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
Coffee, coffee everywhere but not a drop to drink
Cecily Montgomery
2014-02-23
In the States I was an avid coffee drinker. Every morning I would take my to-go cup with me into my first class at school and it wasn’t until I had finished it that I would feel fully awake. After school I would often treat myself to a twenty-ounce iced coffee that would help keep me up into the...
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A Very Merry Un-Birthday
Joshilyn Binkley
2014-02-23
The intense, mid-day sun reaches us in shades of green through the canopy of the vast tree the thirty of us are under. Colored paper strings hanging from the low branches dance in the warm breeze, and we sit on a carpet of damp earth and fallen pink flower petals. Each trying to serve the other, and then finally,...
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Ojala {poem}
Ilana Marder-Eppstein
2014-02-23
Ojala You told me Ojala, God willing. God willing you would marry After the age of twenty. Sitting with our eighteen-year-old Toes playing in the dirt. Thinking of love. I didn’t understand Why you said Ojala. I didn’t understand The force behind marrying young. And the fear that comes with it. But God wasn’t willing....
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Respect Your Elders
Lillie Mayfield
2014-02-23
As some of you might have heard, as of last Sunday, I have been evacuated out of my town because of the nearby volcano Tungurahua, which has been erupting beautifully lately. I’m now staying at a hotel waiting for the “orange alert” to be taken down so that I can go back home to my...
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Alumni Post: 1 + 4
Lydia Collins
2014-02-21
When I decided to attend Tufts in the spring of 2012, I simultaneously made another life-changing decision — to not go to Tufts. Right away, that is. I deferred my admission until the following year and signed up to spend a year in Ecuador with a program called Global Citizen Year. Global Citizen Year is...
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Pelucona
Madeline Lisaius
2014-02-20
What does privilege mean to you? Don’t worry – I’m not going to define privilege “in my own words” or give you a dictionary definition as a way to subtly suggest that your definition is wrong. What I DO believe, though, is that my personal definition has a lot to do with the environment I am in and...
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Just The Two of Us
Russell Gens
2014-02-14
For the past three months I have been living in La Victoria de Pusuca, a town of thirteen families about an hour outside of the city of Riobamba. In this tiny town, I’ve come to make up exactly one half of one tiny family. I spend almost every waking hour of my life with my host mom, Charito....
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Halfway Ready
Neil Singh
2014-02-03
I’ve reached the halfway marker of our program, and now I feel a mix of emotions churning inside of me. This bittersweet milestone made me appreciate how far I’ve come since I stepped off the plane at Quito, and that my homecoming is not too far off. But I also realized how limited my time...
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Learning to Teach
Claire Wohlers
2014-02-03
Here in Zuleta, one of my jobs is working at a school. I teach a combination of English, P.E., and “danza”, which is a combination of dance and music, neither of which am I particularly qualified to teach. I usually end up teaching the hokey pokey or the macarena, because I teach first and second...
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Transport Me
Claire Wohlers
2014-02-03
At home, I used to avoid the bus. I liked the people-watching, sure, but it was much more convenient driving or being driven. It would allow me to avoid walking the hills and sitting next to the inevitable cup of unidentified goo on the seat next to me. Here, I have uncovered a new love...
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I Will
JT Su
2014-02-03
Within us Chimborazo Fellows, there is something we do: we write each other letters for what we call our “rainy days”–days where hard memories suddenly and unknowingly convene and we feel our lowest of lows. Though these tough times are hard to overcome, they are the moments I will always remember–the times I dig deep...
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The Unimportance of Birthdays
Amanda Langan
2014-02-03
I was teaching the months in English to my students, and I thought I would incorporate each of their birthdays to make it slightly more fun. With all of the months translated on the white board, I explained the activity and received smiling faces, a sign of approval – so I thought. Without hesitation, I...
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