Press
As the global bridge year movement gains traction in the U.S., we are proud to have been featured in the following publications as a leader in expanding access to bridge year opportunities for more – and more diverse – high school graduates each year.
Featured Stories
A Student’s ‘Gap Year’ Need Not Break The Bank
Published on 01/21/2011 in The Associated Press
If students are attracted to high-priced programs, like working on a foreign development project, there are ways to lower the price. For instance, Global Citizen Year, a San Francisco-based organization that places students in Senegal, Ecuador and Brazil, offers scholarships to help defray the cost. The two-year-old program looks at the same financial aid forms required by colleges and offers assistance on a sliding scale, said CEO Abby Falik. A third of its 33 participants is on full scholarship and another third have partial grants.…
Read the full story in The Associated Press
Why Getting Americans Out of the Country Will Save the Earth
Published on 02/10/2010 in The Huffington Post
Students spend their Global Citizen Year in a Peace Corps-like service project in a developing nation. It’s a brilliant idea. Traveling and living in abroad is the best way to understand another culture, learn a new language, and grapple with the consequences of global poverty.…
Read the full story in The Huffington Post
Abigail Falik Wants Students to Take a Year Off Doing Good Abroad
Published on 04/11/2011 in Christian Science Monitor
If timing is everything, then Abigail Falik… timed the launch of her nonprofit Global Citizen Year (GCY) with the precision of an atomic clock. As America’s young adults find themselves in a new global economy and job market, her idea has come to fruition at exactly the right moment.
Read the full story in Christian Science Monitor
Be a Global Citizen– For a Year and Beyond
Published on 05/10/2011 in Foreign Policy
Gap years are not a common phenomenon in the U.S., but increasingly American teenagers are considering alternative options pre-college and seeking opportunities to expand their horizons before committing to particular universities or majors.…
Read the full story in Foreign Policy
Global Citizen Year Creates Social Enterprise Leaders
Published on 07/26/2011 in Forbes
Josh grew up in a rough neighborhood of Oakland, Calif. Despite learning disabilities and other challenges, he was accepted into a program that let him spend the year after his graduation from high school in a community development program in Senegal, Africa. A year later, he stood in front of an audience including his parents and local community leaders and talked about his experiences. And in September 2011, he is headed to a college in the northeast on scholarship to pursue a career that will take him far from those Oakland streets.…
Read the full story in Forbes
Global Citizen Year: An Alternative Peace Corps
Published on 10/13/2011 in Wisconsin Public Radio
Abby Falik was dismayed when she discovered she couldn’t join the Peace Corps after graduating from high school only because she hadn’t yet turned eighteen. So she started a Peace Corps of her own. Listen to the interview with Abby on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Here on Earth” show.…
Read the full story in Wisconsin Public Radio
Teach for the World
Published on 03/10/2010 in New York Times
Nicholas Kristof highlights Global Citizen Year as a model for engaging young Americans in global issues, and says: “Fewer than 30 percent of Americans have passports, and only one-quarter can converse in a second language. And the place to learn languages isn’t an American classroom but in the streets of Quito or Dakar or Cairo.”…
Read the full story in New York Times
Bridge Year
Published on 03/04/2012 in The Boston Globe
The bridge year, a popular option overseas and among children of the 1 percent, should become a widely available, actively encouraged option in America. It would be better for students, and in the long term, for the nation.
Historically, the bridge year was something only the wealthy could afford, but a year off does not need to be an unbearable financial burden. Global Citizen Year, for example, offers amazing world-learning experiences in places like Brazil and Senegal to participants and also offers financial aid.…
Read the full story in The Boston Globe
Full Archive
Looking for Students Like Me!
