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.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
