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
Diwali
Valencia Meredith
2016-11-18
DIWALI FESTIVAL Two weeks ago, India’s Diwali celebration came to an end. During this 5 day Festival of Lights, India is in a craze. People are buying new clothes (or wearing their old, but really nice outfits), lighting firecrackers, placing candles around their home, creating Rangoli, making amazing snacks and cleaning their houses. Diwali is...
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Education: Why it’s Failing the Children of my Home Community
Benoit Dupras
2016-11-18
Every day of the week I work at the local school, with kids from grades 2 to 7. You might think that teaching kids of that age group is somewhere between challenging and rewarding. But that couldn’t be further away from the truth, because it has been close to an impossible job. The kids just...
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Reasons to smile.
Noemi Liebe
2016-11-17
I honestly thought that it would be easy to fall in love with Ecuador. As it turns out, it hasn’t been. That isn’t to say however that there aren’t reasons to smile and to be grateful. And so I thought I would make a list of the things and moments that cheer me up and...
Read MoreMAKING SENSE OF CATHOLICISM IN ECUADOR
Hanna Karnei
2016-11-17
My host family runs the largest wood shop in the town. It was built around 20 years ago by my host dad Miguel and his brothers who since then dedicated their lives to sculpture-making. In this business, you have to start pretty early to master the craft. Miguel started when he was 15. Church-related sculptures...
Read MoreIt’s All About Sharing
Dora Lee
2016-11-16
When your a little kid, one of the first and most important ethical lessons you learn is to share. Whether that’s sharing your favorite legos with your brother or sharing your heart by making sure that you love every member of your family equally, sharing is seen as something quite essential to teach at home...
Read MoreTrump’s New America
Dora Lee
2016-11-16
Every morning, after tying up my mosquito net and turning off my fan, I always check my little Nokia phone to see if I have any messages from my team leader or other fellows. Waking up the other morning, the last thing that I expected to see was a text message from another...
Read MoreReflections on My Country’s Worst Nightmare
Kai Milici
2016-11-10
Full disclosure: I went to bed an hour before the results were official. The prospects looked bad and I thought that if–on the off-chance that the polls would change–I would be able to wake up to a pleasant surprise. As I was going to bed I remembered eight years ago staying up until 1:00...
Read MoreLove Trumps Hate
Amanda Hawks
2016-11-09
Today I woke up at three A.M, and reached for my phone. I was so excited for the news, and fully expected to pick up my phone and see that sanity had prevailed. While I knew our country was divided by racism and hatred, I was almost positive that the majority would vote for love...
Read MoreMy First 74 Days in Country
Jadn Soper
2016-11-08
Here are some Virginia Woolf/ Zadie Smith style stream of consciousness thoughts on my first 74 days in Ecuador. 28 August 2016 Slept in a convent with some nuns who are the nicest and smallest women I have ever met. They are now taking us in a giant bus to drop us off with our...
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