Meet the Team

Marion Taylor

Born and raised in Colorado, Marion Taylor is married and the mother of four children all of whom grew from their own personal gap experiences. Her parenting perspective of four gap year children and 35 years of social work experience enrich Taylor The Gap’s planning services along with her own personal gap experiences over the course of her lifetime. While in the field, Marion intentionally vets gap programs to visit students and field staff during the programs and has been fully accredited by GYA in 2018. She was awarded the 2021 Advancing the Gap Year Movement award and served for two years as the Gap Year Consultant Ambassador of the Gap Year Association Board. In 2023 Marion continues to serve as co-chair of the GYA Membership Committee and planning committee member for the 2023 GYA annual conference .

Marion flanked her own college years with a gap year at the University of Grenoble, France, after high school, followed by three years in a rural development program with Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa, after college. In 2015, Marion taught English to women in Tanzania and volunteered with women's co-ops in Rwanda. In addition, she has immersed herself in two different Spanish language programs in Antigua, Guatemala, and Cuenca, Ecuador. In the fall of 2018, Marion visited Batase village in Nepal, a region not only struck by the 2015 earthquake, but struggling to combat human trafficking as well. She subsequently participated in an adult gap program in the Sacred Valley of Peru in Spring 2019. She serves as Global Outreach Ambassador for a women's empowerment program called Street Business School based in Uganda, now reaching beyond Africa to Central America and Asia. All four of her children have participated in gap experiences with her eldest son having worked in Utah and Colorado and having completed a rigorous semester wilderness course in the Himalayas, India. Her eldest daughter volunteered as a pre-school assistant in a township outside Cape Town, South Africa, and traveled independently in East Africa, while her younger daughter interned post-grad for both a public defender's office in Washington DC and a human rights lawyer in Cape Town, SA. She then wrapped up her gap year by participating in an intensive Spanish immersion program in Cusco, Peru, all before completing her law degree. Her youngest son spent a semester abroad traveling to 12 countries while studying in Greece and completed a Coro Fellowship post-grad in San Francisco. He is currently in law school.

Stashia Kaiel

Stashia was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. Her Spanish high school classroom experiences inspired her to continue learning Spanish and about other cultures. Stashia planned on taking a gap year in a Spanish speaking country after she graduated from high school, but due to the uncertainty of her safety and options as well as the lack of quality guidance, her gap year plans fell through and she hastily chose a university to attend. Her first year of college was full of unnecessary challenges with an immense feeling that she was not attending a school that was the best fit.

Stashia ended up transferring to a better fit university the following year and it was at this university during her junior year of college where she was able to study abroad in an independent customizable program in Spain. This ‘gap semester’ Stashia experienced in college changed her life and from then on she has been involved in international education. Currently, Stashia is the Senior Study Abroad Advisor at Gonzaga University and enjoys guiding and supporting college students planning to study abroad. She is also the founder of GlobalLife Education Consulting providing access to educational opportunities and resources to high school and college students from all over the world. She is dedicated to giving back to students and families the necessary post-secondary guidance that is greatly needed for the transition from high school to college.

Stashia has lived in two countries outside of the U.S. - South Korea and Spain. She has also traveled for leisure and work to a total of 18 countries within three different continents. Stashia has a husband who is an avid soccer player and fan. She has two daughters with one currently attending college and the other in high school.