While there are many opportunities for a bridge year, we believe that Global Citizen Year stands out for several reasons:

UNIQUE PROGRAM CYCLE

• Training
  The entire GCY experience is designed to support Fellows’ learning and growth. You will receive intensive and comprehensive training before you travel, once you arrive in-country, and throughout the course of your apprenticeships and homestays.
• Long-term Apprenticeships
  Unlike traditional, short-term volunteer placements, you will instead work in partnership with communities through a customized apprenticeship. By living and working in a community for an extended period, you have the unique opportunity to learn a language, form lasting relationships and understand the issues that shape your hosts’ lives and experiences.
• Support
  Throughout your apprenticeship, you will receive support on the ground from your Team Leader and your cohort of Fellows. Carefully selected homestay families and project partners will also be guides and resources. You will receive weekly visits from your Team Leader, and your team of Fellows will come together once a month to process learning and share experiences with each other.
• Capstone Project
  When you return to the US after your international apprenticeship, GCY will help you share your experience with your home community. We will connect you to resources to implement a capstone project to help you bring your experience home, ensuring that you are not the only one benefiting from your Global Citizen Year.

NETWORK

Once you return home, you will become a part of the larger Global Citizen Year network by joining a dynamic alumni network.  This community will provide you with support and resources throughout college and beyond.

ACCESS

GCY believes it is important to ensure access to all students, regardless of your family’s ability to pay. To this end, we actively raise money from a variety of sources to help cover costs for students who might not otherwise be able to participate. In the 2009/10 program, 100% of our Fellows received some level of financial aid from GCY.

YOUR EDUCATION

• Learning through experience
• Learning about yourself – and what you’re really passionate about
• Learning – and using – new languages
• Learning about the complexities of the world’s most pressing issues
• Learning from experts of all stripes: locals, academics, business leaders, social entrepreneurs, development professionals, and so many more

YOUR PERSPECTIVE

• Challenging your assumptions
• Changing how you see your role in the world

YOUR WORLD

• Taking the road less traveled
• Experiencing other cultures
• Connecting with others who are passionate about the world and invested in changing it
• Understanding what role you will play to help make a better world

Well, you’re here in the first place, so chances are pretty good you’ve got something we’re looking for – you’re open to new experiences and thinking about taking the road less traveled.

GCY ADMISSIONS– NOTHING STANDARDIZED ABOUT IT:

• Global Citizen Year is a highly selective program, but it’s not about test scores or grades.
• We are looking for passionate, resourceful, resilient, curious, idealistic and principled candidates.
• We’re interested in how you see the world and your role in it, how willing you are to challenge your assumptions and change your perspectives, how much you believe a better world is possible and how committed you are to making it real.
• Want to know more? Take a look at our Selection Criteria.

We don’t think of it as a year OFF, and many colleges don’t either; on the contrary, you’ll arrive on campus with proficiency in a new language and a focus probably unmatched among your peers.  With many colleges, deferring for a year is very straightforward. Just ask the admissions office what you need to do.

Support is building for bridge year programs. Check out some of these articles.

• “Want to Get Into Harvard – Take a Year Off” – CBS MoneyWatch
• “Taking Time Off” – Harvard College Admissions
• “Princeton Plans for an Early Year Abroad” – New York Times
• “Advice for the College-bound: Wait”  – Washington Post
• “A Cure for College-Bound Blues” – New York Times

Let’s start with the obvious: While everyone else is learning how to cope with their roommate’s habits, you will be learning things like how to fertilize a macadamia farm, ethical issues to consider when photographing life in another country, how to dress for a Mayan wedding, and how best to roll down the side of a volcano.

Beyond the cultural adventures, you’ll gain tools for understanding and critiquing complex global issues, and you’ll have a wealth of experience under your belt when you get to campus. You’ll be empowered with a perspective, passion and sense of purpose that will set you apart in college and beyond.

