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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Alumni Post–On Being a Queer Fellow, Five Years Later

2016-04-19

I’m going to try to tackle a challenging, sensitive topic, both for myself, for other LGBT folks, for families, and for Global Citizen Year. Please know that this is a narration of my personal experience as a Fellow in 2010-2011, and I am not claiming to represent the entire queer community. I hope that by...

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ALUMNI POST: Tears for Fears…and Joy

2012-05-07

A roar of applause erupted. The lights flickered on. The projector was turned off. We all stood up and as was expected many began to shed tears.  Fellows embraced each other with forceful grasps. As if letting go would allow this experience to pass. For fifty-four Fellows, eight months of curiosity, struggle, persistence, and triumph...

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Alum Post: GCY Cribs

2011-08-24

Coming back to America was WAY harder than leaving to go to Senegal. My host-mother, Ndeye (the one pouring tea in the video) teases me during my weekly phone calls saying I’ve already forgotten Wolof.  But I was able to stumble through a 20 minute Wolof conversation with a Senegalese-native taxi driver in Cincinnati, Ohio...

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Alum Post: This New Point of View

2011-08-18

“How was it? How long were you there? Do you still talk to them?”   Among receiving and answering variations of those questions from family, friends, and colleagues, I’ve managed to keep myself very busy this summer! I’ve attained nine college units and registered for sixteen more, successfully learned to cook several dishes, reduced my caffeine...

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Alum Post: The Year of the Coaster

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...

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What would you do with a year?

2011-08-01

A few short months ago I arrived back to the States after spending 8 months in Ecuador during my Global Citizen Year. In this short movie I have incorporated footage and photographs from the time I spent in Ecuador. The video highlights the main components and aspects of my Global Citzen Year: learning, giving back, exchage,...

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on wanting to write and next

2011-07-08

I am not a journaler. When I was a little girl I wrote short stories about fictional things because the things that happened to me in real life didn’t seem like they belonged in stories, or at least good ones. But I journal.To be clearer I do not journal recreationally.  I used to try it...

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Nous Sommes Ensemble

2011-05-25

I left my little blue wallet with my two credit cards, half of my monthly stipend, a hundred dollar travelers check that my visiting mom had posed there, my emergency contact information, and the scribbled passwords for both of my credit cards in a local boutique when I went to buy a little sack of...

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Are You Ready?

2011-05-16

I am home! And I have a lot of stories to tell. If you (or your child, student, friend, etc.) are interested in a Global Citizen Year, you might want to watch the video below, a sort of teaser-trailer for my Senegal experience. Enjoy!

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When You Give a Kid A Camera

2011-05-16

She’s probably going to be ecstatic. I really couldn’t have imagined the scale Kids with Cameras would grow to–how much energy I would put into it, how incredible the photos would be, how proud the kids would be to share their work, how appreciative the parents would become. Truthfully, Kids with Cameras is what kept...

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Senegal in Numbers

2011-05-11

1) Bottle of shampoo that I brought with me and made last for 7 months, economizing by occasionally tilling my hair into neat corn rows and forgoing shampooing. 1) Thin beach towel that has traveled with me from Dakar to Saint Louis to Mbour, from cool showers, to colder showers, to beautiful beaches. We took...

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com raiva

2011-05-10

The last two weeks in my homestay Tom’ s mother, Colange and 5 year old nephew, Samwell, came to stay with us in Sao Bento. In the evenings we sat in front of the TV watching the novelas with café and Samwell would hit his head into the walls and run around the coffee table...

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