Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
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Class Year
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An Expectation Shattering Week
Manuel Quesada Nylen
2018-09-01
Looking back on the expectations I held for the week of Global Launch upon arriving here in San Francisco, I can't pinpoint what exactly I thought was in store for me. At the airport, I texted my friend (Shoutout to Phuong, if you're reading this) who had done GCY last year, and she expressed to...
Read MorePrologue: My Adventure Begins
Averielle Van Horne
2018-09-01
For a long time now, I’ve wanted to take a gap year. I knew that I didn’t feel quite ready yet for college, and I wanted to do something meaningful before slaving away at studying in college. While I was looking into gap year programs, I came across Global Citizen Year. Ever since I was...
Read MoreA year behind or actually ahead?
William Shain
2018-08-31
Who says you need to follow the beaten path? There’s a reason that the trail is so worn down and its because today’s young adults are ushered blindly in a direction of college and a subsequent career, without ever questioning what is it that I really want to do? Though I could have easily started...
Read MoreThe Beginning
Holly Shankin
2018-08-31
A lot is happening in this week before I leave for California, and let me tell you it is not easy. A week full of anxiety and seemingly empty of everything else. It’s really, for lack of a better word, weird. While visiting my friends and sisters at college my feelings are jumbled up all...
Read MoreBlog Post 1
Sara Ahlich
2018-08-31
Today is our last day at the Stanford campus (and coincidentally, the day this blog is due!). It's been a long week – meeting dozens of Fellows and speakers from all over, workshops and seminars on countless topics, and the fact that this is only the beginning of a long journey. It's no secret that...
Read MoreHappy 70th Birthday
Laura Harvey
2018-08-30
The dappled shade protects my pale shoulders from the sun and the grass is damp under my bare legs. The taste of Thai food is new and there’s probably as much on my face as in my mouth. I unfold one leg and stretch it out into the circle. The circle consists of the other...
Read MoreThe past does not define me
Kaya Pearson-Gaglia
2018-08-30
Going into global citizen year I was scared, anxious, and I held a lot of emotional baggage. I was skeptical of what the true reason I came into this program is but after the last group meeting we had I can confidently say I have found my purpose. As some of you may know I...
Read MoreA Road Less Traveled
David Jiang
2018-08-28
During the period in which many of my peers are buying textbooks, I am zipping up suitcases. During the summer when my friends lounged by the pool, I hastily studied a new language. They admire the all-you-can-eat campus dining halls, while I marvel at the eight-month visa that currently sits in my passport. For the...
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GCY saved my life
Veronica Barrera
2018-08-27
The day is May 8th, it's 8:30 a.m and I’m sitting next to my marketing team in my entrepreneur class. The day was slow, everyone in class was eating their bacon egg and cheeses or playing fortnite on their computers meanwhile I was researching my own death with the army. I always knew I didn't want...
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Channeling my Inner Sponge
Ashley Trejo
2018-08-26
I find myself repeating the phrase of an optimistic yellow sponge from my youth. Well, “youth” may be a bit of a stretch since the silly show can still be found playing on my screens. Nevertheless, “I’m Ready” has been the statement on my mind since mid-May. ...
Read MoreA Bit of a Walkabout Is All
Ellie Van Gorden
2018-08-26
18. That’s how many hours I have left until I leave. Leaving for what? Oh, just a bit of a walkabout is all. *In Australia, a walkabout is a rite of passage into manhood for Aboriginal boys. Now obviously I am neither a boy, nor Aboriginal…but I use this term as a way to describe...
Read MoreStep Up, Step Back, Lean In
Rebecca Rose
2018-08-26
I used to think senioritis was a joke. I used to think that my burning yearning curiosity, my insatiable hunger for knowledge, and passion for understanding would never fade, could never fade. And then I hit senior year. Years of school work–standardized tests, SATs, ACTs, APs, and GPAs, every acronym that sought to reduce...
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