• Because you’re not like everyone else.
• Because a Global Citizen Year is your opportunity to grow and see the world  in ways that no study abroad program offers.
• Because you’re ready to start growing now.
• Because you believe a better world is more than a cliché, but a real possibility worth working toward. You believe you have a role to play in shaping that world. You know you have a long way to go, but you know the journey doesn’t start until you take the first step. You’re ready to take that step now.
  

In the 2010-11 year, the GCY program cost is $26,300.  This total is all-inclusive and covers the entire 9-month program including:

• Program-related travel (domestic, international and in-country-from designated locations)
• Training (domestic and in-country)
• Educational components
• Enrichment activities
• Accommodations
• Meals
• Contributions to host communities and community projects
• Supplementary medical and evacuation insurance
• Visa and entry fees

GCY strongly believes that the ability to pay should not be a barrier to a student’s ability to participate. Applicants wishing to apply for funding assistance must have completed a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). We will use a sliding scale, based on your FAFSA Student Aid Report, to determine each Fellow’s program fee. Financial assistance decisions will be made prior to the deadline for Fellows to commit to the program.

In the 2009-10 program year, 100% of Fellows received some level of financial assistance from GCY.

Global Citizen Year requires that all Fellows:

• Are 18 years old by September 30, 2010;
• Have a high school diploma or GED by September 1, 2010;
• Have not yet started college;
• Are US Citizens;
• Pass a basic medical screening
• Provide proof of appropriate insurance;
• Complete and pass a background check;
• Obtain parent or guardian permission for participation.

Applicants who are not yet 18 years of age by September 30, 2010 will be considered and may be selected if circumstances permit.  For these Fellows, there will be additional requirements of the applicant’s legal guardian(s) and apprenticeship placements may be restricted.

While some of our country partners may prefer Fellows who have proficiency in another language, don’t worry – it’s not required! Additionally, language training is a component of the program.  Your entire first month in-country will be focused on language, culture, and orientation to help you prepare for your homestay and apprenticeship.

Want to know more about what we are looking for? Check out our Selection Criteria.

The GCY experience includes conditions that will be physically and mentally demanding, requiring Fellows to be in good physical and mental health. All accepted Fellows will be responsible for submitting a completed health form that is signed by a physician, and that completely and accurately represents the current physical and mental well-being of the Fellow. If you have any doubts as to your ability to pass a medical screening for physical and mental well-being, please contact us at: applications@globalcitizenyear.org.

Additionally, all Fellows must provide proof of their own primary health insurance.

Yes, it is easy to defer a year of college, and we believe it is well worth any effort it takes to do so.

Once you decide you would like to defer, you will often need to submit your reasons for doing so (in writing) to the dean of admission, along with a deposit.  If necessary, GCY can provide a letter detailing the program in which you will be participating. All of this must be taken care of by your college’s published deadline in order to secure a spot in the following year’s freshman class.  Of course, we also advise that you contact your college or university’s admissions office as soon as you can to see if they require any other steps to defer.

Most merit- and need-based financial awards can be deferred, but policies vary among different schools and programs.  Please check with the provider of your financial aid package to determine whether your specific aid can be deferred.

Federal and State Financial Aid: If you decide to defer a year of college, you and your family will need to fill out a new FAFSA after January 1, 2010 in order to receive updated federal and state financial aid packages.

College Financial Aid: For college financial aid, it is best to contact your school’s financial aid office to learn about their specific policies and updated deadlines.  If your school asked that you complete a CSS PROFILE last fall, you will need to fill this out once again. The college might ask for an additional form specific to the school, so it is best to see if they would like you to fill this out once more as well.

Global Citizen Year is currently operating in Senegal and Guatemala and has plans to expand to additional countries in 2010. Each program begins and ends in the US, and Fellows will then spend seven months in one of our program countries. Fellows receive their country assignments when the GCY class is finalized.

As a Global Citizen Year applicant, you are applying to join our corps of Fellows, NOT a to specific field placement. Fellow preferences are taken into account when making placement decisions, but preferences are only one of several factors that determine final country placements.

