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
Exploring New Territory
Emily Hockett
2013-11-13
After two months here, I feel as if I am slowly becoming an Otavaleña. I wake up at six every morning to the sound of my host sister getting ready for school (though she tries to be quiet, I am a sensitive sleeper). Since I am already awake, I get up pop on my running...
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Water and Potatoes
Alexandra Lines
2013-11-13
One day, I traveled to a small community in the countryside with a woman from Spain, and two sisters from Italy. They were conducting an investigation into the water systems of rural Ecuador, and I went along with them to learn and observe. We talked with the farmers about how they have to walk an...
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Around Every Corner
Leah Mesh-Ferguson
2013-11-13
“My vision is to not hold myself to this vision if change is necessary and empowering, and to generally be able to roll with change better.” During In-Country Orientation in Quito, each member of the cohort had to create their own personal vision statement. It would be a rough draft, meant to be revised and...
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Dirty Is The New Clean
Amanda Langan
2013-11-13
Almost two months ago, every Fellow had to make a vision statement about the upcoming seven months. One of my goals was to learn not to worry about going to bed with dirty feet. And while I do prefer to sleep with clean feet, I am happy to say that I have gotten much more comfortable living with...
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Expectations to Revelations
Samuel Normington
2013-11-12
Ignorance has a funny way of working itself into our lives until it is so tightly knit that the unraveling of it seems wrong and impossible. As do expectations, and the saying “expect the unexpected” doesn’t quite cover it all. The hardest thing is to prepare for the obvious, to be ready for something so...
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A Day in the Ecua-life
Amber Vanterpool
2013-11-11
When this journey first began, I had no idea what to expect. I couldn’t begin to imagine the kind of people I’d come to know, or experiences I’d have. Hesitant, but trying hard not to show it, I pushed all my doubts aside and took a leap of faith. Seven months away from my home,...
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Misconceptions
Florin Langer
2013-11-11
No, I’m not living in a shack. I’m not single-handedly building a school or orphanage. I’m not building wells or applying some “first-world” knowledge only I possess to solve the major problems that exist. But that’s not what I’m really here to do, and that is not the point of this bridge year. Global Citizen...
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Home
JT Su
2013-11-08
Our world is massive. And us? Well, we are tiny. We wander around like a giant colony of ants. And no matter how many we are, We will inevitably be a minuscule part Of an infinitely larger context. We are part of a crazy, hectic thing called life. We breathe everyday, We live everyday, Rarely...
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New Roots
Sayre Quevedo
2013-11-08
The first night I arrived in Riobamba my host brother, Paúl, took me out to a show. He didn’t tell me what kind of show it would be. And honestly even if he had I probably wouldn’t have understood, only smiled and nodded and said something like, “Si” and followed him. We walked around for about an...
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