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
An Enriching Experience
Sarah Coyne
2011-09-07
August 27, 2011 was the send-off event for the Class of 2012 Global Citizen Year Fellows. Celebrating in the form of a family-style barbecue we ate, laughed, listened, and said our farewells to family and friends. Before the event, I had the pleasure to talk to my family via Skype for the first time since...
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Goodbyes and Beginnings
Annie Plotkin
2011-09-02
Two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have pictured myself standing outside a Stanford dorm at 4 in the morning to wave goodbye to 45 fellows on their way to Senegal and Ecuador. As a recent high school graduate, it takes a lot for me to give up hours of valuable sleep. However, when I found out...
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The plunge
Jacob Stern
2011-08-30
Global Citizen Year is damn good looking. But when I met everyone for the first time when US training began, we were truly motley crew. At any given lunch table, I’d catch slang from the cornfields of Iowa, the mountains of New Hampshire, the swamps of Florida, and the hills of San Francisco. Initially, cultures...
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The Cost of Living
Erica Anderson
2011-08-25
Five dollars a day is not enough to make a life, let alone a very lighthearted afternoon. This Monday, the Global Citizen Year fellows were shipped into the heart of San Francisco to try and better understand urban poverty in the United States. We were split up among two neighborhoods, the Tenderloin and the Mission....
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The Mission
Winson Law
2011-08-23
On a dreary, foggy day, a charter bus full of 57 Global Citizen Year Fellows tore through the Mission and Tenderloin neighborhoods of San Francisco. In an attempt to simulate urban poverty, Global Citizen Year provided each Fellow with only $5 and two other weary souls to venture through some of San Francisco’s most impoverished...
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From Development to Culture Shock to Avatar: a Typical Day at Fall Training
Charlotte Benishek
2011-08-23
Up to this point fall training has equipped the Global Citizen Year Fellows with broad skills required to be successful in our Global Citizen Year, such as mindfulness, self-awareness, and engaged leadership. However, on Saturday we departed from this theme and delved into international development specifically. The day began with a conference call with David...
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57
Joan Hanawi
2011-08-22
It’s craziness. It really is. 57 like-minded youth from all over the United States—flying, driving, doing whatever it takes to congregate in one singular place. 57 young adults who have all been consumed by the same passion—to tap into innate potential by willingly embracing a cross-cultural immersion. 57 students attempting to break societal restrictions and...
Read MoreAlum Post: The Year of the Coaster
Emily Hess
2011-08-05
Towards to end of my bridge year, every expert, friend, Peace Corps volunteer, and staff member warned the fellows that life after this, to say the least, would be a “roller-coaster”. By that, they meant that there would be a fair share of ups, downs, loops, side spins, twirls, jerks, and bumps. The description of...
Read MoreGlobal Citizen Year: My Gateway from High School to Sociology
Lucias Potter
2011-07-15
My name is Lucias Potter. I am from Oakland, California where I spend most of my time advocating for social justice, writing, or spending time with my cousins. I believe that the human race has a responsibility to make sure everyone can live comfortably. I believe that when people give power to their government to...
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