2015-16 Academic Year

January 2016:

AY243  Globalization, Democracy, and Political Transformation in Bolivia with Prof. Winifred Tate

JanPlan course in Anthropology and LAS covering Bolivian politics, economy, and social relations. Students identified and traced critical forms of interconnection between Bolivia and contemporary global systems. Based in Cochabamba, students lived with host families, heard from analysts and activists, gained an understanding of anthropological vocabulary and concepts, conducted original research, and reflected critically on international fieldwork. Students also lived with host families throughout their stay. LAS Majors on trip: Graciela Lopez, Cecil Brooks, Greg Morano, Emily Sapoch, Julian Wise

Caroline Tegeler ’16  Yucatán, Mexico

For Jan Plan 2016, I travelled to the Yucatán Peninsula to conduct field research for my senior honors thesis in Latin American Studies. My research, entitled Community Encounters: Exploring Volunteer and Cultural Tourism in Yaxunah, Yucatán. My research focuses on cultural and volunteer tourism in the Yucatán Peninsula, specifically focusing on a community-based tourism project in the village of Yaxunah. During my time in Mexico, I was able to spend time in both Mérida, which was also my study abroad location for spring 2015. Mérida serves as one of the cornerstones of cultural tourism, anthropology, and tourism studies in Latin America, and my time there greatly complemented my two weeks spent in Yaxunah. In Yaxunah, I spent my time meeting almost everyone in the 150-family town, conducting interviews, and volunteering and spending a majority of my time at the Centro Comunitario Cultural, the town’s community-based tourism project. My time in both Mérida and the community of Yaxunah was essential to my research, as I now have both the visitor and community perspectives upon which I am basing my thesis work.

Alexa Busser ’17, Centro Panamericano de Idiomas, Costa Rica

During JanPlan 2015, I was able to spend four weeks studying Spanish, living with families, and exploring the country and culture of Costa Rica. Centro Panamericano de Idiomas, where I took classes, provided me with private instruction in the language in the mornings, giving me the entire afternoon to experience the towns I was in. I was able to stay in three different locations, a typical city, a cloud forest town, and a beach town on the Pacific coast. In each town I lived with a family, all of whom were very different, but even more different from myself and my prior expectations. I learned more about Spanish and Costa Rica from my families than I could have any other way. Perhaps best of all was the amazing environment of Costa Rica, from the cool, wet mountains to the scorching beaches. The only thing better was the friendliness and vitality of the people; “Pura Vida,” their universal response, is truly a lifestyle.

Andrew D’Anieri ’18, Antigüeña (Guatemala) Spanish Academy

I had never traveled abroad alone before going to Guatemala over Jan Plan. I wasn’t nervous but I was maybe a little uptight about making my flights and ensuring that I correctly filled out my customs card. I quickly found that I was more than capable of getting to my destination and realized that I could enjoy the act of traveling. I remember how exhilarating it felt to be on my own to explore Antigua on my first day there. As a young solo traveler, I became increasingly self-reliant with every successful move I made. On my first day I found an authentic Guatemalan restaurant for lunch, later in the week I wandered away from the touristy part of town to find the soccer stadium, and by the end of my trip I was comfortable using public transportation to visit small towns outside of the city. I visited some incredible places and went on a number of exciting adventures during my time in Guatemala. These experiences were made possible in part by the confidence I built in myself by travelling alone. This renewed sense of self-reliance is certainly one of the less tangible takeaways from my trip but also one of the most important. All things considered, Antigüeña Spanish Academy was a very enjoyable program for me. I deepened my understanding of the Spanish language and improved my speaking abilities every day in class. I was able to meet a lot of cool people through the school who I travelled with and got to know pretty well

