Fellow Stories

MY HINDI

Brandon Richards

2019-05-23

A Big Thank You to All Donors

Andrew Chen

2019-05-22

To anyone who has donated to Global Citizen Year, I wanted to say a big thank you for donating to GCY and for helping make this amazing program possible for me and others like myself. I had been wanting to do a gap year because I felt burned out from high school and lacked clarity...

Ganesh Chaturthi

Jack Swartzentruber

2019-05-22

At the very beginning of my experience in India, I was lucky enough to experience the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi, a ten-day long festival celebrating the birth of the elephant god Ganesh. During this festival, thousands of people throughout our city paint and adorn small clay statues of the god, and proceed to parade them...

8 MONTHS IN A VIDEO

Brandon Richards

2019-05-22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb-zBjFBi3c&t=8s   "When I see your light shine, I know I'm home." How was India? I have an incredibly difficult time putting into words the magnitude of my experience abroad. I've gained so much, and the past 8 months of my life have been a tremendous learning experience. I found so much beauty and depth in...

To look back

Emiliana Reinoso

2019-05-22

Mirar atrás Hoy, en esta madrugada de un miércoles, me encuentro sentada en un viejo sofá escribiendo sobre lo que aún no logro descifrar. Los días pueden ser muy intensos cuando vuelves a lo que antes conformaba toda mi idea de un hogar. Lo cierto es que tres años viviendo fuera del país no me...

MY HYDERABAD COMMUNITY

Brandon Richards

2019-05-22

Vidhur, Niveditha, & Inder Vidhur & Rigs Ferna Zooni Momar Luciana Inaara Jack Ashley Jaime Alana (& Momar again)

Teacups Full of Chai

Luciana Ribeiro da Silva

2019-05-20

I wrote this piece in my journal on February 5th, when in Shillong, Northern India.  Earlier this morning, a proverb about a teacup was told to us and something sparkled.  There was a wise Zen master that received people from all over to teach all sorts of life lessons. One day, a scholar came seeking for...

reconciliarse

Emiliana Reinoso

2019-05-16

Reconcilio  Rrrreconcilio con erre err-rre que suena fuerte erre, é como mi apellido Reconciliarse con uno mismo y con la gente, con mi abuela y hasta con los perros que llevan erre de riesgo. Reconciliarme con mi tierra, en las que nací y anduve de paso. A la distancia, con los amigos que se fueron,...

The Saree

Luciana Ribeiro da Silva

2019-05-16

https://youtu.be/dGFIxJAYgJ4 This is my host grandmother putting a saree on me on the night of Christmas’ Eve. In India, women of different backgrounds, religions, ages, practices, and dialects share the saree as their traditional attire. Centuries of colonization and Western influence did not change the primary piece of clothing of Indian women. They carry history...

My Favorite Meal

Faith Anderson

2019-05-09

Rice has always been my favorite food, going to India that didn't change. The best gift my host mother gave to me was her food. The day before I left I walked into the kitchen where she had prepped all the ingredients for my favorite dish of hers, masala rice. She then walked me through...

Identity in a Sea of Ambiguity

Ashley Trejo

2019-05-03

Hola ~ Hello ~ नमस्कार In my life, there are few times that questions have truly stumped me and left me scrambling to formulate a clear response. The majority of these instances are linked to any question asked by TSA that turn me into a clammy, stuttering mess for absolutely no reason. Although, I suppose...

Brown and Bold

Ashley Trejo

2019-04-24

I can recall my early preschool and kindergarten days where I would spend countless hours (probably minutes) drawing and coloring to my heart’s content. I was not one of the children that would paint the sky green as the sky is blue or cloud anything other than shades of white and gray. That was not...