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
You. Be. Careful.
Grace Bachmann
2012-09-07
The Ecuador Fellows might have boarded a plane by now, and Brazil Fellows are soon to follow. This evening, only 30 Fellows remain. The Senegal Fellows. Together, we overwhelmed Gate 43, San Francisco International Airport, armed with One World Futbols, green Global Cltizen Year T-shirts, and red, yellow and green bordered visas marked ‘Republique du...
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Faith even before Training
Chinyere Aniagoh
2012-09-07
Its been a true experience, starting from being locked out of the house hours before my flight leaving Atlanta for San Francisco. Then, missing my first flight, and now flying standby. As I approached security I tried to keep together at least until I was out of the sight of my mother and little sister who were now completely in...
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Symbols and Perception
Peyton Foley
2012-09-07
Symbols are good at filling the mind and preventing an open flow of perception. The most powerful ones nestle deep in my head and distort the way I experience the world. Home is a very powerful symbol. It is subjective but I feel forced to adapt or to struggle with the concept and how it makes me feel. I...
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Finally Here
Gabe Jackman
2012-09-07
I landed in Quito after a full day of travel today. I did not even attempt to go to sleep last night, since the bus was leaving at 3:15 and I had to pack and weigh my bags. Fall training at Stanford was amazing and I had a spectacular time getting to know the other...
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Senses of Senegal
Emily Collins
2012-09-07
I see. I see a new world, like nothing I have experienced before. I see people all over the streets outside, or televisions on all day in the house. I’ve discovered women wearing intricate patterns for dresses, men hanging off the back of public transportation buses. I perceive trees with leaves of a brilliant green, and dirt on each...
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I am here, I am present, I am willing
Talia Katz
2012-09-07
Dakar mystifies me. I find myself in a fascinating whirlwind of new culture, sounds, smells, tastes, and words. I haven’t even come close to scratching the surface of Dakar, but from the past few days of exploration I’d like to share with you what I’ve discovered thus far. While my advanced French for the most...
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Darkness
Emily Ford
2012-09-07
Every time I have constructed a mental globe over the past 10 days, my mind, Google Maps style, zooms into the western most coast of Africa. Yet instead of the envisioning my future home, Senegal has been blacked out. All I see is darkness. When I hear the anecdotes from past Senegal fellows, I have...
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List of Firsts
Lydia Collins
2012-09-07
In the days leading up to my departure from home, I kept catching myself adding to a mental list of “lasts.” As I walked my dog around the block I would think about how this is the last time I will be doing that exact activity for the next eight months. My last time eating homemade granola, buying...
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ALUMNI Post: A Fall Training with New Fellows
Lucy Blumberg
2012-08-30
I see myself and my friends reflected in each of the 92 faces I greet over breakfast each morning: eager, excited, nervous, motivated; perhaps even a little naïve. They are smart, lucky, and courageous, all the things that I didn’t realize I was until completing my own Global Citizen Year. They are full of questions:...
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