Global Competence
Pride. Not the bad kind, the good kind. The kind a parent shows on their face when their kid just said they were accepted to college. Pride. That was what I saw on the face of a Black woman sitting within the street markets of…
03 August, 2016
A Homesickness Story: What Makes Global Citizen Year Fellows, Team Leaders & the People You Meet so Spectacular
    Want to know something that’s been really tough about being in Ecuador? I haven’t had anyone been able to come visit me and I was feeling pretty down in mid-January. I guess the homesickness was just a bit too much. Not to mention, I can’t really…
02 March, 2016
Secret Identities
Peter Parker is the Amazing Spider-Man! This guy has always been one of my favorite comic book characters. I think it’s been because I could relate to him in some form or another. When we weren’t short on cash or bullied, we were out trying…
25 February, 2016
10 Things You May Not Know About Ecuador:
If you are applying (or thinking of applying) to the amazing one-of-a-kind spectacular program that goes by the name of Global Citizen Year and you’re not sure which country to apply for…let me tell you about my host country, Ecuador by providing you with “10…
24 January, 2016
Taxi-Man
 This happened last December right around Christmas. Alright so this guy driving my Taxi noticed from my accent I’m North American and he would NOT let me get out of the Taxi. Instead of taking me where I asked him he parked his car…
24 January, 2016
In-Country Orientation
     There’s was this one girl called Tali Bailes (she was in my Spanish class); a girl atteneding Cornell next year who without hesitance was able to catch onto all the little dull grammatical details our Quito Spanish teacher extolled. There was also this other…
20 December, 2015
How I Lost 400 Bucks: Culture Shock & Budgeting in Another Country
    During, “Pre-Departure Training” I found out I won a small amount of award money from the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and the Smithsonian’s Latino Center, so as any other 17 year would do I went haywire with the, “Emergency Money” my mom gave me for this…
20 December, 2015
High School Seniors, Applying to College & Taking A Year off Before College
Ever since I found out I won the Gates Millennium Scholarship, I’ve felt this pressure to pull off a “Malala Yousafzai”. Meeting the other 999 Gates Scholars through our Facebook group only exacerbated this pressure. These kids were going to Harvard, Princeton, Cornell-you name it….
20 December, 2015
“When You Were Young” – Hugo Santiago
I turned 18 last week, but I don’t feel 18. Actually, I feel like a little kid. It’s funny because when I was a kid-I was an adult…sort of. I didn’t have my parents around most of the time so I had to figure things…
20 December, 2015
Curious about Global Citizen Year? This is a great place to start.
Apply NowHugo Santiago
