By Leo Nye, CASA Chile Fall 2019 (Johns Hopkins '21)
I never imagined that I’d be in so many eye opening educational experiences outside of the traditional academic environment during my semester abroad, but I feel that my time here has been so unique, a once in a lifetime experience. I can’t help but describe my experience with these clichés because it’s as if we’ve came to Chile just in time to get a sense of how Chile compared to its own reputation and facade of stability and economic success before witnessing a nearly cinematic-level social change in the entire nation. It almost doesn’t feel real but we know it to be true from all the acts of violence and injustice we’ve seen and been taught about.
I’m proud to say that I’m the first student from Hopkins to have taken advantage of the opportunity to participate in the CASA Chile program in Santiago. I’m enrolled as a student at both the private Universidad de Católica and the public Universidad de Chile while also taking a pro-seminar course at the Harvard CASA Latin American Studies office. The Casa class is really interesting since it involves an expert guest lecturer in some field relevant to Chile every Friday including lunch. Amidst serious protests we as students living with host families have the opportunity to learn so much about why people are protesting by ourselves and from an academic perspective on Chile’s Democracy. personally I’ve learned so much about Latin American politics as a whole because I live with a Bolivian Family in Chile who loves the Argentinian News Channel America.
The great part about this program is that it balances a group structure with personal freedom. Structured elements such as being a part of the CASA exchange students group of around 10 students who I’ve gotten to join on planned vacations to incredible places such as the Atacama desert, Valparaiso and Isla Negra, but I also have had the independence to meet and befriend Chileans in and around the university environments. I also really appreciate all the work that the DRCLAS Harvard office has done to make so many opportunities part of my reality.