A Brief Time Abroad

Zapien was eager to expand her worldview by spending a semester in Australia. As a Biology of Global Health major, minoring in Studio Art, Zapien knew the value of understanding perspectives different from her own. 

“As a college student, our focus gets narrow so we forget that the world is bigger than our worries,” Zapien says. “I was hoping to learn more about diverse cultures and points of view by getting out of my comfort zone, and living a world away from home and the university.”

Australian school terms start later in the calendar year than in the United States, so Zapien did not begin her courses until late February. By the end of March, she was back home in Washington.

Out of the Frying Pan

Due to the time difference between Australia and the United States, Zapien did not receive the announcement to return home until the following morning. Though she was deeply saddened to leave after such a short time, Zapien knew it was the right thing to do. 

“Everything in Australia was still open at this point, so it felt strange to be returning to one of the places in the United States with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases at that time,” says Zapien. “But it was important to return home as quickly as possible for myself and others.”

Zapien was gold that she had to leave on Wednesday, March 18^th and had booked a flight for the following Tuesday. Unfortunately, her flight, like many others, was canceled, leaving Zapien only a few options. Eventually, she found a flight that left that Friday, March 20th, giving her just two days to pack. 

On her 24-hour return home, Zapien said that she no longer felt fully in reality. 

“I had a connecting red-eye from Honolulu that was incredibly tense,” says Zapien. “The plane was completely packed and you could tell that everyone was on edge.” 

After deboarding the plane, Zapien said she could feel a difference in the attitudes of the people around her. 

“In Australia, all of the restaurants were open and people were crowding the streets up until the day I left,” says Zapien. “in Bellingham, everything was closed. It felt like a different planet.”

Adapting to a New World

Even though the shift from her life down under to quarantining in Washington was sudden, Zapien said that Georgetown has made it easy to transition to online learning. In addition to her remote courses through the University of Sydney, Zapien is also taking two Georgetown courses.

In addition to Intro to Philosophy, Zapien is also enrolled in COVID-19: Theory and Practice in the Time of Pandemic, which has been particularly engaging for Zapien, and has made her feel as though she is learning essential material she could apply in the future. 

In her reflections on the present, Zapien said that her biggest takeaway from this experience has been the importance of living in the moment. 

“It’s so crucial to cherish everything you have when you have it, because you never know when it might go away,” Zapien says. “Even though this experience ended before it was meant to, I am so grateful for it, and look forward to returning and making more memories in the future.”

Click the links below to view parts two and three of our Returning Home from Abroad series

Returning Home from Abroad Part One: Delaney Corcoran Speaks to the Importance of a Positive Mindset

Returning from Abroad Part Two: Featuring Danielle Guida’s Journey Home from Italy

A Year Cut Short

Guida, who is a double major in Economics and Italian, decided to study abroad to fully immerse herself in the local culture.

 â€œI know my Economics major might seem more practical, but Italian is something that I am passionate about,” says Guida. “I have been studying Italian since I was in high school, and I have fallen in love with the country and culture.”

The junior said that she decided to do a full year of study abroad in Bologna, Italy so that she could feel like a true Italian instead of just an American tourist. Though she was fortunate to have been there since August of 2019, Guida said it was very difficult to leave the new home she had found in Italy.

“I was so excited to begin my second semester because one semester did not feel like enough time to fully adjust to differences in classes and the culture,” Guida says. “I was looking forward to a second semester where I was truly comfortable. But the hardest part by far was suddenly having to say goodbye to all of the friends that I made – I did not know when I would be able to see them next.”

A Canary in the Coal Mine

Italy was the first country in Europe to become overwhelmed by COVID-19. As a result, many people did not understand the severity of the situation.

“My program was through Brown University, and they had merely given us the option to return home that day on February 28, it wasn’t a mandate yet. But that changed very quickly,” Guida says.

