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
The Good Type of Scattered
Soe Tha
2014-05-23
They say home is where the heart is. Then I am happy that my heart is scattered all across the globe. There is a piece in California, U.S.A., where my family lives. There is another piece in Yangon, Myanmar, my birthplace, where my aunts, grandparents, and cousins are. But the biggest chunk of my heart...
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Had I known…
Alexandra Lines
2014-05-23
I would not have done it. Had I known what the last year of my life had in store for me, I would not have gotten on the plane at the end of August. Had I known that I would live in a city made of cement, I would not have gone. Had I known...
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More Than I Ever Have Before
Leah Mesh-Ferguson
2014-05-23
I cried, More than I ever have before. I sobbed, Body wracking sobs that left me tired. I did it in the dark, Holding it until I was alone. But the tears shed at night were not alone. There were tears of joy. Tears of departure. Tears of laughter. And oh, did I laugh, More...
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Sweet Sugar Water
Zoe Rose Clarke
2014-05-12
First my host uncle bought some sugar cane. Then his sons and his wife scraped off the bark, stuck it through a hand crank machine, and his family and I watched as the liquid spurted into a pitcher. It was a pleasant afternoon. The juice was nice with some specks of rust. I was glad...
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Taters
Russell Gens
2014-05-09
“Today, we’re going closer to heaven” Those were the words my friend Adela greeted me with yesterday. She and her husband had invited me to dig up the potatoes we planted together in some of my first weeks on their farm in the neighboring town of Susutul. Together with an army of in-laws we embarked...
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The Students of COMBEMI make a . . .
Zoe Rose Clarke
2014-05-06
The citizenry teacher at COMBEMI decided to make a suspended garden with her 12-14 year old students during the fall semester of 2013. I was lucky enough to help the teacher and film the students throughout the process. There was always a bit of difficulty in motivating the students to work (I think the camera’s...
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Tailoring with Mane
Jahshana Olivierre
2014-05-06
If you know me then you probably know monotony and I do not get along, so I’ve traded in my days teaching English at the school (for other reasons as well, which is a whole other blog post) for sewing at Mane’s tailor shop. Tailoring is a huge market in Senegal. In Kebemer, the majority...
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Tears
Cameron Carrick
2014-05-06
It’s hot. It’s one of those punishing heats that makes the simple act of lying down feel stifled. It’s hot and I’m in my garden bent low over fifteen square meters of carrots, mixing surface nutrients into the tender young roots. Despite the dry, blaring sun, down here it’s still moist and my bare feet...
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And I’m back!
Edward Katz
2014-05-05
After an enormous amount of travel I am back with my family in Ithaca, NY. I am home! This last week I have actually been back in the US already, but far west in California with the rest of Global Citizen Year doing re-entry training. We spent the week going over how we felt about...
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Quotes from the Year
Eva Ackerman
2014-05-05
Student: “You can only have a good mom or a good dad. Some people don’t have a good mom nor a good dad, but you definitely can’t have both a good mom and a good dad.” Student: “I don’t want to go to University because I don’t want more professors screaming at me than...
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A Clover for my Thoughts
Caroline Blackburn
2014-04-23
“I don’t know, Abby. Sometimes I really just don’t know if there’s really anyone out there looking out for me. I like to believe it sometimes, but I never get the guaranteed feeling that someone is going to reach out and catch me when I fall. You know?” After discovering with much disappointment that the...
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R3 Animal: A Video
Joanna Shieh
2014-04-23
This video was made in order to capture the beautiful work done at R3 Animal where I spent my 7 months in Brazil volunteering. R3 Animal is an NGO who’s mission is to Rescue, Rehabilitate, and Reintigrate wild animals into their habitat. This organisation has done so much for me. It has helped me grow, change,...
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