Published on 11/5/2010 in The New York Times
Global Citizen Year alum Tess Langan writes about her experiences in choosing the right college. She says, “When I found out about a gap-year program, Global Citizen Year, I did not need any prodding to apply or any encouragement to commit. I knew instinctively I would do anything to go. I am spending my year in Senegal. College will have to wait.”…
Read the full story in The New York Times
Program Aims to Develop a Generation of Global Citizens
Published on 02/10/2012 in Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin
The Global Citizen Year idea also garnered Falik an HBS Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship… in 2009, along with a check for $25,000. “That additional investment really helped,” says Falik. “Since then we’ve raised nearly $4 million. In this economy, I think that is a testament to how much resonance Global Citizen Year has had as an idea whose time has come.”
Read the full story in Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin
Global Citizen Year Creates Social Enterprise Leaders
Published on 07/26/2011 in Forbes
Josh grew up in a rough neighborhood of Oakland, Calif. Despite learning disabilities and other challenges, he was accepted into a program that let him spend the year after his graduation from high school in a community development program in Senegal, Africa. A year later, he stood in front of an audience including his parents and local community leaders and talked about his experiences. And in September 2011, he is headed to a college in the northeast on scholarship to pursue a career that will take him far from those Oakland streets.…
Read the full story in Forbes
Be a Global Citizen– For a Year and Beyond
Published on 05/10/2011 in Foreign Policy
Gap years are not a common phenomenon in the U.S., but increasingly American teenagers are considering alternative options pre-college and seeking opportunities to expand their horizons before committing to particular universities or majors.…
Read the full story in Foreign Policy
Abigail Falik Wants Students to Take a Year Off Doing Good Abroad
Published on 04/11/2011 in Christian Science Monitor
If timing is everything, then Abigail Falik… timed the launch of her nonprofit Global Citizen Year (GCY) with the precision of an atomic clock. As America’s young adults find themselves in a new global economy and job market, her idea has come to fruition at exactly the right moment.
Read the full story in Christian Science Monitor
Now Grandma Can ‘Win a Trip’ Too
Published on 12/11/2010 in New York Times
Nick Kristof gives suggestions for designing your own ‘Win a Trip’ experience, and points to Global Citizen Year: “If you’re a high school senior, think about taking a “gap year” — nearly all colleges will defer admission — and exploring the world. It’ll be cheaper than a year of college and may well be more educational.”…
Read the full story in New York Times
To be Globally Competitive, We Must be Globally Competent
Published on 09/29/2011 in Brookings Institution
If we truly aspire to have a world-class education system in America, we must engage with the world. The challenges that face the world today—from global poverty and climate change to financial systems and conflict—require globally-minded solutions.…
Read the full story in Brookings Institution
Global Citizen Year: Effort to make ‘gap year’ a standard part of American education
Published on 03/04/2012 in SmartPlanet
For the 11 American high school graduates living and working in Senegal and Guatemala right now, college can wait. The teens comprise the first class of a new program called Global Citizen Year, in which pre-college students are sent abroad for seven months to work on sustainable projects for needy communities.…
Read the full story in SmartPlanet
Why Getting Americans Out of the Country Will Save the Earth
Published on 02/10/2010 in The Huffington Post
Students spend their Global Citizen Year in a Peace Corps-like service project in a developing nation. It’s a brilliant idea. Traveling and living in abroad is the best way to understand another culture, learn a new language, and grapple with the consequences of global poverty.…
Read the full story in The Huffington Post
Nonprofit aims to give young people a global perspective
Published on 10/08/2009 in the San Francisco Examiner
The founder and CEO of the recently launched San Francisco-based nonprofit Global Citizen Year is helping give young people an opportunity to work as apprentices in Asia, Africa and Latin America for a year between high school and college.…
Read the full story in the San Francisco Examiner
Raising Money,Changing the World. A Social Entrepreneur Builds a Movement and a Model at Global Citizen Year
Published on 10/06/2009 in Social Edge
Abby Falik, is starting a movement to bridge the US and the world through young people and social innovation. She took the first step last week and there is no stopping her now. If you have a dream and a social business plan, she offers great lessons in what it takes to succeed.…
Read the full story in Social Edge