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
Introduction
Aden Gilmour
2013-07-24
My name is Aden Gilmour and I will be going to Ecuador this September. I did not get the idea to take a bridge year until I started my college visits. After touring a number of schools, I was sitting with an admissions officer and they asked me if had considered doing a gap year program. I had...
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Narwhals Go To Ecuador
Carol Brown
2013-07-24
This time last year, a burly black guy from Brooklyn, also known as to me as teddy bear and best friend, nicknamed me ‘white chocolate’. I began learning about the Black Power movement from a mixed race woman born in Chicago at a time when my ancestors in Tennessee may still have been racist. A...
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Piranhas Won’t Eat You
Joanna Shieh
2013-07-23
As I anxiously await my bridge year to Santa Catarina, Brazil, my friend Idalina sends me a CNN article titled, “10 things to know before visiting Brazil”, by Joe Robison. I read the article, over and over again, laughing and becoming even more intrigued by Brazil’s interesting, and crazy culture. There are no introverts in Brazil. When I visited Brazil in...
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I am Chan Mi, an exotic pizza!
Chan Mi Joo
2013-07-23
I am not your typical pizza. In fact, you may find my combination of ingredients to be strange, exotic, or just plain ol’ different. Let me explain: Seoul of South Korea. Nairobi of Kenya. Rhode Island, California, and Alaska of America. All these locational ingredients have each left unique and strong impacts on my life: Step 1: Pizza dough that...
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Just the beginning
Emily Gray
2013-07-22
During my sophomore year of high school I made the decision that I wanted to travel before going to college. I wasn’t sure where or how I was going to make this happen, but I knew that this was something I really wanted, and I was going to do anything in my power to make it so. When junior...
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Who? What? Where? Why?
Yani Alexander
2013-07-22
School isn’t the real world. It’s artificial. Half the information you learn you will never use or will forget. That’s what people say, and they may be right. I just want a chance to try to use the other half. In high school I learned about how histories of oppression, hatred, war, genocide and slavery have created the social inequities...
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Breakfast in Brazil
Hongxi Wang
2013-07-22
“Years from now, years and years, I’ll be back… me and my nine Brazilian brats. I’ll bring them back alright, cause they must see this. Oh, I love New York.” Do you ever get that feeling where you’re Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Unfortunately, most people don’t. Then again, I don’t...
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Dare to be Different
Valerie Hurst
2013-07-22
“So how long are you gone for?” he asked. “8 months!” The look of surprise is normal now from people asking about my bridge year. When they inquire if I’ll be okay staying that long abroad, I answer with a resounding yes. I also laugh a little bit; because each time I confidently say “I’m ready,” I get...
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Some Luck
Divya Sampath
2013-07-20
I was raised to discover, primed by my mother, my city, and a large helping of wanderlust to seek and absorb. And as a result, I’ve found myself in some pretty ridiculous situations, from getting mistaken for a Nicaraguan refugee to ending up locked in the American Museum of Natural History at night and accidentally calling the police. My friends...
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