Yentli Soto Albrecht - Bridge Year Serbia
Yentli Soto Albrecht
My childhood in Colombia has given me priceless experiences that have fueled my love of academia and other cultures. My high school classes have peaked an interest in neuroscience and Spanish literature, both of which I plan to study further. In my free time, I have enjoyed being an active member of my church worship team and school orchestra and band, a piano player, a co-captain of the Mock Trial team, and serving others. In the past year, I have eagerly volunteered through several organizations including my local public library, where I initiated a bond between the library and my high school’s NHS chapter. The Bridge Year Program was one of the reasons that I chose to attend Princeton, and I hope that my time in Serbia will prove to be a life-changing experience—an enriching period of self-growth that will make service an integral part of the rest of my life. My desire is that this program will allow me to gain a world perspective and view my life as an instrument in the fabric of the world’s future, allowing me to understand my capacity as an individual to induce change both locally and abroad.
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Posted Apr 02, 2012
As we stepped out of the van on a cloudy Monday afternoon outside of the Youth Training Center, where we would be staying for our Niš orientation, our feet landed on a thin crust of trampled snow. Having yet to see snow fall and accumulate in Novi Sad, we noticed this straight away. That evening, as we walked to the nearest bus station, Charlotte commented on how odd it was that we had arrived and already our first snow fall of the winter had come and gone, in a sense.
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Posted Feb 29, 2012
Note: This was written in December while I was finishing up my term in Novi Sad. A group update touching upon the transition to Niš is forthcoming.
“Why Serbia?” Every time I interact with a new group of local people, I get asked the same question. For many youth here, it seems puzzling that I chose to leave behind “The American Dream” for a whole year--and, even more so, that I chose to spend it in Serbia.
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Posted Jan 18, 2012
In Novi Sad, I work with Novi Sad Humanitarian Centar (Novosadski Humanitarni Centar), more commonly known as NSHC. Founded in 1998 in response to the influx of large numbers of Serbian refugees from Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, NSHC originally focused solely on humanitarian aid. Over the years, NSHC has expanded the scope of its aid and now works largely in four areas: the empowerment of the most vulnerable, marginalized groups using self-help techniques and basic humanitarian aid...
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Posted Nov 16, 2011
The first day we arrived in Novi Sad, I took an afternoon stroll with Tucker and Jacob in an attempt to digest my surroundings. Immediately, my attention was drawn to The Cathedral, a majestic centerpiece rising above the other buildings in Trg Slobode, the center plaza. My breath caught at the sight: the play of light on the green, blue and red tiles crowned by a cross and framed by a brilliant blue sky.