Meaghan Morris (C’09) had always looked forward to studying abroad to fulfill requirements for her curriculum. For the Spanish and government major, spending a semester in Argentina proved to be a valuable experience both academically and personally.
After poring through numerous study abroad programs in the
Office of International Programs (OIP), Morris decided to spend the fall 2007 semester in the South American country to attend classes at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) and Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLASCO), directly matriculating with Argentine students and more than 100 other American students.
Her semester in Buenos Aires afforded her for the first time the opportunity to be immersed fully in a culture -- living and studying with native Spanish speakers. And while she spoke Spanish well, she quickly found the language she had learned in school was not at all the language she was hearing in Argentina.
“Buenos Aires speaks its own language, and I now speak very much like that,” Morris says. “All of my professors say ‘What a
porteña (Buenos Aires native) you are.’ ”
Coming from Portland, Maine, Morris’ only experience living in a big city came after she moved to Washington to attend Georgetown. She discovered that life in Buenos Aires -- its energetic pace, masses of people and vibrant social scene -- was a different kind of environment from what she experiences on campus and her hometown.
“The city was busy 24 hours a day … ,” Morris recalls. “I felt like even after five months I had only seen a small fraction of the city.”
To maximize her learning experience, Morris decided to come out of her comfort zone. Instead of spending time with her fellow American students, she made an effort to make friends with the
porteños.
Joining a soccer team was one of the first things she did. She played with students from America and Argentina, and they all attended other games together, thus creating an international community that helped her meet new people.
“Soccer is like a religion in Latin America,” says
Magdalena Chica-Garzon, the assistant director for overseas studies who coordinates the opportunities in Spain and Latin America for OIP. “Her teammates became one of her social groups.”
Even through her host mother, Morris found ways to build her social network. As a young, single woman her host mother embraced her as part of her own social circle, introducing Morris to her friends and to alumni of the cultural immersion program in which she participated. Morris learned some of the alumni enjoyed their experience so much that they returned to Buenos Aires to live.
“We were basically roommates,” Morris says of her host mother. “We just liked hanging out with each other, and she made me feel like part of the community.”
Morris’ network of friends and acquaintances grew larger and more diverse. Of course, there were awkward moments that accompany any transition to a new culture. Morris recalls how long it took her to get used to the different mealtimes --
porteños eat almost no breakfast, a large lunch and dinner usually around 11 p.m. She also had to get used to the near-constant strikes that shut down the subway and the different way
porteños tend to greet each other.
“I remember sticking out my hand when I first met people,” she recalls from her first weeks in the capital city. “It took me awhile to realize that they don’t shake hands there, they kiss on the cheek. But just as habit, you learn pretty quickly to greet with a kiss.”
Morris did not just take advantage of her social network, though. She found out Nobel-Peace-Prize-winner
Adolfo Perez Esquivel was teaching a class on human rights at UBA. She immediately enrolled. Perez Esquivel sparked her interest in human rights and living in Argentina -- where memories of the dictatorship are still fresh for many Argentines. The horrific events under numerous military dictatorships -- murders, kidnappings, torture, rapes, the abduction and sale of infants, etc. -- lasted into the mid-1980s. Perez Esquivel won the Nobel in 1980 for leadership aimed at protesting and recording breaches of human rights in Latin America.
“It was really interesting seeing international issues from a different point of view,” Morris says. “I found that politics and international relations look very different from a South American perspective.”
Finding Her Way Back
When the time came to leave Argentina, she resolved to return.
With a a network of people to call and e-mail -- including Perez Esquivel’s teaching assistant, Morris began researching her opportunities for the summer.
“I probably sent out a hundred e-mails that semester,” Morris recalls, “to organizations like Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and any others I could think of.”
She eventually found la
Asamblea Permanente de los Derechos Humanos (APDH), or the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights, which consults on the issue of human rights with the United Nations. The organization accepted her as a summer intern after her junior year.
An elated Morris returned to Argentina just a week after her spring 2008 semester ended. She flew to Buenos Aires, found an apartment and quickly started her internship.
Morris’ summer abroad is an example of the community-based learning offered through the university’s international programs office.
Sylvia Mitterndorfer, director of overseas studies and technology for OIP, calls community-based learning a holistic approach to understanding the theory and practice behind social change and social justice processes.
“It partners students with nonprofit organizations to address the needs of poor or disadvantaged residents of the community,” says Mitterndorfer. “This work contributes to the public good and provides students with a sense of empowerment and agency, enabling them to understand how the practical application of their academic skills can contribute to positive social change.”
Other community-based learning sites include a summer program in Santiago, Chile; semester programs in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Stellenbosch, South Africa, with Buenos Aires being the most recent addition.
Much of Morris’ time was spent creating a 40-50 page report on economic, social and political human rights in Argentina. Many members of the U.N. have agreed to provide such a report to the U.N. Human Rights Commission every five years.
“The hope is that someday this report could be used as a base for some kind of campaign to get the government to do their own and send it to the U.N.,” Morris says.
In addition to her work at ADPH, Morris began work in a
villa miseria, or shantytown, teaching disadvantaged pre-adolescent girls to read and write. She also participated in Model U.N. during her summer abroad.
“Meaghan really took advantage of all the opportunities she had and made the most of her time there,” Chica-Garzon.
After her second experience abroad ended, Morris returned to Georgetown to begin life as a senior, taking several courses on human rights and working on her thesis for her justice and peace studies minor. She remained in touch with her summer colleagues and was excited to receive a phone call she received in October. Officials from ADPH asked her to attend a U.N. meeting in New York.
Morris and another former intern traveled to New York to attend a meeting of the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee, commonly referred to as the Third Committee. Morris and her colleague mostly listened and observed while gleaning information on human rights practices and pending agreements to send back to the APDH.
“I sat in the section reserved for nongovernmental organizations and just listened for the day,” Morris explains. “It was really exciting to be in the real U.N. after having learned and talked about it in so many of my classes at Georgetown.”
Looking Forward
After she graduates in this spring, Morris says she would like to return to Latin America. While she would be happy with the opportunity to live anywhere in the region, it is Buenos Aires that captivates her ambitions.
“Next year, I could be in D.C.; I could be in Boston; but what I would really love is to be in Buenos Aires,” she says.
Morris is glad that studying at Georgetown afforded her the opportunity to go to South America, saying, “I was ready for a change and a new experience.”
