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
Dancing in the African Rain
Emma Anderson
2012-07-11
My name is Emma Anderson and my favorite color is blue. Blue like the color my left knee turned after I collided with another player during my last soccer match of high school and tore my ACL and meniscus and fractured my femur the second day of November 2011. Blue like the ocean in Senegal,...
Read More
Pondering the Word Can’t and SYDNI
Sydni Heron
2012-07-11
Once, I counted how many times I’ve moved in my life. Twenty-one. When I meet new people, one of the first get-to-know you questions they ask is “Where are you from?” And I’m not sure what to say. I was born in Wyoming, have happy memories in Kansas and North Carolina and Illinois and Minnesota,...
Read More
Curiosity, Opportunities, and a Decision
Lauren Holt
2012-07-11
The world is a big place. I think just about anyone could come to this conclusion on their own. The world is fascinatingly large; we are surrounded by people and places we have never seen or encountered even though we’ve learned about them in school. Some say that we’re beyond our carrying capacity and that...
Read More
The Odyssey
Glenn Sherwin
2012-07-10
I can’t say that I have had a “normal’ education, but at this stage in my life I find that it has been one that serves me well. Waldorf schooling, home schooling, bits of college, forays into art schools in California and New York and a NOLS adventure in Mexico have ultimately brought me here....
Read More
A Little Bit About Me
Ella Wegman-Lawless
2012-07-10
My name is Ella Wegman-Lawless. I have been raised to be who I want to be. I try to live in the moment and seize any opportunity put in front of me and make the most of it. I love to swim, bike and hike. I am social but I also love to find the...
Read More
Viewing the World as a Whole
Joe Wolf
2012-07-10
My name is Joseph Wolf, and I am an 18-year-old high school graduate from Pine City, Minnesota. I have been heavily involved with school and local government. I was the senior class president, director on the local chamber of commerce, a student representative on the local planning commission, and a volunteer in my community. I...
Read More
Unbreakable Ties
Gabe Jackman
2012-07-10
My parents always raised me to be independent and be able to handle myself. It’s also possible that I was born naturally independent, but my mom and dad definitely instilled great values in me. They raised me in a small town by San Francisco, and I have been living in the same house for almost...
Read More
Adventuring
Delia Ross
2012-07-10
I come from a family of adventurers, and I have always been one myself. New things thrill me. Taking the path less traveled is the story of my life. I went to a tiny Montessori school through middle school, lived in London during 3rd grade, lived in Panama in 11th grade, and decided to choose...
Read More
The Right Choice
Peyton Foley
2012-07-10
When I first saw Global Citizen Year’s advertisement publicizing the opportunity to take a gap year between high school and college I had two options: click the ad and discover that it was just another scam, or ignore it and save myself from certain disappointment. Although it wasn’t obvious to me at the time, I’m...
Read More
Labeling Myself
Emily Hwang
2012-07-10
I do this thing where I label myself- Extrovert, ENFP, Sagittarius, Advocate, Actress, Girl. Every trait or behavior that I have ever manifested, every emotion that I have ever experienced has been thoroughly analyzed and neatly placed into one of the myriad categories that I use to define myself. And if it doesn’t fit, it isn’t...
Read More
Expanding Into the Unknown
Brian Riefler
2012-07-10
If you told me last year I would wind up volunteering in Ecuador for 8 months, I would have said that you were crazy. I think things happen in life for a reason, and I believe Global Citizen Year is my higher calling to grow further as a “man for others.” I first heard my...
Read More
I Belong
Tsion Horra
2012-07-10
Do you know the feeling? I mean the feeling of belonging somewhere, within something, or with someone? I do. Getting to this point or feeling, however, was by no means effortless. Unlike most of my classmates in high school, I was always indecisive and uncertain of my future; it scared me. I would always think...
Read More