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
Introduction
Nicolas Freschi
2011-07-05
To be honest, I am pretty uncomfortable writing a blog post. I have long been under the impression that there are very few things I can share on the Internet that are worth sharing. I am not a noteworthy photographer, musician, comedian or journalist. In the face of billions and billions of tweets, blogs, websites,...
Read MoreTug-Of-War, and Penguins
Trevor Porter
2011-07-05
When I was introduced to Global Citizen Year, the program sounded like a challenge and a little bit like a game of tug-of-war. There is a little give and take involved in every exchange, every challenge, that we have to overcome throughout our lives. I’ve experienced this game of tug-of-war several times, but the experience...
Read MoreBlack Beaches
Kirin Gupta
2011-07-05
The beaches in Greece are not always perfect. The black bed of rock I stood on, years ago, was difficult to walk on, large round stones that were smooth individually, but a rough surface to maneuver all at once. The world often comes at you with all the appearance of something perfectly smooth, perfectly beautiful...
Read MoreTripping Up
Abigail Hindson
2011-07-05
If you’ve ever spent any good amount of time with me, you will find that I fall down a lot. I have this amazing ability to somehow find every tree root and every crack in the sidewalk, and promptly trip over it. I know exactly how to get both my feet stuck in a wet...
Read MoreAll I Hear is Words!
Lydia Crush
2011-07-05
“Words, words, words. All I hear is words!” sings Liza in My Fair Lady. She has a valid point; words make up a huge part of our daily activities. As I walk through the halls on the last few days of school, I’m exposed to many different languages: Korean, Spanish, German, Burmese, Japanese, Bengali, American...
Read MoreDo One Thing Every Day That Scares You
Galen Burns-Fulkerson
2011-07-05
Like many high school seniors, I spent this past fall writing essays, filling out transcript requests, and entering my personal information on the Common Application. For one of my essays, I had to write about the best piece of advice I had ever received. I discussed the inspiration that I take from of one of...
Read MoreWhen You Give a Kid A Camera
Lily Shaffer
2011-05-16
She’s probably going to be ecstatic. I really couldn’t have imagined the scale Kids with Cameras would grow to–how much energy I would put into it, how incredible the photos would be, how proud the kids would be to share their work, how appreciative the parents would become. Truthfully, Kids with Cameras is what kept...
Read MoreThe Family Impact
Peter Saudek
2011-04-25
Almost four months ago I moved in with my current host family after having to change from the first family I was originally placed with. The switch was a result of a series of miscommunications and some complex issues that escalated over the two months spent with the first family. During the transition from one...
Read MorePreparing to Say Goodbye
Cameron Kaufman
2011-04-21
One year ago, after endless SAT prep classes, practice tests, the actual exam, APs, college orientation meetings, and virtually living on commonapp.org, i.e. the whole shebang, I finally was accepted into college. Honestly, I thought it would never happen, but it finally did. Similarly, I also never thought I would be sitting here in Cayambe,...
Read MoreThe Disconnect
Joe Giallo
2011-04-20
“Why the #@$% would you want to do that?” And before I could reply, the conversation changed, and shifted back to the drunken debaucheries she had conducted since coming to Canoa. Alberto (who’s writing his own perspective on what I’m about to talk about on his own blog – check it out!) and I were...
Read MoreVacation Part I: The Galapagos Islands
Liza David
2011-04-20
She looked at me and then asked me whether I believed in God. I was shocked. I took a moment to take stock of the situation: an old Ecuadorian lady was asking me philosophical questions. I had just crawled through lava tubes and was returning the flashlights to her. And oh yes, I was on...
Read MoreHambi Wasi Vertical Birth Center
Alberto Servin
2011-04-14
I’d like to talk about maternal health and the vertical birth center recently created here at Hambi Wasi. This center was created primarily to prevent maternal deaths at childbirth, which unfortunately happen all too often among the indigenous population. Majorities of indigenous women give birth in their homes, without doctors or medical attention, and often...
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