Sam Shovers

I studied abroad in Cape Town, South Africa on the CIEE Program during the fall 2016 semester. At Tulane, I study Neuroscience and Africana Studies, but in Cape Town, I mainly focused on Africana Studies, so much so that I will probably change my minor to a major.

Cape Town is an incredible place, with numerous hikes throughout the city and on its mountains, so I was able to stay active and continue to pursue the activities I love.The country and city are absolutely breathtaking, there is nothing in the world that can compare to the perspective one can gain living in post-Apartheid South Africa. The nightlife is amazing and the US dollar is very strong there (so things are relatively inexpensive for study abroad students).

One thing I would recommend students consider when they are applying to study abroad is a program that is in a location where they are unlikely to travel to and that will provide them the greatest perspective on the world. That's definitely what studying in Cape Town did for me. 

The most culturally impactful part of my study abroad semester was when I did a homestay for a weekend in rural South Africa. Through that experience, I really learned about disparity, lack of development, and what it was like to not be a White citizen in the country. 

Amanda Verdi

I spent my fall semester in Dakar, Senegal studying International Development and French and spent the spring in Reims, France, studying at Sciences-Po. Prior to my semester in Dakar, I was mostly nervous about the unknown. I had no idea what to expect upon arriving in Senegal and that terrified me. Of course, nothing was as I expected, but my lack of familiarity with the country worried me most prior to departure. 

I was a lot less nervous before my semester in France. I had already studied abroad, was more confident in my French language capabilities, and had a general expectation of what daily life would be like. So, my worries for France were mostly about not fitting in. I remembered hearing that French people didn't like Americans and was afraid my accent or my clothes would give me away. Thinking about it now, the idea that my nationality would offend everyone in a 5 mile radius is comical.

When taking a weekend trip from Dakar to St. Louis, my sept place (a sort of altered minivan that is a common form of transportation in Senegal) broke down in the middle of a rural, deserted area. Thankfully, after about ten minutes of panicking, two men got out of the back of the car like it was no big deal and started pushing, and the car started up again. Alxamdulilah! 

I really enjoyed being encouraged to try new things. I think an essential part of studying abroad is adopting an brave, yes-saying attitude, and I am glad I was pushed into that mentality. I went places that were off the beaten path, tried some crazy foods, hung out with some lions, made friends with other travelers from around the world, and approached each weekend as an adventure.

I missed having a community around me that automatically made me feel happy and safe. I was glad to have an opportunity to go outside my comfort zone, but it took me a while to develop the kinds of bonds with other people that I have back at Tulane due to cultural and linguistic barriers. This has made me appreciate the friends and mentors I have at Tulane even more than I already did, and I'm very excited to return.

Overall, I discovered how to learn from the diverse cultures that make up our world, and how to integrate those lessons into my daily life. 

Asha Wafer

“What surprised me the most [when I got to Cape Town for study abroad] was the uniformity of blackness. People who are living the black experience in all different places in the world pretty much go through the same thing, which is the first time I had imagined that. That was pretty huge for me. It started from doing a project in my intercultural communication and leadership course. We had to do a series of interviews with someone who was a South African. I chose someone I had met and seen around my dorm at my apartment building, a black South African student. We had met for coffee a couple times, had several conversations, and I asked several questions. We talked about both our backgrounds and our families, about our identities and our backgrounds and different cultural experiences.

I started to see a huge parallel even though we were from completely different parts of the world, and completely different families, and have completely different stories. There was some sort of uniformity in our experiences.

In Cape Town and South Africa, activism just runs through their blood. It's a no brainer. If you don't believe something you see, you stand up and you say something. Here it's very much a “talk” culture -everyone talks about inequalities and social problems but no one actually does anything. There, it was just so cool to see marginalized, oppressed people or people who usually are not thought of or factored into certain political systems and economic systems be like 'This is not okay... this is why and this is what we want you to do to fix it.' And putting the burden of fixing different inequalities on the oppressors and not the oppressed, that was the first time I saw that in play. It was inspiring, too, because I came back and had a fresh new look on what it meant to be an activist and what it meant to be a humanitarian.”