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
My first day in Brazil
Jean Ulysse
2011-10-03
This is my second full day in Brazil, sitting down by the ocean where I can let nature be my teacher, the ocean sing me a lullaby get lost into my thoughts….. Sometimes in life we wish we did not do certain things but “hey” what can we do about them. Making my way to...
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Out of the Mata Concreta
Holli Sullivan
2011-10-03
My Global Citizen Year has officially begun. We’ve all been having a magical time, haven’t we fellows? One month is sooo much longer than we’ve ever imagined. Stanford, hostel, more hostel…It’s been great. But for me personally, it hasn’t felt so much like a life changing experience just yet. While in the past month I’ve seen thousands...
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Adaptation
Heather Kurtz
2011-10-03
One of the hardest things I have learned my first few weeks in Ecuador is to adapt. I never knew how valuable a quality that is. To be able to see something and to not react but instead to realize it is different and change yourself so that things work for the better. My week...
Read More From Research to Reality
Michael Ratliff
2011-10-01
As the end of our training approached, I was struck by how we had come full circle. From the Skype conference call with a former Stanford professor about international development to a lecture from a Brazilian professor on the same topic but in Portuguese, speaking about PIB (produto interno bruto) instead of GDP.But there was...
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Africa Contains Multitudes
Emily Hanna
2011-10-01
“Ami! Aminata! Viens ici! Come here!” My 18-year-old Senegalese sister Aicha, calls for me, then, unsatisfied with my speed, pulls me from my room and plops me down in front of the television. “You won’t believe this” she tells me in French. A documentary is playing on TV, narrated in hushed tones by a solemn French actor,...
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Sin Bici No Hay Paraiso
Priyanka Rao
2011-10-01
Just coming back from Cumbaya, the cutest town in Ecuador, and suffering from the paradise syndrome. A stucco church with bell tower edges a hedge-rowed garden park complete with a trickling fountain in the center. Boutiques surround the square across a cobblestone road that leads past the mission-style Educativo where the uniformed school-children are getting...
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Arrival
Priyanka Rao
2011-10-01
I’m here bumping along on the road to Tena. We drove through flat lands of farms and now we are going through those mountain roads that follow a river up through the wallowing hills. It’s all the browns and greens of moss and heather. Clay- the ground is saturated with water. And we feel very...
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Ask
Priyanka Rao
2011-10-01
I have been very proud to learn how to ask questions, not only questions that arise in the end-of-a-chapter Review, but the ones that actually reflect what I am thinking. The ones that reflect the true issues that complicate me, but also questions that can bring out very interesting answers. Effective questions. They give me...
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Meet, Cheese and Olives
Priyanka Rao
2011-09-29
My first family outing was to a baby shower–it was a solid evening. By the time it was time to go, I decided my Indian outfit would pass for something unique at least, to avoid the other judgments. It was a nice town-house out in the mountainside with lots of nice people to kiss on...
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