Why Getting Americans Out of the Country Will Save the Earth

Few Americans get to venture beyond our own borders. A pitiful 10 percent of Americans speak a second language and fewer than 30 percent hold passports. U.S. students have the lowest geography scores in the developed world. How can we expect our country to address global problems when so few of us have seen the globe? […]

Now Grandma Can ‘Win a Trip’ Too

Nicholas 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 […]

Abigail Falik wants students to take a year off doing good abroad

Volunteering abroad between high school and college in a ‘Global Citizen Year’ helps students learn teamwork and leadership skills.   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 […]

Global Citizen Year Creates Social Enterprise Leaders

Josh grew up in a rough neighborhood of Oakland, Calif. Some of his friends had died young, others were in jail for drug dealing. But Josh was different. 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 […]

Program Aims to Develop a Generation of Global Citizens

Inspired by her summer living in a rural Nicaraguan village as a teenager, Abby Falik (MBA 2008) tried to join the Peace Corps upon graduating from high school, only to be rejected because of her age. Some years later, that rejection spurred Falik to develop an idea that in 2008 won the Pitch for Change competition, a […]