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
“Ellos son como una familia real.”
Abi Bethke
2016-11-18
This will sound incredibly cheesy, but I never could’ve imagined finding another family I feel so comfortable with when I initially signed up for Global Citizen Year. Yes, I definitely had hopeful expectations of really getting close with these people, especially considering I’d be staying with them for 7 months…but after only 2 months of...
Read More
Education: Why it’s Failing the Children of my Home Community
Benoit Dupras
2016-11-18
Every day of the week I work at the local school, with kids from grades 2 to 7. You might think that teaching kids of that age group is somewhere between challenging and rewarding. But that couldn’t be further away from the truth, because it has been close to an impossible job. The kids just...
Read More
Reasons to smile.
Noemi Liebe
2016-11-17
I honestly thought that it would be easy to fall in love with Ecuador. As it turns out, it hasn’t been. That isn’t to say however that there aren’t reasons to smile and to be grateful. And so I thought I would make a list of the things and moments that cheer me up and...
Read MoreMAKING SENSE OF CATHOLICISM IN ECUADOR
Hanna Karnei
2016-11-17
My host family runs the largest wood shop in the town. It was built around 20 years ago by my host dad Miguel and his brothers who since then dedicated their lives to sculpture-making. In this business, you have to start pretty early to master the craft. Miguel started when he was 15. Church-related sculptures...
Read MoreWhy I Chose to Take a Year as A Global Citizen
Antoinette Cavagnolo
2016-11-14
Attending college was my goal throughout all four years of high school and I met with mentors and counselors regularly to keep me on track. Throughout high school I remained involved in my school's AVID (Advanced Via Individual Determination) program and outside of school I was involved with Huckleberry Wellness Academy and Summer Search. After...
Read MoreReflections on My Country’s Worst Nightmare
Kai Milici
2016-11-10
Full disclosure: I went to bed an hour before the results were official. The prospects looked bad and I thought that if–on the off-chance that the polls would change–I would be able to wake up to a pleasant surprise. As I was going to bed I remembered eight years ago staying up until 1:00...
Read More
Culture shock.
Noemi Liebe
2016-11-09
For the past few weeks, I have been trying very hard to boil down my experience to a blogpost which is both concise and accurately describes my time in Ecuador without glorifying it or omitting my struggles with adjusting to being here and loving Ecuador. So for the moment, I will abandon this attempt and...
Read MoreMy First 74 Days in Country
Jadn Soper
2016-11-08
Here are some Virginia Woolf/ Zadie Smith style stream of consciousness thoughts on my first 74 days in Ecuador. 28 August 2016 Slept in a convent with some nuns who are the nicest and smallest women I have ever met. They are now taking us in a giant bus to drop us off with our...
Read More9 Times E.T. Described My Life as a Foreigner
Phoebe Park
2016-11-08
I finally brought myself to watch E.T. after years of being too scared to face the wrinkly faced alien. Although the beginning still freaked me out, watching some Steven Spielberg was definitely a great idea. As I was sitting on a bean bag chair in my host family's living room with my youngest sister, I...
Read MoreLa Fundación
Dominic Snyder
2016-11-07
* The blog that follows is the result of much thinking and investigation about the foundation where I am currently conducting my apprenticeship. Although it is fairly long, I could still not include everything I would like to related to the subject of the foundation and how it has affected my views on foreign aid....
Read MoreThe Power of a Language
Maryanne Roughton
2016-11-06
Most of my adventures in Ecuador have been incredible. (Note: being chased by stray dogs in the street is most likely not one of the more incredible ones, but they definitely lead to a funny story.) However, most have been followed by an unavoidable challenge— language barriers. More often than not, I find myself intensely...
Read More
The teacher’s least favorite sentence
Ana Gvozdic
2016-11-05
„ Ya acabé“ tells me my student Samantha at least 5 times each class. Translated to „I finished“, this sentence could seem as a rather nice indicator that a student of mine has finished with whatever task that the class is working on, and help me have an overview of the class. So, why is...
Read More