GLOBAL CITIZEN YEAR INCORPORATED

Each year we recruit and train a diverse corps of our country's brightest high school graduates and support them through a school-year long immersion in communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America during a “bridge year” before college. Through a mix of experiential learning and world-class training, our Fellows develop self-awareness, global skills and grit -- the foundations for success in higher education, and leadership in our global economy.

Beyond our core program is an even bolder vision. Using our model as a proof-of- concept, we're partnering with colleges, policymakers, and our own alumni to ensure that one day a “global year” becomes a new rite of passage, and the hallmark of an American education. Ultimately, we're building a new generation of leaders who bring insight, conviction and courage to advancing human progress on a global scale.

Our impact model hinges on two interdependent strategies:
1. Direct Impact: Training a new generation of leaders through our gap year fellowship.
2. Indirect Impact: Shifting the norm so that an extended global immersion experience becomes the hallmark of a world-class higher education.

The following aspects of our program set us apart: we focus exclusively on the “bridge year" before college; our 10-month, structured training and international immersion drives transformative learning outcomes; our selective admissions (vs. sign up and pay) allows us to admit the highest-potential students; and our sliding scale tuition model builds sustainability from earned-revenue and enables unparalleled access for low-income students. We've also worked in deliberate ways to use our model as a proof-point that spurs a national conversation about how and why more students should take a meaningful gap year. Global Citizen Year has been featured in pre-eminent forums from The New York Times and The Washington Post, to The Chronicle of Higher Education and NPR, and by cultural icons including Katie Couric and Nicholas Kristof. Many top colleges now provide information on gap year options to their incoming students, and Global Citizen Year is now recommended as a ‘preferred provider'.

Since our launch in 2010, we've grown our operation ten-fold. Our 700+ alumni are thriving in college and careers. We’ve now built the team and model, identified levers for growth, and prepared the program for scale. We are ready to grow our fellowship and deepen its impact, broaden our reach, and expand our influence.