Why We’re Here:
If you’re here it’s because you wanted to know even more about our story and our goals. So let’s start at the beginning.
Hi, my name is Maxine and I am the founder of The Gap Year MSP. I grew up in a suburb of Green Bay, WI and ended up in Minneapolis after leaving the Navy. I joined the Navy after high school for two reasons:
I had no idea what else I wanted to do.
My mother told me I couldn’t.
I moved to MN with no money and no plan (10/10 do not recommend), after bouncing around odd jobs I ended up at Escape MSP. Which started out as a small part time job and three years later I was managing two Escape branches and our adventure park. It was a lot of work, but I was having the time of my life and learning valuable lessons. Insert pandemic and I decided there was no better time to get into healthcare, which is where I have been for the last 9 months. I get a lot of tilted heads when I try to explain my background to people, I am a veteran, I have a welding degree, I managed escape rooms, I managed an adventure park and now work in operations in healthcare. I have been extraordinarily lucky to know people in these industries that were able to help me get my foot in the door, and lucky to have family that supports the chaos that is my career. Not everyone is as lucky as I have been which is why I decided to start The Gap Year MSP.
I have friends that came out of the womb knowing they were going to be a teacher or a nurse or a lawyer and I always envied them having such a clear path of what they wanted to do. Don’t get me wrong, these people still have to do some soul searching regarding what grade or subject they want to teach, if they want to work in a hospital or a clinic, or what kind of law they want to practice. However, I personally always felt like I had to do double the work, find what I want to do and then do it! Wouldn’t it be great if I could dabble in these industries before spending $100,000 on an education? Or get experience in that industry before deciding that’s what I want to do with the rest of my life? What if there was no guesswork? Or waiting until you get through your generals in college to get to learn about your field? Our goal is to make all of those “What Ifs” turn into reality.
Our overall goal is to give young adults an understanding of what excites them and to eventually end up in a job that gives them energy. I know firsthand what a difference a good job can make, and I know how much pressure there is to find a job right out of college and stick with that, even if that industry isn’t for you. We want to eliminate all of that, so we start out with young adults finding what excites them which turns into adults having jobs that they enjoy. The Gap Year MSP wants to help you decide what the best path is for you, could be further education, the military or jumping right into the workforce. We want to create a generation that knows what they want and give them the tools to go get it.
