Find your purpose
Global Citizen Year is launching the generation of leaders our world needs now.
What is a global citizen year?
Today’s education system shuttles kids from high school to college without opportunities to reflect on who they are, what the world needs, and how to build a meaningful life.
A Global Citizen Year re-imagines the transition into adulthood as what it has the potential to be: a transformation. Students find their Global Citizen Years life-changing, parents say they’re priceless, and top colleges call them preferable.
The Future Is
Up To You
Global Citizen Year offers two experiences designed to launch the leaders our world needs now. Both programs select talented students who represent society’s diversity and equip them with the empathy, agency and global network to drive impact today -- and over the course of their lives.
Global Citizen Year Academy
Our intensive leadership experience (delivered virtually) brings together determined young changemakers worldwide to build leadership skills for solving global challenges. The Academy is designed as a 7-10 hour per week commitment that adds an enriching layer of purpose to school, gap years, or work. Students enroll in our signature leadership course, join conversations with today’s most impactful changemakers, and receive one-on-one mentorship. At the end of the 12-week semester, students have confidence in the values that drive them and clarity on how to connect their purpose with the change they want to see in the world.
Learn About the AcademyNot sure which program is right for you? Take the Quiz
Global Citizen Year Fellowship
Our flagship immersion experience enables exceptional high school graduates to live and work alongside the global majority in Brazil, Ecuador, or India. Fellows are chosen via a highly selective application process, and spend the equivalent of an academic year living with a family and apprenticing to local efforts advancing education, health, and sustainability. By staying longer and going deeper, Fellows learn languages through immersion, develop resilience living in their stretch zone, and become part of a community a world away from home. Fellows return with global skills and insights that shape their character and equip them to find shared solutions that advance the greater good.
Learn About the FellowshipNot sure which program is right for you? Take the Quiz
Are you a parent of a student interested in Global Citizen Year?
Read the Parent GuideAre you an educator looking to nominate students?
Explore OpportunitiesWhy Global Citizen Year?
The world needs a new generation of leaders who represent society’s diversity and bring curiosity, conviction and courage to overcoming our shared global challenges.
Global Citizen Year is the only program that recruits and selects the most promising future leaders (independent of financial circumstances) and helps them to develop the insights, skills, and networks needed to drive social impact over the course of their lives.
Transformative Leadership Training
We believe leadership is a practice, not a position. Focusing exclusively on the formative transition into adulthood, our experiences help young people identify their power, pursue their purpose and reach their fullest potential.
Personalized Mentorship
People become people through people. Our talented crew of educators and innovators walk the walk -- aligning our lives with our convictions, and inspiring our students to do the same. Additionally, with 100+ diverse mentors available for one-on-one support, students learn self-awareness, accountability and agency: the foundations for a reflective and purposeful life.
Unparalleled Global Network
Together, we go farther. With an alumni community of 1,200 and growing, the Global Citizen Year network is a lifelong source of inspiration, opportunity, and support. Our alumni are in colleges and careers in over 60 countries where they’re already having an outsized impact on society; and they’re just getting started!
Learning Beyond the Classroom
School shouldn't interfere with your education. Rather than limiting learning to the classroom, we take real-world experience and enrich it with a wrap-around of curriculum, coaching and a cohort. Our experiences are designed to build the true power skills of the 21st century, and our evidence shows we’re shaping values, perspectives and skills in ways classroom learning cannot.
Commitment to Equity & Inclusion
Talent is universal, but opportunity is not. We’re deliberately structured as a 501 (c ) 3 non-profit with social and racial justice - not profit - as our bottom line. We cast a wide net for talent and are proud to offer an admissions process that doesn’t rely on test scores, grades or a family’s financial circumstances. We give more financial aid than all other “gap year programs” combined (>$25 million since 2010) and 80% of students receive need-based financial aid to join us. By investing in promising young people who reflect our society’s diversity we’re changing the composition - and operating system - of our future leaders.
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Timia (India '16) got the independence and support that set her up for college success.
"India is such a world away from what I knew. My love for learning has been revitalized. I've come into my own."
Camila (Academy ‘20) connected with a global community of peers and grew her self-knowledge and leadership skills.
“Joining the Academy was my best decision! The community of changemakers makes my days so much better.”
See Camila's StorySign up for more!
For interested students, sign up here to learn more about our programs! For educators, visit our educator form to request more information
