Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
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Class Year
Country
The Next Great Venture
Alexandra Lines
2013-07-15
About a week ago, I was telling a family friend about the wonderful journey I am about to take to Ecuador. She was looking at me with bright and excited eyes while I was speaking, and when I finished, she turned to my mom and asked “Are you nervous that your girl is going away...
Read MoreSailing Away From The Bubble
Lauren Rendler
2013-07-15
I am from a typical suburban community in San Diego, California where there is preconceived expectation to head straight to college after high school. I have observed a consistent path that people from my hometown follow. They work really hard in high school, to the point of exhaustion, go to a prestigious four year university, and then get a high...
Read MoreMe Llamo Soe Han Tha.
Soe Tha
2013-07-14
Hello, I’m Soe Han Tha, and since this is the very first post on my Global Citizen Year blog, I am also a little nervous. It’s probably because the moment I submit this, I will have embarked on my bridge year journey before I even board the plane. This is the very beginning of my adult life, and...
Read MoreProtected: Introductions
Simone Fillion-Raff
2013-07-14
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Read MoreWhy I’m Here
Vijay Dukkipati
2013-07-14
It felt odd. Sitting in English class on the last day of school, I hear my classmates talk about their dorm assignments and what they’ll major in at college. While they use the summer to relax and get ready for their college journey, I am fully immersed in studying Spanish to prepare for my Gap Year in Ecuador, hoping that...
Read MoreMon Voyage
Julia Highsmith
2013-07-14
When the summer of 5th grade came around I was beyond excited, nervous, and ready to see what it would have in store. My church takes one group of middle schoolers and two groups of high schoolers on mission trips. Middle schoolers go in early July and high schoolers go in late July. Now I...
Read MoreThe Beginning
Ilana Marder-Eppstein
2013-07-13
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! My name is Ilana Marder-Eppstein, and I will be spending the next school year in Ecuador through the program Global Citizen Year. I grew up in Evanston, a town right outside of Chicago. Like most children, when I was young I spent my days finding new places to venture and play...
Read MoreFree to Fall
Lillian Wells
2013-07-12
The first time I got into any kind of “real” trouble was in my third grade class. Perhaps it was the sun shining through the windows or the fact that she was teaching times tables that I had already memorized, but either way, my restless nine-year-old self deemed the classroom too confining, the lesson irritatingly effortless, and...
Read MoreCaroline, not Carolyn
Caroline Blackburn
2013-07-12
Life, as I have learned, is full of changes. And it goes without saying that my life is – and will continue to be – full of worldly adjustments to cater to those changes. As anybody who has lived in Cheshire will tell you, it’s a very friendly small town, wonderful for raising a family,...
Read More¡Bienvenidos!
Madeline Lisaius
2013-07-10
Welcome friends, supporters, countrymen. Well, maybe not countrymen. More like “web-surfer.” Anyways, welcome to the chronicle of my adventure with Global Citizen Year. I will begin by introducing the first chapter of this tale: My Identity and my Desire for a Happy, Productive Life. Slow down! You might be thinking, you haven’t retired to the top of...
Read MoreTo New Beginnings
Allie McKinney
2013-07-10
About this time a year ago I was starting the college search process. I knew exactly what I wanted to major in, that I wanted to attend a medium-to-small school, I wanted to stay in the South, and, call me vain, I had to live on a nice campus. And even though I found a...
Read MoreMy Road to Senegal
Samuel Normington
2013-07-10
Every life begins with a birth, and ends with a death. Everyone will get to the end eventually, but the exciting part happens along the way. There are an unbelievable number of roads to take, and yet everyone forges a new path; they define their life and they decide how to get to the end....
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