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
Disrespectful Foreigners
Ana Gvozdic
2017-03-15
During our Global Citizen Year training we were encouraged to change our mindset towards mistake. Instead of seeing them as something negative, we were supposed to see them as learning opportunities. Although I agreed with this approach, I wanted to minimize the amount and the impact of my mistakes/learning opportunities, which hurt others. With that...
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A Case for More Empathy
Alejandro Flores Monge
2017-03-14
I’m fair skinned, American born, and I effortlessly articulate my White, American accent. There were moments where I struggled in school, but for the most part I managed to keep up with the high-achieving, middle-class White kids at the top of the class. I even went by the name Alex and, for the most...
Read MoreThe Girl Who Comes Next
Amelia Wohlers
2017-03-13
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Read MoreFriendship at home vs. friendship abroad
Lily Jorrick
2017-03-12
Moving to Ecuador has pushed me to change my definition of the word “friendship”. I arrived in Ecuador for a bridge year with Global Citizen Year in September, and spent the first few months of my homestay without many close peers in my community, in the sense that there isn’t really anyone here who’s at...
Read MoreFear of the Faded Accent
Abi Bethke
2017-03-10
Written on March 9th, 2017. Tomorrow would be my dad’s 47th birthday. I just got off the phone with my grandma…after she sent me a text saying she felt sad but also grateful to have been so lucky. After getting over the grief that comes within the first two years, that is the ever lasting...
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Achachay
Caroline Montag
2017-03-10
After celebrating Ecuadorian carnival, I decided that from now on I want to celebrate it every year. And as you might feel like joining me, I wrote this little guide on how to celebrate a successful 6-day long Ecuadorian carnival and what to expect! (Please consider that the guide is based on my own experience...
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The Comfort of Food and Friends
Maryanne Roughton
2017-03-08
Hello and welcome back for my third blog post! As you may or may not know, a part of every fellow’s bridge year is language learning. For my cohort, our Spanish classes are every Thursday. Since we were all going to be in the same place around the same times, it only seemed logical to...
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The Importance of Being Alone
Alejandro Flores Monge
2017-03-07
Root-cause analysis has become one of my favorites of the terms we’ve learned in our training sessions this year. It’s the notion of finding sustainable solutions to an issue by identifying and tending to the source of the issue, as opposed to bandaging the symptoms. I strongly agree with the philosophy, but I also...
Read MoreLife lessons from a four year old
Henry Duerr
2017-03-04
I’ll admit it: I never really liked kids. While I enjoy working with them, and certainly don’t hate them, I never really understood the appeal of having a tiny, incompetent roommate who doesn’t pay rent or do the dishes. And then I made my first friend here in Ecuador. Allow me to explain via my...
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