Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
Category
Class Year
Country
The Importance of Family
Kimberly Reed-Hyman
2013-01-09
As the tears start to fall from my eyes, I try my best to hide the fact that I’m crying, but I’m doing a terrible job because my host mom is asking me what’s wrong. It’s a few days from Christmas and I’m at my first Ecuadorian family celebration. The family is here to glorify...
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Olive Branch
Kim Asenbeck
2013-01-09
In Germany, next to my blonde-haired, blue-eyed cousins, I look like the child from the Jungle Book. Next to my Brazilian cousins, I look like a pale ghost. I’m too dark. I’m too light. In Germany, they tell me to take myself more seriously. In Brazil, they tell me to laugh a little. I don’t...
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Reader be Forewarned: This Story Contains Diarrhea
Barker Carlock
2013-01-09
For the past four days, my intestines have been ravaged. I have had the same liquid pouring out of both ends of my body. I’m not sure what the culprit was…perhaps the water, the greasy and sugary foods, the lack of exercise, etc. More than likely it was a combination of all of the above....
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Achote Excursion
Ella Wegman-Lawless
2013-01-09
It all started when my host mom came to my door and asked me if I would like to go to the Achote River. I of course wanted to get to know more and more of the land that surrounds my house so I said yes. When I walked outside to my delight and horror two horses were...
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Christmas Presents
Chloe Bash
2013-01-09
In an earlier blog post I discussed the dangerous generosity that directs the drinking culture here in Ecuador. This Christmas season, I experienced a greater and more expansive generosity that much better defines the character of my town. I woke up on December 22nd sure that my family and my friends had forgotten my birthday. There would be no...
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Can I have one?
Jordan Lee
2013-01-09
In case you didn’t know, there is an education crisis in the United States. According to a study published by the education frim Pearson, students from the U.S. rank 17th internationally, while those from Finland, South Korea, and China grabbed the top spots. Experts say that if something is not done soon, the U.S. should...
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A Day in the Life
Emily Collins
2013-01-09
I wake up slow. Drifting between my dream and reality, I let my mind slowly awaken before my body. I turn off my alarm, gradually lifting my body and do a series of stretches before I even open my eyes. I give myself time each morning to reflect on the day that passed, and prepare...
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Lightness
Anvy Tran
2013-01-09
I am the whimsical child of uninhibited Chaos and graceful Mutability. Great Chaos, whose company I am the most comfortable in. I am understood by you. To be filled with madness as we are; this exhilaration that keeps the mind awake. For others you are terror, but when I see your constant dance of freedom, I only feel...
Read MoreHappiness and Indoor Plumbing
Allie Wallace
2013-01-09
A few weeks ago, as I was chopping onions with my adult host sister, she said something out of the blue that caught me by surprise. “At the end of the month, we’re going to finish the house.” “Wait, it’s not finished?” I asked, confused. Sure, the majority of the rooms are unpainted, the exterior...
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The Girl Effect: The Gender Roles in Palmarin
Jay Choi
2013-01-09
On September 29th—after a month of language and cultural training in Dakar—I finally arrived in my rural placement site in Senegal’s southern coast called Palmarin, the home of beautiful mangroves. In my family, I have three sisters—Oumi, Saly, and Awa—and two brothers—Jean and Alou. I’m privileged to have multiple siblings from both genders as my interaction with them has allowed me...
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Classes and Condoms
Chloe Bash
2013-01-09
My breath quickened as I walked to the front of the class. Armed with foam drawings of bacteria and white bloods cells, I intended to demonstrate how HIV attacks the immune system to a group of forty giggling thirteen-year-olds. I had practiced my “charla,” full of new Spanish vocabulary, to my family and to my friends, but never to...
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Patience
Jackie Brown
2013-01-09
This is a speech I gave at one of our recent seminars. Even since I gave this speech I have seen improvement in both my classes and patience… I’d say it’s safe to say there is correlation between the two. About four months ago we were all sitting on the grassy field of Stanford. We all...
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