By the evening of that same day, the CDC raised Italy’s threat level from a Level Two to a Level Three. The next morning, Guida was told that she had until March 7 to come home.

Guida said that one of the most surreal aspects of her journey home was the discrepancy between the city, which was still operating as normal up until she got in her taxi to leave, and the airport on the day she left. When she arrived, every person she encountered was wearing gloves and facemasks, and all of the TV monitors were playing continuous coverage of the virus and the mounting death toll.

“It was very somber, I remember sitting there surrounded by other college students who were being sent home too,” says Guida. “We just couldn’t stop looking at the screens. I was glad I was going back.”

Adjusting to a New Life

When she first returned to her home in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, Guida was told to self-isolate for two weeks. Initially, she thought that an upside to this experience would be that she could see her friends from back home after quarantining, but sadly, COVID-19 had made its way overseas.

“As my personal quarantine was ending, the quarantine was just starting in the United States, so I have not really seen my friends or my family,” says Guida. “I don’t really feel like I am back because I haven’t really seen it yet.”

Guida was also unsure of how she would continue with her classes as she had returned home before Georgetown had established GUGC, the Georgetown Global Community specifically created for students whose studies were disrupted by COVID-19.

One of the classes that Guida was enrolled in through her Bologna program was very specific and not offered by the GUGC program. However, after speaking with her dean, Guida was given permission to attend the same course through an online community college.

“I thought initially that I was going to be unable to graduate on time since my classes through the University of Bologna had been cancelled,” Guida says. “But because of GUGC and my dean, I am taking two courses, one of which is a core requirement and I will be ahead of schedule. This was scary experience, but it takes an emergency to see how much Georgetown and my program cared about my safety and well-being before anything else.”

Taking It All in Stride

Though the transition back from Italian to American education has been complicated by the transition to online learning, Guida is grateful for the experiences she had and the support she has received.

“One thing I keep in mind during this, particularly in the transition back to being in the United States, is a quote from my Italian professor,” says Guida. “She would always say ‘Other cultures aren’t wrong, they are just different.’ Right now, I feel like we are all adjusting to a new culture and a new way of life.”

In this new virtual environment, Guida makes time to Zoom with friends and fellow classmates, as well as go on socially distanced picnics. Though she is unable to see many people in person, she does not want to miss out on the experiences she does have available to her.

“My takeaway from this is that things can happen very quickly, so it is important to do things while you can and take advantage of opportunities when you have them,” Guida says. There were so many things that I still wanted to do in Italy that I pushed off – I won’t be making that mistake again.”

Click the links below to view parts two and three of our Returning Home from Abroad series

Returning Home from Abroad Part One: Delaney Corcoran Speaks to the Importance of a Positive Mindset

A Unique Time

Corcoran, who is studying Political Economy and Spanish, chose to travel to Spain to learn more about both of her majors in the hopes of eventually writing a thesis on the independence movement. She went to Spain through a program offered by Brown that began in January 2020.

While she was eager to visit her friends, who were also studying abroad in places like Berlin, Copenhagen and Lyon, Corcoran was most eager to get hands-on experience with Spanish politics.

“This is one of the places where democracy is actively being expressed and achieved,” Corcoran says. “In the United States, there is a general feeling of apathy towards politics, but in Barcelona, politics is personal, cultural and thought about every day and I was eager to immerse myself.”

Corcoran says that she is from an active political family, but knows that that is not as common in the United States. While in Spain, she witnessed small children wearing flags to represent different causes, and whole families would spend time together attending marches.

An Unexpected Journey

In the time before the announcement was made to return home, Corcoran explored Barcelona but also took a few short trips to Paris and Amsterdam. While in the Netherlands, the United States received its first positive COVID-19 case. One of Corcoran’s friends who was studying abroad in Bologna, Italy had already been sent home and told her and others to prepare for their own evacuations. At this point, Spain was still a Level One threat according to the CDC and students would not be evacuated until they reached Level Three.

