In the 10th grade, I went to Brazil with my grandparents for a month to visit family. While I was there I fell in love with the culture and the language. When I came home, my aunt told me that she learned Portuguese by traveling down the coast and teaching English when she had the chance. I then had the idea to finish my first two years at the local community college and take a year to teach English in Brazil.
During my senior year, my aunt was surfing the net and found the site for Global Citizen Year. The more I read about it and the closer deadlines came, the more excited and anxious I became.
Although I am not going to be in Brazil, I am just as pleased to be going to Ecuador in September. I took French all four years of high school, but I have recently started studying Spanish as well and I am looking forward to strengthening it in the months to come. I hope I will be able to contribute to the community in which I will be placed and give me the opportunity to share our culture with my host family and friends.
After what I know will be an exciting year with Global Citizen Year, I plan on majoring in linguistics at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and eventually have a career in journalism.
