Malia’s decision to take a gap year isn’t just good for her — it’s good for the country, entrepreneur says
By Abigail Falik When the White House announced Sunday that Malia Obama would attend Harvard University but take a year off first, it sparked a lot of conversation about “gap years.” Abigail Falik, founder and chief executive officer of Global Citizen Year and an award-winning entrepreneur, writes her views on the benefits of taking an exploratory […]
Malia Obama’s ‘Gap Year’ Is Part of a Growing (and Expensive) Trend
By Mike McPhate It sounds awfully nice: A yearlong postponement of schoolwork. The White House announced on Sunday that Malia Obama, the president’s older daughter, would be among the thousands of students to take a so-called gap year between high school and college. The hiatus from classrooms, textbooks and tests has become an increasingly popular […]
Why more high-school seniors need to be like Malia Obama and take a gap year
By Jeffrey J. Selingo Sunday’s announcement from the White House that Malia Obama would take a gap year before starting at Harvard University in the fall of 2017 drew swift reactions on social media—a mix of support, ridicule for delaying adulthood, and some envy that the idea of taking a break before college is […]
Don’t Send Your Kids to College. At Least Not Yet.
This op-ed was originally published in The New York Times with Nicholas Kristof on April 5th, 2016. View the original publication of the article at this link. In the past few weeks, anxious high school seniors across the country have received admissions decisions from colleges. Some might feel like they’ve won the lottery; others have dashed […]
Vision + Strategy
Entrepreneur and educator Abby Falik is on a crusade to make a global bridge year post-high school the norm. Story by Amalia McGibbon What is the point of college? It’s a genuine question. With a third of American freshman dropping out before their second year, student debt on the rise, and employers […]
Abby Falik says go find yourself! And she can help
Inflection Point is a public radio show dedicated to telling the stories of women changing the status quo. We’re thrilled to share this week’s podcast featuring Abby Falik, Global Citizen Year’s Founder/CEO. Abby talks with host Lauren Schiller about the crisis facing our outdated education system, and shines a light on a promising solution: a new pathway […]
You Should Know: Abby Falik
A well-known educator and activist, Abby Falik is the founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year, which works to take the concept of a global bridge year after high school and turn it into a more commonly experienced expectation and opportunity. Occupation: Social Entrepreneur Place of birth: Berkeley, CA Instagram/Twitter: @abbyfalik […]
Bridge-year program to make a bigger Jewish splash
by Patricia Corrigan , j. correspondent When Abby Falik graduated from high school in 1997, the Berkeley teen wanted “to do something in the world” — to provide some type of humanitarian service — before heading off to college. But no such program was available. Today there is, and Falik started it. Abby […]
Here’s How to Make a Gap Year Before College Count
Joe O’Shea is the author of Gap Year: How Delaying College Changes People in Ways the World Needs, President of the Board of the American Gap Association, and Director of Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement at Florida State University. American students are taking gap years at record numbers. Over the next three months, many high […]
A Year Off Before College Isn’t A Gap, It’s A Launching Pad
By Denise Restauri In August 2012, my daughter Ally was in India, spending the first half of her gap year at Shanti Bhavan, a boarding school for the most vulnerable children of India’s “lowest caste.” After five months at Shanti Bhavan, Ally would head off to Nepal to join (then 25-year-old) Maggie Doynewho runs a […]
