Global Citizen Year is a unique opportunity to gain global skills and perspectives that will set you apart throughout your academic and professional careers - before you even set foot on a college campus. As a GCY Fellow, you will defer college to spend a year exploring the world through firsthand experience in a developing country. With the support of our team, experts across several sectors, and your host community, you will immerse deeply in another culture and a new community. You will learn a new language, form deep relationships, and develop the empathy and skills needed to improve others’ lives over the course of your own.
That's all well and good, you say - but, why take a year off? You're working so hard right now to get into college... isn't that the most important next step?
Some of the most successful social entrepreneurs have taken atypical, unconventional paths. Part of being a changemaker is taking initiative to forge your own way. In "Portrait of an Artist", GYC Fellow Naomi Wright explores the unexpected revelations that her gap year in Senegal has brought:
"In lieu of college, I’m living in Senegal, working in international development, and speaking Wolof—but it is precisely this vast change of scenery that clarified my yearning for self-expression. In high school I felt tugged in a million directions by my connections to this club, that AP class, some extracurricular activity or another. Had I plunged into college last fall, I’m sure I would have thrived, in a kid-in-the-candy-store sort of way. But would I have been able to discern my true curiosities and passions in that environment? My hunch is that it would have been considerably more difficult."Read her full story here and consider applying! To learn more about Global Citizen Year and to apply, visit globalcitizenyear.org/apply. Financial aid and full scholarships are available. Apply by March 1 or May 11, 2011 to be considered for this year.
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