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 Venezuela in my Ecuador
Holly Shankin
2019-05-22
I would like to take a second and acknowledge how immigration has affected my experience in Ecuador. The crisis in Venezuela has forced roughly 3,000 Venezuelans to flee their country every day, and a lot of people were making their way through, or to Ecuador. Living in Ibarra, which the panamericana (main highway going border...
Read MoreComing Home – from Home?
Julia-Braunig
2019-05-22
Okay, that’s my final blog post. Maybe I’ve been inconsistent, not extraordinarily eloquent and definitely not as holistic as I wanted to be in here posts but at least I am able to say that I could portray important parts of my own personal experience. And part of that is the end. (This sounds so...
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A Big Thank You to All Donors
Andrew Chen
2019-05-22
To anyone who has donated to Global Citizen Year, I wanted to say a big thank you for donating to GCY and for helping make this amazing program possible for me and others like myself. I had been wanting to do a gap year because I felt burned out from high school and lacked clarity...
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Ganesh Chaturthi
Jack Swartzentruber
2019-05-22
At the very beginning of my experience in India, I was lucky enough to experience the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi, a ten-day long festival celebrating the birth of the elephant god Ganesh. During this festival, thousands of people throughout our city paint and adorn small clay statues of the god, and proceed to parade them...
Read Moreon a nostalgia that never arrived & trans-linguistic familiarity
Phoebe Shea Perez
2019-05-22
Mangi fi – I’m here. For now, I’m here in Guatemala, yet another place I indulge in calling home. I’m back in a place that further reduces the nostalgia I had so long anticipated for Senegal, a nostalgia that never quite arrived. I occasionally do miss the concrete things that I can’t naturally do here...
Read MoreA photo collection of my year
Brinley Barton
2019-05-22
To highlight some of the things that words can’t explain. A collection of my chosen photos from the year. photos.app.goo.gl/z98ka5wnwth4xXqLA
Read MoreFarewell letter
Brinley Barton
2019-05-22
Ecuador, Antes conocíamos al otro, yo era una chica diferente. Una chica que quería saber más pero no sabía cómo. Una chica que no sabía la belleza de otras culturas y que pueden enseñarme. Como una niña no sabía quién eras ni que nos cruzaríamos. Soy estadounidense. Tengo una familia de clase media, una madre...
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8 MONTHS IN A VIDEO
Brandon Richards
2019-05-22
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb-zBjFBi3c&t=8s "When I see your light shine, I know I'm home." How was India? I have an incredibly difficult time putting into words the magnitude of my experience abroad. I've gained so much, and the past 8 months of my life have been a tremendous learning experience. I found so much beauty and depth in...
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close to the ocean
Lynn Drescher
2019-05-22
Barra da Lagoa is a small village on the east coast of Florianópolis. In a neighbourhood, where kindness makes you always feel welcomed, you can feel the importance of close relationships on every walk, see it in every smile. But I hope these pictures allow a glimpse of this place, its deep connection to the enchanting nature and surrounding water. I could...
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Working @ Projeto Tamar
Lynn Drescher
2019-05-22
At TAMAR in Floripa, I learned about sea turtles and natural protection. But more importantly, about the importance of collaboration and support in a team. Thanks to coworkers, who became close friends, I was soon able to hold guided tours for visitors in English as well as in Portuguese. I taught about the dangers created...
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To look back
Emiliana Reinoso
2019-05-22
Mirar atrás Hoy, en esta madrugada de un miércoles, me encuentro sentada en un viejo sofá escribiendo sobre lo que aún no logro descifrar. Los días pueden ser muy intensos cuando vuelves a lo que antes conformaba toda mi idea de un hogar. Lo cierto es que tres años viviendo fuera del país no me...
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