Class of 2025 graduate Joe Colaleo will be taking a gap year in Italy after graduating. After realizing that he wanted to connect back with his Italian roots, he saw that taking a gap year to focus on his heritage would be his best course of action before returning to the States to major in acting. “I am going to stay in Rome for a year, as my father was from there, so I’m interested in studying there,” Colaleo said. “I’m going to a language school to learn Italian, and I’m also going to a culinary school to learn to cook,
and I’m using it to further my acting and film career, and then when I come back, I’ll apply to a bunch of schools like I would if I were a junior, and then go to whatever college I want.” The idea of taking a gap year in Italy came to Colaleo halfway through his junior year, and he has been exploring that option ever since, making it a reality. “I thought it would be cool to just take a year off, but also, it’s important to me to connect back to my roots and wh...