Global Studies - Success Stories
Alumni Success Stories
Global Studies
Hannah Cazzetta ’15
While at Salve Regina, Cazzetta spent a full year at Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso in Chile and participated in a month-long program in Grenoble, France. "Studying abroad was the largest influence for my professional work and academic studies," she said. "It is such a defining experience, and it can teach you many different life skills and history lessons that you can't learn in a classroom."
After graduation, Cazzetta taught at Lycee Rene Auffray, a vocational high school in Paris that attracts a mixed population of French and first-generation North African students. She was then awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach English at the University of Boyaca in Tunja, Colombia, the country's original capital.
Her work as a Fulbright-funded English teaching assistant was both personally and professionally rewarding. "My older two sisters were adopted from Bogota, Colombia before I was born," Cazzetta said. "My family got to visit me in Colombia, where we were able to retrace some steps from my sisters' birth stories. It was by far my most challenging year abroad but it was absolutely rewarding."
Cazzetta completed a master's degree in international higher education at Boston College and recently returned to Salve Regina as the University's associate director of advising.
Maria Leon Gomez ’15
The global studies program allowed Gomez to explore the effects of international development on her home country of Honduras, which culminated in her senior project, "The Effects of Drug Trafficking on the Socioeconomic Development of Honduras." In her junior year, Gomez studied in Lyon, France, a transformative experience that helped her understand how France is uniquely positioned within and affected by the policies of the European Union.
After working with the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America for two years, Gomez interned with the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. She earned a Master of Global Affairs from the University of Notre Dame, focusing on international peace studies, and is currently the partnerships and stakeholders coordinator at Refugees Seeking Equal Access at the Table.
"Salve's multidisciplinary approach in global studies gave me both the academic and practical skills needed for life after college," Gomez said. "My time in class working with amazing professors and participating in crucial discussions of global issues gave me the necessary academic background, analytical and effective communication skills needed for the workforce. My degree helps me to adapt in cross-cultural environments, understand the interconnection among world global problems and engage successfully in international work."
Tarah Waters ’12
After spending her junior year in South Africa, Waters returned to the continent after graduation, serving two years in the Peace Corps as a youth development worker in Morocco.
She next completed a fellowship at the Island Institute, an organization that works to sustain Maine's island and coastal communities. While there, she developed lifelong learning initiatives and internship programs for local students and helped to plan a community-based makerspace.
Her free time is occupied by Dunia Unificada, a family business promoting sustainable travel. "We work closely with local partners to foster sustainable development through travel and tourism," Waters said. "Our hope is to connect western tourists with socially and ecologically conscious businesses in the 100 countries with the lowest GDP."
Waters is currently living in Colorado, serving as the national operations coordinator for SOS Outreach.
"There is no lesson more valuable than pushing your limits to learn more about human nature and the globe you are a part of," Waters said. "I have taught and been taught by students in South Africa, walked across ancient paths of the Sahara, and stood on top of ancient ruins. I have cried with strangers and shared life's purest moments with people who shared no common language. And all of these memories I owe to the constant encouragement to be a social activist from my professors at Salve."
Angela Wheeler ’12
Wheeler studied abroad in Saint Petersburg, Russia and traveled to the Republic of Georgia in 2010 to independently research Soviet-era funerary traditions and in 2011 to participate in Wellesley College's summer archaeological field school.
After graduation, she spent a year in the republic on a Fulbright fellowship, interning for the International Council on Monuments and Sites and working with the Georgian National Museum. While completing Columbia University's graduate program in historic preservation, Wheeler also returned to Georgia twice for project work.
Wheeler is currently a Ph.D. candidate in architecture at Harvard University and a graduate student associate in Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. "I currently research global trends in architectural design and preservation, so I suppose I've never stopped being a global studies student," she said.
"I was continually surprised by how much Salve accommodated my interests," Wheeler added. "I was trusted to develop a course of study that actually prepared me for the work I needed to do after graduation. I certainly would not have made a strong Fulbright candidate if Salve hadn't allowed me to take region-specific language courses and summer programs for credit. Everything I've done since then has built on that foundation."