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
My Ecua-Family
Sarah Montross
2018-09-15
I thought I’d designate this blog post to my host family because a short – or long – week ago, I arrived in Guapán, Azogues, Ecuador, where I will be spending the next seven and a half months. Guapán is a small town on the outskirts of Azogues, a relatively modest city in the province...
Read More
The Eating Habits of the Pineda Family
William Shain
2018-09-14
Yesterday I watched three guinea pigs go from squirming little fellas in a box to a delicacy on my plate. Did I think this would be how my Thursday night would be going? Of course not. But turns out “cuy”, as the dish is referred to in Ecuador, is pretty delicious! Pro tip however: Don’t...
Read More
Cheap, Cheap Giggles
Sintra Nichols
2018-09-14
A fun thing about the English language is that, for some reason, it sells like hotcakes in many parts of the world where English is seldom even spoken or understood. One of these locations is Florianópolis, Brazil apparently. And since the English language is rarely understood, the intricacies of its grammar, which us Americans tend...
Read MoreMurphy’s Law and Earning my Cumin: Flight.
Rebecca Rose
2018-09-13
I used to love airports, firmly holding onto a Love Actually-esque romanticized view of hubs for gravity-defying transit, international exchange, and simply harmonious human coexistence. Below is, well, not that. There’s no deep meaning. No profound analyzation. Just a bafflingly long insight into the experience of a chronic schlimazel. Read at your own will. Part...
Read More
First Impressions
Macy Lipkin
2018-09-07
In the weeks leading up to Global Launch at Stanford, I made some resolutions. At the dawn of a new era, I decided that I would be excited and outgoing; I’d greet everyone with an enthusiastic hello. New Macy, as I imagined her, would be notoriously kind and confident. And most importantly, New Macy would...
Read MoreA year behind or actually ahead?
William Shain
2018-08-31
Who says you need to follow the beaten path? There’s a reason that the trail is so worn down and its because today’s young adults are ushered blindly in a direction of college and a subsequent career, without ever questioning what is it that I really want to do? Though I could have easily started...
Read MoreA Road Less Traveled
David Jiang
2018-08-28
During the period in which many of my peers are buying textbooks, I am zipping up suitcases. During the summer when my friends lounged by the pool, I hastily studied a new language. They admire the all-you-can-eat campus dining halls, while I marvel at the eight-month visa that currently sits in my passport. For the...
Read MoreStep Up, Step Back, Lean In
Rebecca Rose
2018-08-26
I used to think senioritis was a joke. I used to think that my burning yearning curiosity, my insatiable hunger for knowledge, and passion for understanding would never fade, could never fade. And then I hit senior year. Years of school work–standardized tests, SATs, ACTs, APs, and GPAs, every acronym that sought to reduce...
Read MoreBe Your Own Pressure System
Adriana Martinez-Smiley
2018-08-26
To ease my nervous breath before I travelled to California, I decided to read a poem or two. I shuffled through my Grandmother’s book collection, letting my fingertips gently graze upon each book’s spine until it landed on one that felt right.The book that I happened to pick up was called Winds by Mary O’Neill,...
Read More