Anna Sophie Tinneny

Anna Sophie is passionate about literature, linguistics, and anthropology. She studies several languages and likes to explore the linguistic-cultural connection. She is very active in campaigning for gun violence prevention and is involved in March For Our Lives Philadelphia and Pennridge 225. Her goals for this year are to learn Kichwa and Latin dance and to forge close ties with her new Ecuadorian community. "I will not be 'famous,' 'great.' I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one's self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded." -Virginia Woolf

Haku Wasima

Anna Sophie Tinneny

2019-04-29

“‘You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place,’ I told him, ‘like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.’” Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran As I stepped...

Tips for Future Fellows

Anna Sophie Tinneny

2019-03-13

#1- Get comfortable talking about your bowel movements. Even the shiest Fellows in my cohort broke by week four, discussing their gastrointestinal issues at length. The worst part of all of this isn’t even that you’re hearing about other people’s poop. The worst part is that you’re genuinely interested in hearing about other people’s poop....

Finally a Ñaña

Anna Sophie Tinneny

2019-02-25

I’ve always wanted to be a big sister. I tried to get my fill through playing with friends’ little siblings or hanging out with younger cousins, but it’s not quite the same as actually living with the tiny rascals. On September 7, 2018, I finally realized my childhood dream of becoming a big sister. No,...

Gap Years Don’t Go According to Plan

Anna Sophie Tinneny

2018-12-30

Before coming to Ecuador, I had it all figured out. I knew where I wanted to go to college, what I wanted to do for a living, and where I wanted to live post-degree. The one thing I didn’t know was why I was doing GCY. Despite being so sure of myself in most other...

Me Llamo Anita Lechón

Anna Sophie Tinneny

2018-10-07

I listen to the mayor of Cayambe discuss the idea of dualism in Kayambi culture. “In order for the world to work,” he explains, “Balance is necessary. The sun needs the moon. The masculine needs the feminine. The rainy season needs the dry season.” In the Kayambi tradition, the universe is united through polar opposites....

Pre-Departure Non-Jitters

Anna Sophie Tinneny

2018-08-24

Everyone expects me to be nervous, but I’m not. In two days, I leave my home in suburban Philadelphia for a week long leadership training course with 150 other teens in San Francisco. After that, we break into four groups to fly to our respective future homes for the next 8 months. In my case,...