Life will be different for each of you, but we can tell you some details:

• You will live with a host family in a rural community.
• You will learn another language (or two!) – be it French or Spanish, Wolof or Ixil.
• A typical day may include:  haggling in the market, cooking with your host family, exploring local music traditions, exploring problems facing your community such as diabetes, travelling around the country on a marketing campaign for a social enterprise (video), or spending the evening digesting your experiences in a blog post for Current TV.
• See for yourself what the Founding Fellows are saying about their experiences. Check out their blogs.

Not at all. At the US Training Institute, you’ll meet Fellows from across the US who will be beginning placements in different sites around the world. You will then travel to your country post with your team, where you will be together for the first month of in-country training.

When you move into your rural homestays, a GCY Team Leader will visit you each week. Once a month you will get together with the other Fellows in your region to share stories, and help each other reflect, learn and grow.

GCY staff work with program partners in each country who have a deep knowledge of families and communities where Fellows are placed. Families are selected based on their desire and ability to provide rich experiences and support for a GCY Fellow for the duration of their stay.

Once accepted, Fellows fill out a homestay questionnaire which helps us match Fellows with homestays based on interests and preferences.

Want to know what a homestay is like? Hear it from a Fellow.

• All Fellows will be provided with local cell phones, and most Fellows will have some internet access at least once a week.
• The GCY Fellows Blog will be your primary platform to share your reflections, videos, and photos.
• GCY will give you a Flip Video camera, and the footage you take with it will be a key part of sharing your experience with your followers back home.
• Each team of Fellows is also equipped with a netbook (a lightweight, low powered laptop) for blogging and media storage.
• Your GCY training will help you gain the skills to share your stories through media platforms like Current TV.

Back home, you’ll create presentations to engage your community in the issues you encountered throughout your journey.  By sharing your story, you’ll:

• Serve as a window to a world, reveal stories that are much more nuanced than the ones often presented by television news.
• Amplify the impact of your experience by encouraging others think in a new way about their role in the world.

The capstone project will tell your story in your own voice, making use of video, photographs, and your written reflections from over the course of your time abroad.  Whatever form the project takes, most importantly, it will keep your personal experience at the heart of the story. As a member of your home community, you will give others a familiar bridge to the unfamiliar world that you experienced with GCY. The focus of your efforts will be to encourage others think in a new way about their role in the world.

There are many ways you may choose to share your story:

• Presenting at schools
• Organizing community events
• Hosting fundraisers
• Publishing stories through local media outlets
• Creating photos essays
• Producing short films
• You name it!

How could you not?! After GCY, you will arrive on campus empowered with an understanding and perspective on the world that is well beyond many of your peers.  You will have developed your passion. greater self-awareness, and entrepreneurial savvy that will set you apart in college and beyond.

Your GCY experience will prepare you to take your college education into your own hands. With support from GCY, you will be prepared to:

• Create new majors
• Lead campaigns
• Inspire others to action
• Intern across sectors and countries
• Find mentors on campus
• Create your own unique path – fueled by passion and purpose

What

A “bridge year,” sometimes referred to as a “gap year,” is a year between two phases of formal academic education, commonly the period between high school graduation and the beginning of college.  Global Citizen Year chooses to use the term “bridge year,” because we believe that a year of structured experiential learning will enable you son or daughter to more effectively bridge his or her high school and college experiences.

Why?

The benefits of a bridge year abound.  Students who have taken a year “off”, enter college more mature, with new life experiences and perspectives that will make them better prepared to make the most of their college experience. At the same time, students are poised to contribute to their college community in new ways.  They enter school with renewed energy for academics and a clearer vision for how to focus during their time in college.

