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Meet our Global Citizen of the Year Awardees who are changing the world through study abroad in their own unique ways—from living a zero-waste lifestyle to educating students in low-income communities.
Yazmin Baptiste
2019 Global Citizen of the Year Award Winner
IES Abroad Rabat & IES Abroad Rome | Lafayette College
Yazmin's passion to support immigrants and refugees led her to volunteer in Rabat and Rome, research for-profit companies benefiting from immigration in Italy, and conduct field research in New York and Texas about U.S. immigration issues.
Learn more about Yazmin's experiences connecting with the immigrant communities in Rabat and Rome, how she challenges 'voluntourism', and her efforts to start conversations about mental health at her home university.
Volunteering is complicated. It can be good one day. It could be bad the next. It could be iffy in the middle. Having a strong sense of accountability for what you do in the world is important ... have patience with others and yourself to think through the ways that we can improve our future.
IES Abroad Granada
Macalester College
IES Abroad Santiago
Penn State University
IES Abroad Buenos Aires
Spelman College
I learned that, while places and people around the world share differences, we share more similarities than we think we do.
Breana Ross
2018 Global Citizen of the Year Award Winner
IES Abroad Cape Town Customized Program | University of Miami
Breana took her passion for service from Florida to South Africa and back again. While studying abroad in Cape Town, Breana worked with SHAWCO Education to assist in the classroom with underprivileged students. What she learned there continues to influence her creative writing program with youth in Miami.
Learn more of Breana’s experience using storytelling, poetry, and education to build cross-cultural bridges of understanding.
IES Abroad Buenos Aires
Lafayette College
IES Internships Cape Town | IES Abroad Customized Shanghai & Beijing
University of Iowa
IES Abroad Milan
Barnard College – Columbia University
I strongly believe that working with communities creates a bigger impact than working for them.
YESENIA AYALA
2017 Global Citizen of the Year Award Winner
IES Abroad Santiago | Grinnell College
As a first-generation college student, Yesenia Ayala understands the barriers that many low-income students face when pursuing higher education.
While in Santiago, Yesenia interned with Belén Educa, a Chilean non-profit organization that serves low-income communities by providing high-quality education to students. Learn more of Yesenia's personal experiences in the United States and abroad, as well as her plans for furthering her impact.
"The Influencer"
IES Abroad Milan
Villanova University
"The Advocate"
IES Abroad London
Loyola University Chicago
"The Volunteer"
IES Abroad Buenos Aires
University of California - Berkeley
"The Storyteller"
IES Abroad Granada
Yale University
"The Researcher"
IES Abroad Vienna
Williams College
I plan to continue to advocate for our youth around the world and teach them that with determination, effort, and compassion they can be anything despite all doubt that they have experienced in the past.
SYDNI WILLIAMS
2016 Global Citizen of the Year Award Winner
IES Abroad Madrid | University of Michigan
From Detroit to Madrid, Sydni followed her commitment to improve youth education around the world. Discover how her internship with the Social Services Center of Los Yébenes in Spain reinvigorated her passion – one which inspired us a student-focused, mission-driven, organization.
"The Educator"
IES Abroad Cape Town
Gettysburg College
"The Activist"
IES Abroad Cape Town
Hope College
"The Anthropologist"
IES Abroad Buenos Aires
Occidental College
"The Musician"
IES Abroad Vienna
Lehigh University
"The Volunteer"
IES Abroad Vienna
Harvard University
"The Advocate"
IES Abroad Cape Town
University of Miami
