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
um ano
Kristen Lee
2013-07-19
My name is Kristen Lee. I am seventeen years old and a recent graduate of Carrboro High School. I was born and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Two years ago, I began considering the option of taking a year off before college, a gap or bridge year. But more than that, I began recognizing...
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Journey of Exploration
Florin Langer
2013-07-19
I am from Venice Beach, California. Well, I am actually from Germany, but I moved to Los Angeles with my mom when I was a year old. When I lived with my mom when I was younger, we constantly moved around Los Angeles, from Santa Monica to Hollywood to Downtown to South Central. Although we never moved out of...
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A New Start
Spencer Wise Watson
2013-07-19
Hello, y’all! My name is Spencer Watson, and I live in Prairieville, Louisiana. For the past two years, I have studied at the United World College in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Living abroad was a life-changing experience for me, and it is part of the reason that I have decided to defer from Middlebury College...
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Leaving Home
Emily Stevens
2013-07-19
I have a pesky habit of chronically putting the cart before the horse in almost every aspect of my life. I get these big ideas and become impassioned. But when it comes to the development and execution of the idea, I get intimidated by the construct I’ve built. Apparently I’m not the only person afflicted...
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No Problem
Isabel Burns
2013-07-19
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me why I was taking this bridge year, and why I was going to Ecuador to do it. “There are a lot of starving, poor people here. Don’t you think we ought to fix our own problems before we start trying to fix someone else’s?” This...
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Navigating a Jungle
Kaitlyn Johnke
2013-07-18
On my trip to Guatemala with the Oakland Zoo, we released two parrots into a mangrove forest. Because they had not been properly rehabilitated, our guides suspected that there was a good chance that the birds would get caught again by poachers. The parrots did not know to be afraid of humans, which was demonstrated...
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A Blog is Born
Lauren Guido
2013-07-18
Hi, my name is Lauren. I’m from a suburb of Cleveland, and I’m a girl on the move. I have always loved adventures, from biking 110 miles throughout New York City’s five boroughs to rock hopping in the ravine near my house. But there is one activity that has always stayed the same: my commitment to volunteering and giving time...
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Ready for Adventure
Mitchell Ryan
2013-07-18
I guess you could say I’ve always been an adventurous person. Not adventurous in the sense that I spend my summers traveling through Europe or weekends hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but more so in the sense that I have never been one to think twice about trying out strange and colorful experiences. This...
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Defining Myself
Lillie Mayfield
2013-07-18
One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received was from my father. When I was young he told me, “Don’t ever be afraid to ask questions.” As a child I was so enlightened by this statement that I proceeded to harass my elementary teachers with every “why” and “how” question I could think of. While I...
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