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author avatar

Maria Bossert

Maria is a born-and-raised Kentuckian, and while proud of her home state, she is ecstatic to leave the country for the first time and dive deep into an entirely new culture. She is passionate about public policy and legislation, and before entering a career in those fields she decided to further her experiences and expand her world view through participating in Global Citizen Year. While in Ecuador Maria plans to stay curious throughout every moment and share her special affinity for Appalachian Folk music with her host family. Maria is a visual artist, and even though she loves to document her environment through her art, her outlook on life can be summed up through this quote: "At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough." -Toni Morrison

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I Went to a Developing Country and Painted a Mural

Maria Bossert

2019-05-14

I know what it looks like. How cliche. But I am going to call it like it is; I went to a developing country and painted a mural. This mural was my Final Community Project, which was a required part of my gap year program. The goal of this project was to identify a problem...

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To whom much is given, much is expected

Maria Bossert

2019-04-15

One of the most difficult things I have been forced to confront over my gap year is my privilege. I’m white. I’m American. I’m a native English speaker. I’m wealthy. Well, I have never considered myself wealthy until recently. I knew my family had money; we lived comfortably and never had to worry about putting...

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Feasting on Graves

Maria Bossert

2019-03-10

Throughout my life, death has always been taboo. I think much of this feeling comes from being raised in the Western world, where we as a society often hide the fact of dying. We don’t really talk about death, we do everything we can to slow the inevitable process down, and once it does happen,...

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Las Cascadas

Maria Bossert

2018-11-29

One of the highlights of my time in Ecuador has been the multitude and proximity of waterfalls. This fact still often surprises me given that I live in the Sierra, in the country’s Imbabura Province, named for just one of the several massive volcanoes always in the horizon, since my community is nestled amid in...

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To Be a Woman

Maria Bossert

2018-10-14

*   I realize that I’m typing this with white knuckles.   I realize that my jaw is tense as the I recall the words of recent headlines swirling in my brain.   I realize that I’m biased, and I carry my biases with me in this blog post.   However…   This post is...

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First Sneeze in Ecuador

Maria Bossert

2018-09-09

  As our plane descended 37,000 feet down from the clouds into the capital city of Quito, I was struck with an obvious thought: “this is my first time in Ecuador.” (duh). It was my first time outside the United States, so of course this was my first time in Ecuador. However, as a person...

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Two Weeks

Maria Bossert

2018-08-13

  As I woke up at 5:45 this morning to the sounds and motion of my co-counselor amid her routine sleep-talk-and-walk show in our summer camp cabin, I knew there was no going back to bed. Throughout this week at camp, the question I have been most frequently asked is “When do you leave for...

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