Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
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CAUTION BEFORE READING
Russell Bollag-Miller
2011-09-09
Firstly, for those of you who are choosing to follow this blog and read about my thoughts and experiences, I thank you very much for taking an interest either in me, the mission that I have for this year, or maybe just for the cool stories (hopefully) that I will relay. The overarching goal that...
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Sandal Tan
Charlotte Benishek
2011-09-09
Every morning my sandals trace a path from my family’s house in SICAP Baobab to ACI (Africa Consultants International) where we have language and cultural training. I breathe shallowly, my eyes focused on the ground in front of me, keen on avoiding eye contact with those I pass. Oddly enough I didn’t even realize that...
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One Week Down…
Emily Hanna
2011-09-08
I wanted to wait until I’d been in Senegal for a week before writing my first blog post, and I’m happy I did. Leafing through my journal entries from my first few days in Dakar, it is striking how a seemingly simple change of location ( U.S.A to Senegal) totally threw me for a loop. Those...
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Honeymooning
Natalie Davidson
2011-09-07
Why yes, I am writing this blog post from beneath my mosquito net. I currently have 25 bug bites (just south of my knees), two dead (massive) cockroaches in my trashcan, and a spider named Toubab that has moved in to my almost-unpacked suitcase. Despite my severe disliking of bugs in general (especially bugs...
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The Cost of Living
Erica Anderson
2011-08-25
Five dollars a day is not enough to make a life, let alone a very lighthearted afternoon. This Monday, the Global Citizen Year fellows were shipped into the heart of San Francisco to try and better understand urban poverty in the United States. We were split up among two neighborhoods, the Tenderloin and the Mission....
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Alum Post: GCY Cribs
Madeleine Balchan
2011-08-24
Coming back to America was WAY harder than leaving to go to Senegal. My host-mother, Ndeye (the one pouring tea in the video) teases me during my weekly phone calls saying I’ve already forgotten Wolof. But I was able to stumble through a 20 minute Wolof conversation with a Senegalese-native taxi driver in Cincinnati, Ohio...
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From Development to Culture Shock to Avatar: a Typical Day at Fall Training
Charlotte Benishek
2011-08-23
Up to this point fall training has equipped the Global Citizen Year Fellows with broad skills required to be successful in our Global Citizen Year, such as mindfulness, self-awareness, and engaged leadership. However, on Saturday we departed from this theme and delved into international development specifically. The day began with a conference call with David...
Read MoreAlum Post: The Year of the Coaster
Emily Hess
2011-08-05
Towards to end of my bridge year, every expert, friend, Peace Corps volunteer, and staff member warned the fellows that life after this, to say the least, would be a “roller-coaster”. By that, they meant that there would be a fair share of ups, downs, loops, side spins, twirls, jerks, and bumps. The description of...
Read MoreBubble Boy
Russell Bollag-Miller
2011-08-01
I have moved around for the majority of my life. One commonality between all of the places that I have lived (Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts) is an invisible bubble that has enveloped these communities. This bubble is why I have decided to take a gap year. The bubble I’m talking about is essentially a mentality...
Read MoreGlobal Citizen Year: My Gateway from High School to Sociology
Lucias Potter
2011-07-15
My name is Lucias Potter. I am from Oakland, California where I spend most of my time advocating for social justice, writing, or spending time with my cousins. I believe that the human race has a responsibility to make sure everyone can live comfortably. I believe that when people give power to their government to...
Read MoreFrom my current placement to my future placement
Stephanie Zambrano
2011-07-15
Hello, my name is Stephanie Juanita Zambrano. I am 18 years of age and I live in inner-city Oakland, California. In my community there are a lot of ignorant people and a lot of violence that takes place, as many of you know by my description of my home town as being “inner-city”. A lot of people, when surrounded...
Read MoreThe Book Called Life
Brian Baylor
2011-07-14
All my life I’ve wanted to travel the world, whether I were to kayak in the Egyptian Nile, snowboard down the side of the Switzerland Alps, backpack Europe or even explore the rain forest. I’ve wanted to see more then what I just watched on television. My family wasn’t wealthy but my parents are working...
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