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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Class Year
Country
Being Sick in Brazil: My Venture into The Public Health System
Libby Parker-Simkin
2014-01-06
Just before Christmas, I got quite sick. It started with a sniffle and sore throat and escalated to a nasty upper respiratory infection. After a few days of being miserable, my host family took me to a Pronto Atendimento, Brazil’s version of an urgent care center. I went through the triage process, got my forms...
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Tree
Maximilian Chen
2014-01-06
An unfortunate burden that I’ve had to shoulder for most of my life has been my troubled history as a juvenile con artist. In my earlier years, I recall exhibiting a predilection for faking advanced literary capability. As do most delinquents, I started small. Scores upon scores of elementary school classroom minutes were spent frantically turning through installment after...
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Quilotoa
Leah Mesh-Ferguson
2013-12-31
On Friday December 20, 2013, I woke up early to meet my friends Abby and Alex at the main bus terminal in Riobamba. We were going on a trip that had been mostly planned the day before. If you know me, then you might know that this would panic me a little bit. I still made it to that...
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Parent Blog: Visiting Brazil
Global Citizen Year
2013-12-30
We returned last week from spending a week in Florianopolis, Brazil with our daughter Caroline (“Kat”) Blackburn, who is a 2014 fellow in the Brazil cohort. After spending nearly a week with her in Brazil, we are delighted to report that the Global Citizen Year experience has delivered above and beyond our expectations! In Brazil,...
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Becoming a Part of the Family—Highlights continued
Aly Counsell
2013-12-30
December 11, 2013 Here are more highlights of my time in Ndande so far. This afternoon, I was walking through one of the main streets in my neighborhood, which is lined with small boutiques and tents where men weld iron. In front of one of the boutiques, there were several women selling food, and I knew one of...
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the single story of Brazil
Kristen Lee
2013-12-30
I remember one evening back at Stanford University during Fall Training, the entire Global Citizen Year Brazil cohort sat down for a dinner together. One of our Team Leaders at the time asked us what came to mind when we thought of Brazil – beaches, samba, Rio de Janeiro, favelas, the Amazon, futebol, “BRIC” country status....
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Letting Go of Expectation
Mitchell Ryan
2013-12-30
It’s hard to tie up all I’ve experienced in my almost four months here within one blog post. That’s probably my own fault for not writing sooner. Brazil has kept me pretty busy–emotionally at least. I’ll spare you the little details of breaking into tears at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in the bathroom, but you...
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Finding a Home in Ndande—Highlights of the Past Eight Weeks
Aly Counsell
2013-12-30
December 6, 2013 So much has happened in the past eight weeks and there are so many things that I want to write about! I’m currently volunteering at the health post, preschool, and high school in Ndande, which has given me a wide variety of experiences in the community, and I’m continuing to improve my Wolof (the local...
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Merry Christmas!
Lillie Mayfield
2013-12-30
Here’s me wishing everyone a Merry Christmas from Ecuador! The holidays are a hard time to be away from home, but there’s plenty of holiday spirit here as well! Sending my love this holiday! -Lillie
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