“In Spain, many individuals including authority figures were not taking it as seriously, though personal space is almost non-existent and the population is very elderly,” says Corcoran. “The first time it felt like a real issue was when I was coming out of the metro and saw someone being transported into an ambulance by EMTs wearing hazmat suits two blocks from my apartment.”

Many schools remained open or simply suspended in-person meetings for two weeks. But on March 11, Corcoran and a group of her friends stayed awake to watch President Trump address the nation. Within the first two minutes, he announced that flights would be suspended from Europe in the next 48 hours. Corcoran now had less than two days to pack up her life from the past 10 weeks and return home.

“Though we found out later that this did not apply to Americans who were already abroad, we were told to return home by the university,” Corcoran says. “We received this order late Wednesday night and by Friday morning, I was on a flight headed back to U.S.”

Transitioning to Virtual Classrooms

Amidst this rapid-fire turnaround, Corcoran, like many other students, also had to determine how she would continue taking her classes from that semester, or if they would continue at all.

“As soon as I got an email from Georgetown about the , I met with my dean online and was able to begin two classes through the newly created semester for returning study abroad students, and continue to take two classes I was already enrolled in through my program in Barcelona,” Corcoran says. “I feel very lucky because friends from other universities that were part of my program could lose their credit for the semester since their schools were not offering courses to their students whose study abroad trips abruptly ended.”

Corcoran says that through GUGC she is able to take a major credit in addition to a common core credit, which was more than she was originally scheduled to earn.

However, the transition certainly has not been seamless. Corcoran said that on top of the stress of moving and the added exertion of jetlag, she found out that she had been in contact with four individuals who had COVID-19.

“I felt terrible because I found out after returning home to my parents,” says Corcoran. “But we took quarantine very seriously. I recently took the antibody test and came up negative, which means I never had it, but in these circumstances, it is so much better to be safe than sorry.”

Corcoran says that life is certainly different – she has yet to see her friends in person since returning to the United States. However, she says that her biggest takeaway from this experience has been the power of positivity.

“I think your mindset can really change how you view something, and you have to be able to frame things in a more positive way,” says Corcoran.” Though there is a space to be sad about what happened, there is a lot that I have to be grateful for, and focusing on the positives has been helpful.”

She also expressed how thankful she is to be a part of a college community that cares about each student individually.

“Georgetown has done a good job of listening to students and being so flexible with the different experiences and voices of each person,” says Corcoran. “My Georgetown professors have been so flexible and supportive. Everyone seems to have taken on a lot of empathy and I can tell that the faculty and staff are working hard to ensure that students are a having good experience despite us being apart.”

Click the links below to view parts two and three of our Returning Home from Abroad series

Returning from Abroad Part Two: Featuring Danielle Guida’s Journey Home from Italy

Bismonte has always been interested in foreign policy, but said that the resources and skills she utilized and developed at Georgetown turned her dream of going abroad to practice diplomacy into a reality. 

“I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to study abroad, but by using the resources available to me like the , I was able to go abroad not once but twice,” says Bismonte. “This experience has really been invaluable because I have been able to implement all of the varied interests I have been learning in the șŁœÇÂÛÌł. I am a math and Spanish minor in addition to my economics major, and each of these areas have had real-world applications in Indonesia. I am extremely grateful to the șŁœÇÂÛÌł for allowing me the unique flexibility to design my studies around my own interests.”

Scholarships Assist Going Abroad

Bismonte received a to live abroad in Indonesia in the summer of 2018. At the start of her program, she spoke no Indonesian and only communicated with her host mother through Pictionary and charades. By the end of her two-month stay, Bismonte was conversing at the high-intermediate level. 

Eager to not lose the skills she had acquired during this summer, Bismonte applied for the , an award that helps fund those who are committed to enhancing their language skills. She received the award and returned to Indonesia in June of 2019. Since being there, Bismonte has worked as a researcher studying sustainable development, grassroots policies and the green GDP of Indonesia for the . 

