Staff Experiences Abroad: Part 1
Living abroad can be a transformational experience that teaches you valuable lessons about other cultures and also helps you better understand yourself and your place in the world. A number of staff studied or worked abroad early in their careers, and these experiences have left a lasting impression on their lives.
Tim Douglas (Academic Advising) studied abroad at Kasteel Well in The Netherlands while he was an Emerson student. He really enjoyed living in the castle and meeting people in Well and beyond, as well as being in beautiful places with his friends. His favorite places he traveled to were Budapest (where his mother was born) and Brugge, Belgium. He offered this travel advice: “Always plan your trips from the destination back so you can be sure you have enough time to be there!”
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Bridget Doyle (Community Standards and Student Conduct) studied in Rome at John Cabot University. Throughout her time abroad, she visited Poland, Belgium, Austria, Czech Republic, Spain, and the United Kingdom, in addition to traveling up and down Italy. She was a double major in history and political science, so while abroad, she enjoyed participating in courses that took class beyond the campus doors and into the subject they were learning about. “I took a class called ‘History of the Catholic Church’ with an incredibly knowledgeable professor who was also an official Vatican docent; so he would take us to say, St. Peter’s Basilica directly, and show us the artwork that depicted aspects of what we were learning in class,” said Doyle.
Beyond the learning opportunities and the travel, Doyle also met people from all over the world, as the entire school population consisted of international students. She said, “I recall a classmate of mine from Qatar, who educated me extensively on her experiences as a young Muslim woman. We were in a creative writing elective together, and I wrote an essay that was partially based on my own experiences as a queer woman. She had disclosed to me that I was the first out queer person that she had ever met or befriended.”
Above all, Doyle’s time abroad instilled a strong sense of confidence in herself. She said, “When I think I can’t do something, I remember the girl who would hop on a plane alone and go to a new city where she did not speak the native language and didn’t know anyone. Then, I start to remember that I am capable of anything.”
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While Jennifer Lamy (Sustainability) was in college, she studied wildlife management in Tanzania and Kenya with the School for Field Studies. She worked on a month-long directed research project about human-wildlife conflict in Southern Kenya, which was a part of the institute’s larger five-year research strategy. “It was cool to be part of a more significant project than we would have been able to do in one semester [at my home campus],” remarked Lamy. One of her favorite memories during that semester abroad was spending a week camping in and exploring the Serengeti.
After college, Lamy spent about 10 months in Italy. The first six months were spent at the Tenuta di Spannocchia in Tuscany, where she worked in the vineyard and olive grove as a farm intern. The internship also included some work to support the farm’s agrotourism function. After her time at the farm, she spent about six weeks at a nearby vineyard, six weeks at a horse rescue center also in Tuscany, and a month helping out a family in Le Marche on the eastern coast of Italy. “While in Italy, I had other Americans around for much of my first seven months,” said Lamy. Once she got to the horse rescue center, however, no one else spoke English. “The language immersion forced me to polish up my Italian skills very quickly just to be able to communicate. I’m so grateful for that push!”
One of the biggest takeaways for Lamy was the relationships she was able to create. “No matter how many elephants I saw or what an incredible experience I had turning vegetables I had picked into a beautiful meal, my most treasured memories are of the people I got to know. I’ve tried to apply that lesson to my life in the US.”
…Stay tuned for Part 2 of these staff profiles!
Camryn Ciancia ’24