Abby Falik, Founder and CEO of 'Global Citizen Year,' discusses the company's mission to make taking a gap year 'aspirational' for all students. Falik adds that the company's goal is to have students develop a new language while getting a new perspective, and showing off what being an American means to other parts of the world.
Global Citizen Year offers programs in Ecuador, Senegal, India, and Brazil. Falik adds that the focus of the company is on impact, noting that even though the program is expensive, it is able to choose students, regardless of their financial status, through scholarship programs. The company is a non-profit, and is able to re-invest some tuition costs back into its programs.
Falik explains how selective the process is, but that 'Global Citizen Year' does not look at grades or test scores in the way that colleges and universities do. She notes that the program is seeking students that are "persuasive, passionate, and hungry" for a year of impact.
Oracle soars as it cashes in on the AI boom, Plus: Starbucks shares continue to fall under its new CEO, and does anybody actually want a new iPhone Air?
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
