but specifically photography and ceramics. She is currently spending a gap year in Israel, in a Mechina program.

This essay was originally posted on jewishinstlouise.org

Location: Solomon Schechter School, Westchester, New York
Date: January 12, 2010
School website: www.solomon-schechter.com
Contact: Greg Cappello, Dynamy Internship Year
Email: gcappello@dynamy.org
Phone: 508-755-2571 x18

Location: Darien High School, Fairfield, Connecticut
Date: 2009-01-12
School website: Click here
Further information: Greg Cappello, Dynamy Internship Year
Email: gcappello@dynamy.org
Phone: 508-755-2571 x18

Additional fairs are planned but are as yet unconfirmed.

Gap year fair schedule:

Nov. 21 Gap Year Fair in Portland, ME   (Scarborough High School 12 – 3 PM)

Jan. 11 Gap Year Fair in Westchester, NY (Solomon Schechter School)

Jan. 12 Gap Year Fair in Fairfield, CT (Darien High School)

Jan. 13 Gap Year Fair on Long Island, NY (Great Neck So. Darien High School)

Jan. 14 Gap Year Fair in New Jersey (Pingry School)

Jan. 15 Gap Year Fair in New Jersey (Newark Ac.)

Jan. 30 Gap Year Fair in Chicago, IL (New Trier Darien High School)

Jan. 31 Gap Year Fair in Cleveland, OH (University School)

Feb. 3 Gap Year Fair in Dallas, TX (Hockaday School)

Feb. 4 Gap Year Fair in Houston, TX (Episcopal Darien High School)

Feb. 23 Gap Year Fair in Los Angeles, CA (Harvard-Westlake School)

Feb. 24 Gap Year Fair in San Diego, CA (Francis Parker School)

Feb. 25 Gap Year Fair in SF Bay Area – Marin County (Sir Francis Drake Darien High School)

Feb. 27 Gap Year Fair in SF South Bay Area, Los Altos  (Los Altos Darien High School)

Feb. 28 Gap Year Fair in Seattle, WA (The Northwest School)

Mar. 1 Gap Year Fair in Portland, OR (Lincoln Darien High School)

Mar. 4 Gap Year Fair in Philadelphia, PA (Agnes Irwin School)

Mar. 6 Gap Year Fair in Washington, DC (Sidwell Friends School)

Mar. 7 Gap Year Fair in Baltimore, MD (Bryn Mawr School)

The students were surveyed after entering college as freshmen in the fall of 2006 and were asked about their intent to study abroad when surveyed again in the spring of 2007. “While intent to study abroad among women seems to be affected by influential authority figures and educational contexts, intent to study abroad among men seems to be primarily shaped by emerging personal values, experiences, and peer influence,” the authors wrote.

Yale offers a program for wordly students.

These are not your typical gap year students returning to college: a  44-year-old military veteran; a former hockey pro with 15 years in the game; a leading AIDS activist. But thanks to a small program at Yale University, known as the Eli Whitney Students Program, these erstwhile and future professionals are among the students at the college, according to an article in the Yale Daily News.

“These students add something to the Yale community — the kind of life experience and perspective that no one coming out of high school, no matter how remarkable, can really offer,” Charles Bailyn, chair of the Eli Whitney Student Advisory Committee, says on the program’s promotional video. The article profiles several of the Whitney students, exploring how their life experiences led them to Yale and the perspective they bring to their studies.

Bob Millward set up a Christmas store to save money for travel.

A British gap year student over the weekend opened a Christmas stall to raise money to travel around the world, according to the Hertfordshire Mercury.

Bob Millward, 18, from the town of Hertford, opened a stall with his mother in the Hertford market on November 14 that will sell Christmas decorations, knick-knacks and handmade Christmas cards. The money he raises is intended to help fund a six month trip to Argentina, South Africa and Australia, before he enters Nottingham Business School next fall.