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
Capstone Video
Josh Thompson
2013-04-22
This is a video I made which I will show when I speak about my experience during my capstone presentations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgrDPn81Ml0&feature=youtu.be
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The Value of Time
Hannah Bouline
2013-04-14
Time is a very plastic thing – it is swollen and rich at times, and flaccid and bland at others. As my days in Ecuador become fewer and fewer, I have been thinking about time quite a bit, unfurling it like a fern. I look back through my journey this year, and time seems to...
Read MoreLearning to Speak
Daniel Schwarz
2013-04-07
The lights are off. I am sitting. I am thinking. I am counting. “Tuesday 1, Wednesday 2, Thursday 3, Friday 4, Saturday 5, Sunday 6, Monday 7 Tuesday 8, Wednesday 9, Thursday, 10, Friday, 11, Saturday…12, Sunday…13, Monday 14, Tue….” I stopped. “15 days” I thought. I paused, I breathed. I began to reflect. I’ve been here for 7 months....
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From One End of the Spectrum to the Other
Carrie Hamilton
2013-04-07
It is truly amazing how quickly things can change, how suddenly experiences can be over, how unexpectedly new beginnings can appear. This has been so heavily on my mind over the past couple of weeks as my time in Ecuador has taken an unforeseen turn. Two weeks ago, I moved out of my community of...
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On Guayusa
Carrie Hamilton
2013-04-07
Guayusa is a native plant to Ecuador that the Kichwas drink as a traditional tea. My past six months have been positively filled with guayusa, both through my homestay and through my work, and, given my proximity to and close work with the stuff, I cannot believe it’s taken me this long to write about...
Read MoreBreaking through the language Barrier
Kimberly Reed-Hyman
2013-04-07
Working around a lot of little kids you only understand half of the time is a difficult thing to do. When I first started working at the day care and the older women would try to talk to me, I never understood them. Having that happen did get frustrating at times but it didn’t compare to the feelingI felt...
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It’s All About the People
Carrie Hamilton
2013-04-07
Seven months ago when I left behind my comfortable life in Chapel Hill for the first time, I left behind a community of friends and family that I had known for practically my whole life. I was on the brink of an experience that would alter me in ways that I previously could never have...
Read MoreChoices
Galen Tsongas
2013-04-07
The beliefs we hold are shaped by our environment, our age, our upbringing in our environment, and the combination of experiences and sensations within our realities. Beliefs are passed down from parent to child, friend to friend, television to mind, eyes to mind, mouth to ears, and ears to mind. These are the sculptors of the masterpieces of human...
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Change through Empowerment
Chinyere Aniagoh
2013-04-07
My cohort and I, on arrival believed we could change Ecuador. We believed that if our communities didn’t have a clean water system we would be the ones to implement one or if there was an out break of Malaria we could get vaccines to everyone in our communities. These things are possible but we under estimated just how hard...
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The Courtyard
Peyton Foley
2013-04-07
I rest on the edge of a school courtyard wall. It appears ready to crumble, as if my weight were actually centering the worn bricks and pinning them together less they slide apart like Jenga blocks. The other, less fortunate walls lay fallen in the aged courtyard, scattered by time. Below my perch rest the cabbages, carrots, lettuce, and...
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Strong Medicine
Chloe Bash
2013-04-07
As we sat down to lunch one day, a fellow from a neighboring town mentioned that she hadn’t thrown up in months. “Even the water doesn’t seem to bother me anymore,” I responded. “Nor does the street food,” she observed. We concluded that we had become “acostumbradas,” accustomed to the Ecuadorian diet. I recognize, now, that we were tempting...
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Friends Made
Chinyere Aniagoh
2013-04-04
I’ve learned how to be a true friend through experiencing true friendship. I’ve had unimaginable hardships throughout my time in Ecuador. Challenges in my first community, issues with my family, my apprenticeship wasn’t what I expected, language barriers, and money and even my passport where stolen. Although I had Global Citizen Year support, truthfully if it wasn’t for my fellow fellow...
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