Julian Lauretti ’17, Sao Paolo, Brazil

My experience during the CIEE Portuguese program in Sao Paolo was very helpful in assisting me in improving my language skills in Portuguese. Being a dual citizen with family already in the country, my experience was different from that of the other students. I lived at the apartment of the uncle (the brother of my father) and his family while attending classes at CIEE. Coming into the course, I had an existing strong understanding of Portuguese due to my heritage, but lacked much formal education, and as a result had several grammatical flaws and lapses in vocabulary. The course helped me to correct much of this, most significantly my grammatical deficiencies in conjugation and the subjunctive tense. For me, the being in Brazil also had a different significance than that of the other students. I was living out the other part of my heritage, already fairly familiar with Brazilian culture and Brazil itself, but being able to explore this more thoroughly through living in the country for an extended period of time and being more immersed in the language. In the course I was able to further this by exploring areas of the city I had not yet seen with my family, as well as experiencing the country through a slight different lens, being more independent as well. During my time in Brazil, not only did I participate in activities sponsored by CIEE, but also made trips to the beach at Juqehy, attended soccer games, played inline hockey and soccer with my cousins and their friends at Parque Ibirapuera, and visited a few landmarks in São Paulo I had not yet seen. I enjoyed my time in CIEE’s course and would recommend it to students looking to learn Portuguese as well as spend time in São Paulo.

 

Summer 2015:

Emily Sapoch – Guatemala City, Guatemala

Over the summer of 2015, I spent 5 weeks volunteering as a classroom assistant with the Safe Passage/Camino Seguro organization in Guatemala City, Guatemala thanks to the funding I received from the Walker grant. Safe Passage/Camino Seguro is a non-profit educational organization that works with children and families living in the community surrounding the Guatemala City garbage dump.  As a volunteer, I collaborated with a Guatemalan teacher in teaching students ages 4-7 using a progressive, child-centered educational model. As a Latin American Studies and Education double major, being able to combine my two areas of study in practice was an incredible opportunity and reinforced my desire to teach in Latin America after graduation from Colby.

Greg Morano – Plainfield, NJ and Washington DC

Thanks to the Latin American Studies program and the Walker Grant, this past summer I was able to conduct unique research in New Jersey and Washington D.C. as part of the Migrant Peacebuilding Project. I worked with El Centro Hispanoamericano in Plainfield to research how Guatemalan migrants experience life in New Jersey in terms of the law, employment and social interactions. Furthermore, I sought to provide a forum for Guatemalan migrants in Plainfield, NJ to share their opinions about and their experiences with the U.S. immigration system. I ultimately hope to write a short ethnography about the stories and opinions that fifteen Guatemalan migrants shared with me, and in doing so, humanize the immigration policy debate. In Washington DC, I attended a Migration Policy Institute event and met with the Guatemalan Ambassador to the OAS in an attempt to understand the policy side of the immigration debate. In the end, the Walker Grant allowed me to gain valuable experience with ethnographic research (which could be crucial for an honors thesis) and see first hand the effects US immigration policy on Guatemalan migrants.

Emily Muller

I was fortunate enough to receive a Walker Grant to study the social stigmas that Guatemalan migrants face when they are deported back to their home country. The process and experience of doing field research is an eye-opening endeavor. There are constant obstacles and setbacks in almost every phase of any project, but that makes progress so much more exciting. These stigmas make reintegration into Guatemalan society extremely difficult, if not impossible, and create a cycle of immigration back to the United States. Personally, the most important aspect of the project was the opportunity to interact with a group of people that I never would have had the chance to. It was fascinating to talk to migrants about their immigration experiences first hand. It is one thing to read or hear about challenging migration stories, but it is so much more powerful when you are sitting in a migrant’s living room listening their heart-breaking story about how their sick and debilitated brother was deported because he didn’t have a driver’s license, or a teenager describing how she works sixteen hours a day so she can earn enough money to send to her young daughter and husband in Guatemala. For me, hearing all of these unique stories solidified a belief that migrants deserve opportunities for a better life and should be receiving as much help as they need to achieve their goals without living in fear.

Caroline Tegeler – Internship in Indigenous Rights, Cambridge, MA

This summer, I interned for Cultural Survival, a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, MA that advocates for Indigenous Peoples’ rights around the world through various projects and initiatives. Cultural Survival supports Indigenous communities’ self-determination, culture, and political resilience. After returning from my semester abroad in Mérida, México, this internship combined some of my new interests, including Indigenous rights and using Spanish in a formal environment. I worked in the departments of Advocacy and Indigenous Rights Radio alongside eight other interns for twelve weeks. During my internship, I wrote articles about issues concerning Indigenous communities around the world, wrote descriptions for radio programs and interviews with Indigenous leaders, and communicated with hundreds of radio stations in both English and Spanish about our new programs. I also volunteered at two Indigenous arts bazaars, bringing indigenous art to Massachusetts communities. Cultural Survival allowed me to explore the non-profit sector, use Spanish in a work environment, and form connections over our mutual interest in human and Indigenous rights.