Seven high school graduates in Chapel Hill are saving their ‘college experience’ for later and packing their bags for something different than a dorm room.
Global Citizen Year is a non-profit that provides a gap year experiences in Ecuador, Brazil, Senegal and India. The fellows are paired with a host family and given community apprenticeships based on their interests.
“The goal is to really live alongside the problems that they are trying to help solve and learn from the community that they are trying to help from within,” Global Citizen Year Editorial Director Molly Weissman said.
The listed price of the program is $32,500, however the price varies on where a fellow goes and how long they stay.The program supports the inclusion of students from all different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. 40 percent of incoming students receive a full scholarship and 40 percent receive a partial scholarship.
“Access and opportunity for students with low income background is core to our DNA and it’s part of why we set ourselves up as a non-profit,” said David Omenn, vice president of development at Global Citizen Year.
Wyatt Foster, an East Chapel Hill high school graduate, decided to take a gap year in Senegal with Global Citizen Year because she wasn't excited about going to college yet and liked that the program was more than just volunteering.
“It’s not really about, ‘oh, what can I teach these people?’ It’s what can they teach you and how can you better your culture by incorporating theirs,” she said.
In North Carolina and across the nation, gap years have become a growing trend for high school graduates — 35 percent in the nation think about taking one. The program itself has increased from 11 fellows in 2010 to 140 fellows in 2017, and N.C. has the second most fellows for Global Citizen year, after California, where they are based.
“I think young people, a lot of them, are seeing some of the things that are happening in our current news and current events and are feeling inspired to see the world,” Weissman said. “As the president sort of closes borders, I think people are hungrier now than ever to engage with the world.”