We’d recommend reading Gwyeth Smith’s article that ran recently in the Washington Post, in which he advocates for the majority of high school students to take a bridge year before college.  CLICK HERE

While there are many opportunities for a bridge year, we believe that Global Citizen Year stands out for several reasons:

Unique Program Cycle

• TRAINING. The entire GCY experience is designed to support Fellows’ learning and growth. Fellows receive intensive and comprehensive training before they travel, once they arrive in-country, and throughout the course of their apprenticeships and homestays.
• LONG-TERM APPRENTICESHIPS. Fellows work in partnership with communities in long-term apprenticeships. By living and working in a community for an extended period, they have the unique opportunity to learn a language, form lasting relationships and understand the issues that shape their hosts’ lives and experiences.
• SUPPORT. Throughout each apprenticeship, Fellows receive support on the ground from their Team Leader and their cohort of Fellows. Carefully selected homestay families and project partners will also act as guides and resources. Fellows receive weekly visits from their Team Leader, and their team of Fellows will come together once a month to process learning and share experiences with each other.
• CAPSTONE PROJECT. When Fellows return to the US after their international apprenticeship, GCY  helps them share their experience with their home community. We connect them to resources to implement a capstone project to bring their experience home, ensuring that they are not the only one benefiting from their Global Citizen Year.

NETWORK

Once Fellows return home, they will become a part of the larger Global Citizen Year community by joining a dynamic alumni network.  This community will provide Fellows with support and resources throughout college and beyond.

ACCESS

GCY believes it is important to ensure access to all students, regardless of financial background.  To this end, we actively raise money from a variety of sources to help cover costs for students who might not otherwise be able to participate. In the 2009/10 program, 100% of our Fellows received some level of financial aid from GCY

Training & Risk Management

Through the training process, Fellows learn how to monitor their physical and mental well being while in their communities abroad. They learn how to recognize and treat illnesses and feelings that are common when working and living abroad, as well as those that are more serious and require medical attention. Additionally, they practice how to make sound decisions when faced with potentially dangerous situations.

Team Leaders and US staff continuously monitor local developments through state-department updates, alerting Fellows, and providing direct support in the event of any situation which poses a risk – health, weather, political, etc.

Local Supervision

Fellows live with carefully selected local families who provide the first line of local supervision and support.

Additionally, Fellows are visited weekly by their Team Leader, who is responsible for monitoring their’ mental and physical health and safety. Team Leaders help Fellows resolve issues as they arise, and log each visit to track situations that may develop over time.

Emergency Contacts & SOS

Each Fellow is issued an emergency card which includes information on how to reach SOS (our emergency health and evacuation service), GCY staff contacts (local and US), local and regional clinic contacts, and embassy contacts.

Fellows all carry local cell phones and are also provided with an emergency calling card.

24 Hour Emergency Hotline

Global Citizen Year’s Emergency Hotline is a 24-hour on-call system designed to respond quickly in case of emergencies relating to health, natural disaster, or political unrest. All Fellows and Parents receive detailed information on how and when to use the Emergency Hotline.

In the 2010-11 year, the GCY program cost is $26,300.  This total is all-inclusive and covers the entire 9-month program including:

• Program-related travel (domestic, international and in-country-from designated locations)
• Training (domestic and in-country)
• Educational components
• Enrichment activities
• Accommodations
• Meals
• Contributions to host communities and community projects
• Supplementary medical and evacuation insurance
• Visa and entry fees

GCY strongly believes that the ability to pay should not be a barrier to a student’s ability to participate. Applicants wishing to apply for funding assistance must have completed a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). We will use a sliding scale, based on your FAFSA Student Aid Report, to determine each Fellow’s program fee. Financial assistance decisions will be made prior to the deadline for Fellows to commit to the program.

In the 2009-10 program year, 100% of Fellows received some level of financial assistance from GCY.

Yes, financial  assistance is available.

GCY strongly believes that the ability to pay should not hinder a student’s ability to participate. Applicants wishing to apply for funding assistance must have completed a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). We will use a sliding scale, based on your FAFSA Student Aid Report, to determine each Fellow’s program fee. Financial assistance decisions will be made prior to the deadline for Fellows to commit to the program.

In the 2009-10 program year, 100% of Fellows received some level of financial assistance from GCY.