Company Profile
Global Citizen Year
Company Overview
Global Citizen Year is an accredited, award-winning, non-profit social enterprise on a mission to make it normal to choose a bridge year; an experience after high school that builds self-awareness, global skills, and grit – the foundations for success in college and beyond.
Company History
It started with a question.
Where is the opportunity for young people to learn about themselves and the wider world before college?
This absence struck Global Citizen Year Founder & CEO, Abigail Falik, when she herself graduated from high school and struggled to find an opportunity – outside military or religious service – for real world work and immersion before college. This question – and the missed opportunity – stuck with Abby and wouldn’t let her go.
After nearly a decade working as a social entrepreneur in the US and communities around the world, Abby enrolled at Harvard Business School to develop the skills, strategy and networks to bring her long-held vision of a pre-college “bridge year” to life. In 2008, Abby entered the Harvard Business School Pitch for Change competition with a bold vision: she proposed that one day, a global bridge year before college would become the norm, not the exception. Abby won first place in the competition that day – catalyzing Global Citizen Year’s transition from a big idea into a reality.
Under Abby’s leadership, Global Citizen Year quickly built momentum — raising seed capital from lead investors including the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, The Mind Trust, and Harvard Business School, and receiving early features in prominent national forums including The New York Times, the Aspen Ideas Festival, Pop!Tech, and the Clinton Global Initiative. In 2009, Global Citizen Year launched a pilot program with 11 diverse, passionate Fellows from across the country. Today, we have nearly 350 program alumni, a talented global team, advisory council and board of directors, and a growing base of prominent funders and partners.
As our momentum continues to build, it’s clear that Global Citizen Year is an idea whose time has come. We’re dreaming big, and we know this is just the beginning.