Global Ambassadors

The most meaningful experience I had while abroad was a conversation by chance. On a weekend excursion along the Camino de Santiago, our group stopped for the night in the small town of Astorga in the far northeast of Castile. During a few free hours we had upon arriving, I went for a coffee and a walk along the old medieval walls. After sitting for a few minutes on a bench overlooking the countryside, an elderly woman stopped to sit next to me. We conversed for nearly half an hour, talking about life, about God, about Spain and about America. She betrayed her age to be 90, told me of her life in the Basque Country under Franco and exuded an extreme pride when telling me of her three sons in the Spanish Army. While it had nothing to do with school or the cultural excursion itself, this is the memory I will most cherish from my time in Spain. It will be these small moments that a student studying abroad will find to be the most enriching.

One of the most central things I learned was that we're all the same but everything is a little bit different. That means that while we have our good and bad here in America, there is also good and bad everywhere else, and even though we may have differences at the surface, we all want the same things: family, prosperity, social dignity and security. It is important to surrender yourself to the surface-level cultural customs and characteristics, but enough time in one country will help you begin to learn about the worldview of the native people. Although daily routines and practices may look very different, there is a fundamental humanity among all of us that will remain the same whether you’re in Newport or Madrid or anywhere else. 

I emphatically recommend studying abroad to all Salve Regina students. You will learn more about life just by getting on and off a plane than you will in a classroom at any university; furthermore, these lessons will be of far greater utility than any fact or method you might have gotten from an academic course. Learning how to interact with people unlike you, how to handle cultural misunderstandings, how to navigate foreign airports and train stations, and how to properly appreciate things like art, architecture, food and wine will all contribute to a supreme opportunity for self-development. On those counts, there is nothing that can serve as a substitute for studying abroad.

The most memorable experience I had abroad was during a trip to Marrakech, Morocco. I traveled there during Ramadan, so the local people were mostly fasting. In a taxi on the way back to the city from the desert, at 7 p.m. when it was time to break their fasting, our taxi driver rolled down his window and started handing out nuts to cyclists and other drivers in the cars around us. Our driver had made the effort to get the nuts from a street vendor just 15 minutes prior while we were in the car. This simple act of compassion, kindness and empathy really spoke to me and taught me a lesson about caring for others, especially strangers. It also taught me to really start paying attention to small details around us everyday, because some of the most beautiful moments happen really unexpectedly.

I wish more people knew that the way of living in America is not the only/best way to live. We have been fed information our entire lives about America being the greatest country in the world, and I think that really discourages Americans from traveling and experiencing other cultures and traditions. I wish people knew that life abroad is so beautiful, and much slower and much less focused on consumerism, and that way of life may be really appealing to someone who might not know about that experience. I also wish people knew that studying abroad allows for an even more important life education, as well as a scholarly one.

Salve Regina students should study abroad because it gives them an education not possible through even the greatest textbooks and greatest professors. It also gives students a chance to meet more like-minded people from different schools and make more amazing friends who you will share incredible forever memories with.