Social Startup Success Features Abby Falik

Kathleen Kelly Janus, a lecturer at the Stanford University Program on Social Entrepreneurship and the founder of the successful social enterprise Spark, set out to investigate what makes a startup succeed or fail. She surveyed more than 200 high-performing social entrepreneurs and interviewed dozens of founders.   Social Startup Success shares her findings for the legions […]

Influencing For A Cause

Learn how being a listener has proven to be a key component in Abby’s fundraising for Global Citizen Year, to make sure her organization is able to provide financial aid and scholarships to its Fellows.   Listen to her interview with Josh Steimle for Influencer Inc Podcast!    

Going for the Gap Year

Abby Falik, Founder and CEO of ‘Global Citizen Year,’ discusses the company’s mission to make taking a gap year ‘aspirational’ for all students. Falik adds that the company’s goal is to have students develop a new language while getting a new perspective, and showing off what being an American means to other parts of the […]

Roads Less Traveled Bypass Admission Drama

For high school seniors, December is difficult. Early decision college announcements are pending and regular decision application deadlines loom perilously close. Pressure mounts as friends and relatives ask about the future.   Some students avoid the stress and take a year-long detour around the drama of U.S. college admissions.   Ann Bergen, a college and […]

Global Competencies for High School Graduates

What does it take to succeed in a work world that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous? How does a young person succeed as a citizen of an integrated global economy? While traditional, fundamental skills are still important, so are empathy, ease with ambiguity, resilience, grit, and global mindset. But how many high school graduates […]

Global Citizen Year Series: High School Graduates Take a Global Gap Year

Welcome to the first in our series of blog posts about Global Citizen Year (GCY), an organization dedicated to making a global gap year accessible for students of all backgrounds. Abby Falik, GCY Founder and CEO, envisions a new norm for students in transition from high school to college. She talked with Tanya Mas from […]

From Gap Year to Bridge Year

Listen to Episode 17: From Gap Year to Bridge Year   Paulina Jedrzejowski was five years old when two airliners slammed into the World Trade Center. She was just a few miles away in Brooklyn and wondered why ashes and bits of paper were floating down from the sky. Despite growing up in an America […]

How Travel Exposes the Nerve You Can’t Ignore

The British born essayist, Pico Lyer, once said, “We don’t travel to move, we travel to be moved.” There is a unique power in global experiences that takes us outside our comfort zones and shapes our empathy. Abby Falik is one of those individuals who have discovered this power.   Abby is the Founder & […]

The visionary entrepreneur bridges education and travel for students across the nation.

See original article on AFAR. In 2016, former President Obama’s daughter Malia took a year off before starting college. Her decision made headlines—but Abby Falik, the founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year, hopes that someday soon, such a choice would be completely expected.   Falik founded Global Citizen Year in 2010 to send high school […]

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EXCITING NEWS!

Introducing
Take Action Lab: Environment & Sustainability

Beginning in August 2025, we’re welcoming the next generation of environmental changemakers to George Town, Malaysia