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
Light
Claire Amsden
2012-07-10
Privilege, happenstance, good parenting, and community have all led me to Global Citizen Year. First, I have had the privilege to live in the United States, giving me access to resources and benefits that many people in our world will never experience. Without this, Global Citizen Year would not be an option I could consider....
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My Un-Official Auto-Bio Will be Accompanied with Tips on How to Smile
Christopher LaBorde
2012-07-10
I’ve always been a big questioner. I think “Why?” is my favorite one. A favorite story my mom likes to tell about me goes: He’s four years old, we’re in my bedroom talking. He stops, and gets this deep, contemplative, inquisitive look on his face and asks, “Mom? Why awh we heow?” (why are we...
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Branching Out of the Books
Sarah McMillan
2012-07-10
In my experience, branching out of the books helps me understand academics more. My freshman year in high school, my grades were atrocious. We’re talking failing math and German—atrocious. If you’d asked me then, I would’ve said it was because the teacher was too tough or I wasn’t smart enough but the truth is, my...
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Expanding My Horizons
Annie Schwandner
2012-07-10
Hello everyone, my name is Annie Schwandner and I am 18 years old. I was swooped up from China as a nine-month old baby by my adoptive parents, and then raised as a Cincinnatian for nearly my whole life. I have so much love, respect and appreciation for my hometown, Cincinnati, but I have never...
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A Fortuitous Accident
Emily Power
2012-07-10
It was a fortuitous accident that I ever heard of Global Citizen Year. On Facebook, someone was telling my friend about the program and how she should apply. I already knew that I wanted to take a gap year, and all I needed was the perfect program to do so. I clicked the link and...
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A Member of the Family
Jayshawn Anderson
2012-07-10
I have fallen in love twice now. In the past year, I have spent almost three months in Ecuador. That is to say, I have spent a quarter of the past 365 days here in ¨El Mitad del Mundo.¨ Last summer, I was here for a month with Global Routes constructing bleachers and bathrooms for...
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A Whole New Style
Jackie Brown
2012-07-10
I just received my packing list for next year: no sleeveless shirts, no shorts, one towel. If the people in Ecuador saw how I am dressed today they would consider me rude and disrespectful. I am in my usual attire of a pair of athletic shorts and a t-shirt but soon I will be saying...
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A Story of Contrast
Kim Asenbeck
2012-07-10
This is a story of contrast: small and big, here and there, old and new. My mother, Edna, is one of nine. I am convinced that in naming her children, my grandmother pulled out a book of baby names, flipped to “E”, and skimmed down the column, picking out names. My aunts and uncles, all...
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Why? Why Not!
Betty Gebre
2012-07-10
“Why would you want to waste a year of your life?” is a response I often get when I present the fact that I will be taking a gap year. For a while I did not understand why people were not open to the idea that a teenager would actually be eager to take a...
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“A Girl From South Bronx Going to Senegal”
Alison Rivera
2012-07-10
The dirty worn out shoes made their way down the aisle, their owner slowly shaking a used Dunkin Donut’s coffee cup. There are probably about two dimes in the cup. He starts off telling his tragic story: lost job, no family, hunger. The woman across from me clutches her Louis Vuitton purse tightly; the teen...
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I Am Because You Are
Matthew Travers
2012-07-10
When I graduated from high school, I decided to move from California to New York City. There, I served as a mentor with City Year, a non-profit that works in inner-city schools. It was through this organization that I learned of the concept Ubuntu. This African philosophy is based on the belief that everyone is...
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Passion
Ely Kadish
2012-07-10
Life places many questions before us, shaping and molding our way of thinking and acting. Some question the “why” and others question the “how” but in the end the “so what!” is all that really matters. In the end, a life is not measured by the atoms or the bonds but by the path and...
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