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 Calm Before the Storm
Dominique Landinez
2017-11-18
Last month we went on a hike through a rainforest. When we got off the bus, we had to walk down the block for a bit to begin the trail. Soon, we were completely immersed by nature. The trees stood high and the roots were thick. Many plants had fallen, hanging loose above our heads....
Read MoreHappinin’ in Hyderabad, India
Boby Yazdi
2017-11-18
It’s officially been more than 2 months and I think it’s safe for me to stay that I have adjusted pretty well in my community: I teach a 7th grade class that I love, I successfully vacationed with my host family, and have been around almost the entire – 10 million population – city that...
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“We give skills, not things.”
Sadie Troup
2017-11-18
A lot has been happening lately. For one, I received a full-tuition scholarship to college! I’m starting off with that because it has led me to one of the coolest experiences of my time thus far: working with bees! So to explain to you how a beca (scholarship) got me to working with bees today,...
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It’s Not Turkey That Makes Thanksgiving Special
Elise Leise
2017-11-17
As I walked through the doorway of the kindergarten, a little blur of limbs darted over and wrapped herself around my legs. "Mamedome!" she tried to say, in the garbled language of a two-year old. I laughed in delight and shock and a strange feeling that made me want to tear up a little bit,...
Read MoreEcuador Unplugged #1: Surviving Salmonella
Marissa Emerson
2017-11-17
“Ecuador Unplugged” is a blog-series aimed to recount experiences in Ecuador in an honest, (hopefully) humorous manner in a format non-traditional for my style of blog posts and more reminiscent of journal entries. Common courtesies of omitting graphic details, sugar-coating, and proper grammar/sentence structure will not necessarily be followed in this series; proceed at your...
Read MoreA Glimpse Of Brazil
Leonardo Ruiz-Sanchez
2017-11-16
If you have been wondering what I have been up to in Brazil, here’s a glimpse of the past two months. [vc_video link=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRYAS2rkaok’]
Read MoreThe Spice Crisis
Sunghoon Kwak
2017-11-16
I’m having an identity crisis. It’s an ongoing one, actually. Let me elaborate: As a Korean child living in the US, I felt that my Korean background would be something that would stay with me, but also something that would slowly fade as I grew older. As a result, I’d try to overcompensate for my...
Read MoreSettling In
Callista Helms
2017-11-15
Two months ago I was given a piece of paper that would dictate my next seven months in Ecuador. It had my permanent host family, the town I would be living in and what my apprenticeship would be. We didn’t get to choose where we were placed or what our jobs would be. I was...
Read MoreRegrets and Finding Yourself
Jamie Constantine
2017-11-15
Not Rocking the Boat or Staying True to Yourself? “We’ve all heard those horror stories. The one where the fellow is completely outcasted from their family and community based on their answer to a single question. “Oh, the past fellow in this one placement was talked about by the whole town and was never...
Read MorePutting Away the Notebook
Yoni Maltsman
2017-11-14
The other day I decided that over the course of the next five days, I would talk to five random people simply to get to know them. This decision was the result of a gradual process of realizations that I’ve been having since arriving in India. One of my initial, semi-vague intentions for my...
Read MoreRobbers and Hope
Caroline Smith
2017-11-14
Erna is my coworker at Sitio Çarakura, my apprenticeship here in Brazil. She is like me- she loves to notice beautiful things: “Look at that tree! It has red organisms growing on the bark. Only trees that grow in pure air have that. One day I want to see every tree covered in pinks and...
Read MoreSunlit Classrooms
Glory Jacquat
2017-11-13
Although my students are around five years younger than I, 7th & 8th standard, they continually and often unknowingly teach me about the environment which I now call home. Working with 160 rambunctious kids may be far from easy, but they offer insights into their world that I could only imagine before immersing myself here....
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