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
Why don’t you act Senegalese enough?
Cittely Fuentes
2015-05-19
“Do you seriously think all Senegalese girls only wear long skirts?” shouted my host sister from Dakar, the capital of Senegal,with a noticeable displeasure as if my question was meantto offend her or make her feel less.All I wantedwas to be more familiar with the Senegalesenight lifeand so I innocently asked her the type of...
Read MoreDear Oulimata
Cittely Fuentes
2015-05-15
You might find yourself reading this public letter months after I leave or maybe tomorrow morning when you go to the scientific club in school to use the internet only (oops, that was a secret) but what I actually hope for is for you to one day read this all without the help of someone...
Read MoreMy Year in Photos
Aliana Ruxin
2015-05-15
A picture can really be worth a thousand words. Thus, I’ve compiled many of my photos into a photo blog. I also included a digitized version of the Humans-of-the-school-where-I-taught-English book, which I created and left in hardcover form at the school. This project was particularly meaningful to me, as the school was such an integral...
Read MoreHome.
Cierra Bland
2015-05-14
“I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears, and the dragons of home, under ones’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5fv8GKi9UU
Read MoreLeaving…
Paulina Jedrzejowski
2015-05-11
“Bom dia. Tudo bem? Como voce esta?” has become so embedded into my vocabulary that returning to the English, “Good morning. How are you?” will be very difficult. As I speak to my mom on SKYPE I sometimes say Portuguese words not knowing that I have spoken in Portuguese unless my mom makes a confused...
Read MoreAnimal Planet
Paulina Jedrzejowski
2015-05-11
I walk into a building of two rooms, and the smell of parrots, toucans, and macaws hits me as I think about another day of taking care of these poor animals. In a corner I see a large cage on top of which I see a blanket. There is a heater facing the cage, the...
Read MoreTeaching : A Tribute to Teachers
Aliya Habib
2015-05-10
Well, finally the desks have turned and I was left standing in front of 22 sugar-filled Ecuadorian 8th graders to teach English. The first day they were quiet, attentive, and took notes. It was tranquil and I eagerly went home and created more lesson plans. By the end of the week my classroom looked like...
Read MoreIs Globalization actually Globalization or is it something else?
Paulina Jedrzejowski
2015-05-10
Walking down the cobbled stone street or “rua” in Portuguese I look up at the stores that surround me, “Loja Americana” says the sign on one store, a few stores down I see the two yellow arcs forming the famous “M” of “McDonalds”, I hear the latest American Pop hits, I see signs for “batata...
Read MoreLessons Learned
Paulina Jedrzejowski
2015-05-07
As I was departing the United States just eight months ago I did not want to leave my comfort zone. A few weeks before leaving I remember glancing over this quote, “Surrender to what is, Let go of what was, Have faith in what will be.” I was unable to let go of what was...
Read More7. Puzzle Pieces
Brittany Caceres
2015-05-07
11.18.14 Remember when you were a child and you obtained a new puzzle? Personally I always went for the huge ones with a thousand, two thousand tiny pieces which I’d immediately dump in a huge pile on the floor and spend hours upon hours working through. Hours spent staring at the image, the goal, until...
Read MoreAcknowledgements
Grace Mannix
2015-05-07
I’m sure you’re familiar with that part after a theater performance where the cast is acknowledging the people that made the production possible. They already took their final bow and the time has come to share the spotlight before the audience goes home. As the curtains of my Global Citizen Year are drawn, I’d like...
Read MoreHidden Gems
Jaxom Moore
2015-05-04
Brazil has been hard. Not one single moment has been wasted in teaching me an important message or point. Everything about life: morality, happiness, success, and health have been thrown at us. More often than not all of it at once. The first month of our permanent homestay was the worst for me. Right after...
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