Interview with Esther Chou: Global Citizen Year
Conducted by Ali Matalon
Hi Esther! We have all missed you at SEI and want to know: what are you up to?
I moved to San Francisco in January to work with a social enterprise called Global Citizen Year. Since then, I’ve been re-learning how to ride a bike (mostly up giant, insurmountable hills), adapting to the harsh weather, and discovering all the reasons why I love the diversity of California.
How did you initially get involved with SEI?
I originally got involved with SEI when I was working in Zambia. One of my former college professors connected me to Professor Shaughnessy who was interested in a project I was working on involving microfinance and refugees. Professor Shaughnessy became my mentor, project financier, and eventually my boss! Almost two years after I first met him, I accompanied him on our first trip to South Africa in 2008 as a Teaching Assistant. Five years later, Professor Shaughnessy has taught me everything I know about high impact social enterprises, so when it was time to move onward and upward, it made so much sense that Global Citizen Year would be the next step for me. As an organization, it had everything I was looking for: the opportunity to work with committed, passionate, and mature young adults, the ability to develop more skills in metrics/measuring impact, deeper experience in international education…. plus, it hit the SEI six-part framework out of the ballpark!
How did you decide that Global Citizen Year would be the best next step for you?Can you explain to us a bit about exactly how the organization works?
Global Citizen Year is a bridge year program designed to unleash the potential of a new generation of global leaders. Each year, we recruit, select, and train a diverse corps of high potential students for a Fellowship in Africa and Latin America (and soon in Asia).
Though it is routinely referred to as a “gap year”, we refer to it as a “bridge year” because this transformative year between high school and college is anything but a gap! At our core, Global Citizen Year is a leadership development organization rather than an international development organization. Through intensive training, immersive homestays, and apprenticeships (where the focus is more on learning rather than service), our Fellows develop the self-awareness, cross-cultural fluencies, and grit needed to succeed in college and beyond.
More importantly, what makes us different than traditional “gap year” organizations is that we are a social enterprise that operates on a hybrid business model; we have earned income generated by tuition which is set on a sliding payment scale. Our founder, Abby Falik, has a background in both education and business – she attended Harvard Business School (HBS) and even apprenticed with John Wood at Room to Read. Abby also won the HBS Social Enterprise Pitch Competition which provided the seed capital to launch Global Citizen Year in 2008. She was also recently awarded an Ashoka Fellowship!
What I really love about the organization is our commitment to access and diversity. About 80% of our Fellows receive some kind of financial aid and our cohort is represented by almost 40% racial minorities.
What exactly is your role at Global Citizen Year?
At the organization, I am the Program Manager where I am responsible for curriculum development, monitoring and evaluation, parent communications, and US training (think: 8-day conference for our Fellows, i.e. preparing them before they go and receiving them when they come back).
What type of impact do you think Global Citizen Year has on its target market (the high school graduates/pre-college students)?
I think the impact has been tremendous so far. Part of my role is to measure program quality and Fellow impact, so I’m really excited to geek out about it!
Here’s the challenge:
- 1/3 of college freshmen don’t return for a second year, and only 50% graduate in 6 years.
- 22% of Americans have a passport and only 9% speak a second language.
- 90% of employers believe that colleges are not fully preparing students for our global economy.
Our results:
- 99% are enrolled in college and on track to graduate on time.
- 96% of our Fellows come out of their year fluent in a critical language.
- 97% believe the global skills they developed during their Global Citizen Year have helped them succeed academically, professionally, and/or personally.
- 90% of our Fellows come out of their year feeling better prepared for the academic and emotional rigors of college.
- Compared to their peers in college, 90% feel more comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty and 97% believe that they are more resourceful in navigating challenges.
- 99% state Global Citizen Year changed how they see their role in the world.
What’s your favorite part about working in the Social Impact industry?
The passionate people I work with make a career in the social impact sector meaningful; it’s nice to go into an office and work with people who care about the same issues and who are just as committed. I also truly believe in what Global Citizen Year is doing – I could never imagine going to work each day to just plug away for something I didn’t care deeply about.
But, I have to say, I miss the student interactions at SEI and the summer trips the most!
Lastly, what’s your favorite piece of advice for undergraduates leaving school and are keen on joining the social impact industry?
- If you can swing it, find a fellowship abroad when you’re done with school. Even better, find one that pays. Fellowships are a great option. To be eligible for a competitive Fellowship, you should have decent grades and experiences too. Employers in this sector value candidates with Fellowship/work experience abroad (10+ months or more is impressive to us!) It’s like the little Yelp sticker that shows us you’ve been there, you’ve done that, and you’ve been vetted. You’re independent enough to make it on your own, but team player enough to learn/work with others.
- Be fluent in another language. I think this is a great life skill to have in general, but it would be even better to have language skills if you’re planning to work in the international sector. I’d focus on expansive critical languages like Arabic, Chinese, or Hindi. Portuguese, French, and Spanish would be great options too.
- Informational interviews are your best friend! I used to always tell students to research the person whose job they want to have in the future. Look up their LinkedIn profiles or bios on their company website to get a better understanding of the opportunities they chose to pursue and the paths they took. Send them a message and ask them for 30 minutes of their time to talk about their career trajectories/life advice. Prepare thoughtful questions that show you did your homework. Always send a thank you email after and ask them to keep you in mind for future opportunities.
- Apply for the job even if you aren’t exactly qualified for it. I used to be the kind of person that discouraged others from applying for jobs they weren’t 100% qualified for. Ignore that. (Note: you should have at least 70% of the qualifications employers ask for.) Now, having interviewed several candidates for international roles, I realize that many of us in this sector like to hire for potential, especially if you’re an awesome cultural fit. It works like this: we have a “must have” and a “nice-to-have” list. The must-have list usually includes: attitudes (go-getter, team player, ability to deal with ambiguity, innovative thinker), cultural fit (do we like you?), and experiences that are relatable to our line of work. The nice-to-haves are mostly skill-sets that we can train you on.
- Take the leap! Go on, sign-up for that extra co-op. Enroll in another study abroad. Do it all, so long as it doesn’t seriously delay your graduation date! I know that you’re so ready to join the workforce and make the world a better place, but this world will still be here when you’re done with college. What’s the rush?
- Life advice for college in general – take advantage of as many opportunities as you can in college, not for resume-building but for the true experience of it. I look back on my college experience and remember the things that made me who I am today, like student clubs/organizations I joined where I felt stay-up-all-night-at-Info-Commons-purposeful and learned to work well with others toward a common goal. I remember the classes that blew my mind but weren’t necessarily going to check the boxes on my degree audit. I think about the trip to Geneva where I learned what I didn’t want to do, but met my best friends and soul mates. Or the professors who took me under their wings and helped me to realize what I wanted to do. And the international co-op where I learned firsthand about poverty, injustice, and how to pick a parasitic worm out of my back. Here are some of the things I don’t care to remember because they were not value-adds: macro-economics class, purposeless campus jobs, the time I took a co-op job because it paid decently and there was nothing else left and all my friends were going on co-op. Your time in college is valuable, expensive, and limited. Get it together and make it count!