FPCI is one of the largest think tanks in Indonesia that deals with foreign policy. In this role, Bismonte has learned about the work that Indonesian communities are doing to combat climate change locally as well as study the international collaborative efforts between this region and areas like Norway. 

“Indonesia has a variety of green initiatives in place to help combat their large environmental footprint from industries like palm oil.” says Bismonte. “They have come up with innovative solutions like the or the that are at the intersection of the socioeconomic and environmental issues of the country.”

Bismonte says that this intersection is why she wants to pursue a career as a foreign service officer. 

“It combines everything that I am interested in,” says Bismonte. “Professor really instrumental in shaping my worldview. His course The Economics of Poverty made me realize that economic policy affects every aspect of life. After speaking with him about his experiences in Indonesia, I was inspired to go there myself.” 

After spending her own time in Indonesia, Bismonte said her decision to work in international affairs was solidified. 

“I believe that if you feel the world is unfair then you should rewrite the rules,” says Bismonte. “My experience in Indonesia has helped solidify that this is career path that I want to pursue. By working as a foreign service officer, I can help nations around the world improve all aspects of life by creating better economic policies.”

An Award-Winning Speech 

Foreign service roles often necessitate that individuals are fluent in more than one language. Though she was unable to speak the native language when first arrived in Indonesia, Bismonte quickly advanced in her linguistic abilities. Before she returned to Indonesia for the start of her second study abroad, Bismonte entered the in the United States and won for her response to the prompt “How Have You Seen Tolerance in Action.”

“I spoke about my relationship with my host mother, how we both grew and learned from one another despite our initial language barrier and how Indonesia and the United States have similar values, despite cultural differences,” says Bismonte. 

She said that the Jesuit values and tradition were important to her and translated to her experiences in Indonesia. 

“As a first-generation Filipina-American, I live every day thinking about why and how I am American but I think that shared cultural understanding is important. When I first came to Georgetown and heard about the Jesuit traditions, I didn’t realize how important this is – to understand and care for the whole person. It is a message that transcends any barrier.” 

As part of her award for winning the speech competition in the United States, Bismonte was flown to Jakarta to meet the President of Indonesia during the 74th Independence Day celebration on August 17.

12^th Annual Bali Democracy Forum

Bismonte was able to practice diplomacy at the 12th Annual Bali Democracy Forum, an annual Asia-Pacific forum started by Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono where ideas and experiences on the development of democracy can be shared.  Bismonte represented the United States in the 3rd Annual Bali Democracy Student Conference, one of the many held under the umbrella of this forum.

The theme was digital democracy and how Gen Z can best to use digital resources more responsibly. Bismonte spoke in front of 156 representatives from 46 countries about the importance of translating digital activism to real-life activism. Soon after finishing her speech, Bismonte was voted to be a part of a selection committee that was tasked with creating a document that would be published by the Indonesian government, stating what they would contribute towards bettering the cause. 

The committee is comprised of 15 people: eight Indonesians and seven foreigners. Bismonte was selected as one of the foreign representatives from 156 people. After a two-hour discussion, the committee presented the paper #youth4democracy to the entire delegation. 

Indispensable Experiences

These varied experiences Georgetown presented her reaffirmed the career path Bismonte thought she wanted. 

“Being a transfer student did help me learn to adapt to different environments, but I have loved everything about my time in Indonesia,” she says. “I now speak both Tagalog and Indonesian fluently, and I have been involved in all different types of diplomacy. My heart and my future are here.”

After graduation, Bismonte hopes to do a Fulbright fellowship in the Philippines, specifically with sustainable development. She says that all of this would not have been possible had she not come to Georgetown. 

“My biggest takeaway from Georgetown and this experience is that the șŁœÇÂÛÌł can prepare you for any career, even one in the foreign service.”

It’s really difficult to capture everything you need to know about life in Hong Kong in a short essay, but for those who are thinking of traveling there or are interested in learning about a new place, here are some helpful tips and fun facts for navigating the city.  

