Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
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Class Year
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Family Matters
Alexandra Moreno
2017-11-10
I made this video a while back for closing seminar. I didn’t really see the value in sharing it back then but the more I think about it, it can’t hurt to show you a little preview of what my life looks like. Enjoy [vc_video link=’https://youtu.be/NJ_zGnQvS94′]
Read MoreThree Thousand Six Hundred and Thirty Eight Point Two Five
Erik Oline
2017-11-10
Well, this has been a long time coming. I apologize for not writing lately, I decide to apply to Colorado College just for “fun”, so I have been channeling all my writing energy into several essays for the application. But now that is said and done, so I can return to my peevish ranting of...
Read MoreRandom Friendship
Christopher Maloney
2017-11-09
I had just left circus class and I was walking out of Yachay’s cultural center. To my left I noticed a guy around my age carrying something that looked 3D printed. I get really excited about new ideas and technology so, without thinking, I blurted out “Is that 3D printed?” (in Spanish of course). I...
Read MoreLa Idioma de La Vida
Toluwani Roberts
2017-11-08
I’m in a “complicated relationship” with language. I studied Spanish in school for six years. Yet when I arrived in country, I struggled to find the words to communicate with my first host family, my Spanish teachers, and my second (now permanent) host family. For example, Instead of saying “tengo hambre” (I’m hungry, or literally,...
Read MoreGetting Comfortable with the Uncomfortable
Zoe Ward
2017-11-07
Global Citizen Year focuses a lot on your stretch zone and I think I’ve just found a physical definition for it. Recently in capoeira class, I asked the teacher to show me how to do a one handed cartwheel. Apparently, there are four versions: two on each side with a different hand. My first try...
Read MoreNov. 2nd – Día De Los Difuntos
Jeannine Contreras
2017-11-03
The last place that I expected to be full of life was the cemetery yet there I was at 10 pm in Atuntaki Ecuador in the middle of a bustling cemetery. Families gathered everywhere, crowding around tombstones, migrating slowly from tomb to tomb, greeting friends and other relatives. Lovers pulled each other close. Children stuck...
Read MoreTrial By Fire
Sunghoon Kwak
2017-11-02
12:33 I entered the classroom with my mentor and pulled out my notebook. It was the first day of my apprenticeship. Observation day. My Teach for India (NGO) teacher sat me in the back of the classroom and told me to take it easy. Okay, sweet. I can do that. 12:47 The lesson had progressed...
Read More5 things Kichwa has taught me about Indigenous Culture
Maya Wilcox
2017-11-02
Ecuador has three different regions: the coast, the sierra, and the Amazon. I live in the Sierra, as do all GCY fellows, and one of the most wonderful and unique aspects of the Sierra is that all the indigenous people here speak some dialect of Kichwa. As most of you know, I’m pretty fluent...
Read MoreBleached Hands and Backflips
Trevor Hall
2017-11-01
Bleach is for clothes. Not for hair. At least this is what I thought until today. As I rest my body against this hard bus seat, I reek of bleach. My hands are stained in the best way they have ever been before. I am not even sure if I am on the right bus,...
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