City Year offers a fantastic gap year experience

Learn more about about all the ways you can use your Segal Education Award after your service year.

Each year, City Year recruits more than 2,000 young people, ages 17 to 25, who become AmeriCorps members. You’ll serve in a public school as student success coaches—near-peer tutors, mentors and role models who help students feel connected to school, take ownership of their learning, and stay on track to high school graduation.

You can choose to serve at one of our 29 U.S. sites or ask to serve wherever you are needed most.

We know that student success coaches are having a positive impact on students and schools, according to multiple research findings and feedback from our partner teachers and principals.

If you are a recent high school graduate who is uncertain about your next plan, a current college student who is weighing your options, or a college grad eager try something new, City Year can offer you a valuable, challenging and meaningful gap year experience.

Our students attend some of the most systemically under-resourced schools in the country, but they dream big, have endless talents and potential, and strive for academic success. And while they do, City Year AmeriCorps members are supporting their academic and social-emotional growth, whether that’s mastering fractions or collaborating with their classmates.

Right now, we are focused on recruiting, training and supporting a new cohort of AmeriCorps members to serve in the next school year—an experience that can be as powerful for you as for the students you serve.

Three reasons to join City Year for an unforgettable gap year

There are many reasons why more than 40,000 alumni have chosen to serve with City Year over the past three decades. Here are the top three you may want to consider.

Serving with City Year:

1. Cultivates skills and experience that will help you meet your goals—personal, academic and professional.

You will be challenged, have fun and constantly learn if you choose City Year. You will also gain critical skills that are in demand by employers, whatever career you choose to pursue, such as teamwork, problem solving and collaboration.

In fact, a 2024 report on City Year alumni, the City Year Alumni Bridging Study, found that the transferrable skills that are focused on and strengthened by a year of service with City Year are the same skills that are most needed and valued in today’s workforce and society.

More than 90% of City Year alums say serving as an AmeriCorps member helped them to effectively work with people from diverse backgrounds, different from their own. And more than 8 out of 10 alums agree that their service experience helped prepare them for their future career.

City Year student success coaches receive more than 300 hours of training throughout their service year and our alumni say the experience helped them to cultivate skills and networks that have helped them succeed across a wide array of professions.

Read more about all the ways City Year’s 40,000 alumni continue to make a difference where they live and work.

2. Means you are part of a close-knit team of your peers, in the city of your choice.

Unlike some national service programs, City Year AmeriCorps members serve in teams, learning together, challenging one another and creating bonds that can last a lifetime. Building these kinds of relationships at this moment in time is a powerful and valuable asset, as so many people are feeling alone and disoriented.

City Year serves in 29 U.S. cities, from big cities like Seattle to Chicago to Miami, to smaller places, like Little Rock, Manchester, NH, and Columbia, so chances are, we are serving schools in your community or a community near you. Or perhaps you want a complete change—a move to a new place. City Year can help with relocation costs.

Explore what you can expect if you join City Year.

3. Brings flexibility and financial benefits, including a stipend, access to exclusive scholarships and a valuable education grant to put toward past or future studies.

While you will be modestly compensated for your service through a bi-weekly stipend, you will receive other benefits to help off-set some living expenses such as free health insurance during your service.

And you will receive access to dozens of scholarships for City Year alumni as well as a Segal Education Award that can be used for college expenses, student loans, or educational travel— it’s up to you.

Learn more about all the ways you can use the Segal Education Award.

At a time when many things are uncertain, one thing is for sure: City Year will be there for students and for our AmeriCorps members in the next school year.

Join us for your life-changing gap year.

Learn more