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
Questions
Elena Doss
2015-08-26
“ What are you feeling?” / “ Are you excited?” / “ Are you freaked out?” These are the three common questions I have been asked over (and over) the past six months while preparing for my travels to Ecuador. Instead of writing my entire emotional history of the past six months of planning, I...
Read MoreHugo Santiago’s first blog – Blogger #1
Hugo Santiago
2015-08-26
So it’s my last week at the California Science Center-which means it’s my last week of working the job I got to help out with my fundraising campaign! and I feel as if…I learned-but in a completely different way in which I believe was intended. Global Citizen Year’s summer fundraising campaign most likely would have...
Read MoreLeap
Austin Nguyen
2015-08-25
A few weeks ago, I stood on the edge of a cliff, 20 feet over the surface of a pool of water. My friends and I had come to a place in Santa Cruz to swim and cliff-jump, and I somehow found myself scaling the rocks, climbing higher and higher until I found myself in...
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Comfort
Noah Hapke
2015-08-24
When I look back at the past nineteen years of my life, an abundance of memories immediately flock my head. Singing in front of sold-out audiences. Dipping strawberries into delicious chocolate for people. Getting pure joy out of making four clicks when I punch my tap shoes into a wooden floor. Sipping my iced coffee...
Read MoreUntaken Photographs
Aliya Habib
2015-08-18
åÊ åÊ Ask me about my experience in Ecuador and I’ll say, “it’s easier to explain with pictures”. Having over 17,000 photographs it’s not hard to find members of my community, my host family, my students, other fellows, or some cool traditions.åÊ How you retell stories is how you will remember them. Sometimes my mind...
Read MoreSunrise or Sunset
Elias Smolcic-Larson
2015-07-16
With some good old soul sung by Mary J Blidge in the background, my calico cat by my side with a late spring thunderstorm that is thinking of developing outside, life back in small town USA is treating me well. With work in landscaping/agriculture/a new invention which I cannot tell much more to the public...
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Patience
Bennett Quintard
2015-07-16
Flash back to December 2014 I sat in my old living room feeling quite out of place on the red plastic covered couch that soaked me in sweat while simply lounging around. I batted away incessant flies not even slightly deterred as I swatted one of their friends away for the 100th time that evening....
Read MoreA Good Conversation
Mayssa Gregoire
2015-07-16
I came to Ecuador with the impression that there was immediately going to be room since I was going to be doing service work. How can I not automatically be included and super intergrated in my community if it was my given location, they would automatically take me in since I was ready to learn...
Read MoreChanges
Charlotte Reider-Smith
2015-07-16
This post is a sort of accompaniment to my previous post titled “I’m Confident.” I wrote near the beginning of March Ò I was told I would change. ThatÛªs what everyone said about Global Citizen Year – they changed, you would find change in yourself. I didnÛªt entirely believe this. My U.S. family visited me...
Read More15 Things to Give Up Now to Make Yourself More Happy
Yui Lee
2015-07-16
Back in November, I came across an article online that was titled 15 Things to Give Up Now to Make Yourself More Happy on the most socially-popular media site, Facebook. Despite the millions of useless articles and status updates that is thrown onto my newsfeed daily, this particular article caught my eye because I only...
Read MoreA Look Inside a Photo
David Jenkins
2015-07-09
During the course of the year, there was rarely a moment when I didn’t have a camera by my side. Now that I have been home for several months my pictures have become windows to an experience that seems far away. I find myself struggling to remember everything that has happened during my seemingly short...
Read MoreApparently, I’m on TV…
Rosie Fitzsimmons
2015-07-09
I awoke to see three missed calls on my phone and could hear ÛÏBuenas noches,Û being repeated from my front door from a familiar voice. Admittedly it was only about 9:00pm, but itÛªs surprising how late that feels when it gets pitch black by 7:00pm and the rooster insists on waking you up at 5:30am...
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