Video: Take a Bridge Year

Everyone expects American high school graduates to go directly to college. At the same time, they are also expected to know exactly what they want to study. It’s an unrealistic expectation – we live in a big world with lots of challenges and there are tons of possibilities. Global Citizen Year is an opportunity to break that mold and do something different – go into the world before college, use your skills to make a difference, and enter college with a stronger sense of yourself, meaningful real world experience, and a global perspective.

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Fellows Broadcast: The Reason to Take a Bridge Year

We asked the Fellows to film their responses to a few questions to see what they thought about their experience so far.  Here is what they had to say, two months into their apprenticeships in Senegal and Guatemala.

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US Training Video Feed

A collection of videos from the US Training Institute (September 19 – October 1, 2009).

7 minute overview

Outward Bound
GCY Fellows participate in an all-day team building training facilitated by Outward Bound.

Center for Creative Leadership
GCY Fellows are asked to create an artistic interpretation of leadership.

Dr. David Abernethy on International Development (Part 1)Stanford Professor, David Abernethy holds a session on the fundamentals of international development. Topics in Part 1 include measurement, the environmental consequences of development, and how the American ethos of “change and progress” may be received by communities around the world.

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The Fellows Send-Off Reception

I could not describe the evening and its significance any better than Patrick O’Heffernan of Social Edge.  I have included an excerpt from his article on Social Edge below.

“Last week, when I pulled up in an old VW next to the walled compound where I was supposed to meet the young Americans preparing to work in the bush the power was out and the street was pitch black. But no problem. The hostess was prepared with candles and the meeting room and the lush topical garden flickered with dozens of tiny flames. Women in colorful robes and dresses and men in shiny suites milled noisily around an outdoor fire to keep warm as the hot day slid into a chilly night. Food was plentiful as the hostess had wisely ordered a kitchen truck with its own generator to serve native dishes.

The first night of Peace Corp volunteers in Africa or Asia?

No, it was a home in a suburb of  San Francisco and the event was the send off party for the first class of the Global Citizen Year Fellows who were going Senegal and Guatemala a few days later to live with families in a rural communities. They had recently completed 12 days of intensive training by youth development experts and social entrepreneurs on social innovation and sustainable development. Now they were ready to put it to work. They were the inaugural class of Global Citizen Year and they were going to change the world. And they will.” Read the article –>

Related post: US Training Video Feed

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Pop!Tech Video

Abby presented the vision for GCY to the Pop!Tech conference in Camden, Maine. Abby was invited to the conference as part of the Social Innovation Fellowship. The Pop!Tech community is full of extraordinary people committed to powerful ideas and innovative projects that are changing the world.

Watch the video of Abby’s presentation here.

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