1. If you want to learn Mandarin, don’t go to Hong Kong 

I decided to go to Hong Kong in part because it had an English speaking program, but also to get in touch with my heritage. I was adopted from China when I was very young, and I’d never been back, so I was eager to learn about the place that had given me both my facial features and a part of my identity. 

What I soon discovered is that Hong Kong, although filled with people who looked like me, was going to do very little for my journey back to my roots. As you may or may not know, Hong Kong is a separate entity from China. The people that live there speak a different language, have vastly different customs (despite what its government says), and not all of its citizens feel a strong kinship with China. 

I think many people are driven to go to Hong Kong because they feel like it’s an easy access point to the rest of China. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons it has become a business hub. Since the Communist Party of China restricts free trade within its borders, Hong Kong became a way for global business to connect with the country. But my classmates were quick to point out that Hong Kong and China are not synonymous. 

They spoke about China’s attempts to make Mandarin the official language of Hong Kong and how they saw it as an attempt by China to squash their individuality. They proudly proclaimed Cantonese as their official language and emphasized that any attempt to change that would be met with resistance. I’m not saying that people in Hong Kong won’t be able to teach you Mandarin, but something that makes learning another language easier is to be immersed in it. From what I’ve seen in Hong Kong, Cantonese will be the language of the city for quite some time because, for its citizens, it’s not just a language —  it’s part of their identity. 

2. Hong Kong is both a real-life concrete jungle and a great place to go for a nature getaway

I know those are contradictory statements, but Hong Kong is one of the only major metropolitan cities in the world where the majority of its land has no residential living. Forty percent of the city is made up of country parks, 6% is agricultural, and 30% percent is undeveloped, creating an urban landscape that accounts for only 24% of Hong Kong. As such, there are amazing and (for a city girl like me who rarely makes it to Yates) challenging hiking trails all around the city. The beaches are pristine and only a metro ride away from the city’s center. However, the surrounding nature also presents a challenge to the concrete jungle aspect of Hong Kong. 

In my Housing Policy in Contemporary Society class, we learned that one of the reasons that concrete buildings and skyscrapers dominate Hong Kong is because of its housing crisis. A quick Google search will tell you that the housing market in Hong Kong is the most expensive in the world, leaving numerous families struggling to find shelter. 

And yet, the city faces enormous opposition to expanding their development from environmental activists who want to preserve the natural wonders of Hong Kong’s surrounding area, leaving the city with only one option for expansion: upward. As an American who has always supported sustainable practices and green policies, understanding the context of Hong Kong made me re-evaluate the privilege I have in being able to unequivocally support such practices. It was something I never would have understood if I hadn’t experienced in full the true nature of Hong Kong’s concrete jungle. 

3. If New York is the city that never sleeps, Hong Kong is the city that wakes you up 

One of my favorite things to do during my time abroad was going for night-time walks. Before my parents get nervous, I never felt in danger. For one, Asian cities have some of the lowest crime rates in the world. Secondly, Hong Kong’s skyline is as brightly lit at night as it is during the day. The side of almost every skyscraper is fully illuminated, frequently with video projections. Every night at 8 p.m., there is a light show where numerous spotlights shoot up into the sky over the harbor. It didn’t have a water component like the one in Singapore, but it showed a city that was active and alive at night. It made it difficult to focus on my studies at the time.

Despite the fact that it got dark at 5 p.m., Hong Kong shops, restaurants and people were the most active when it got dark. I could go get food or start shopping starting at 10 p.m. We even went on some nighttime hikes where we got to see the entire lit up city stretched out below us. As someone raised in a major U.S. city, the major difference I felt at night was that people were outside. My home city of Chicago has plenty of streetlights, but those who outside walk quickly to their destinations. In Hong Kong, people were strolling casually around at 12 a.m., just taking in the brightly lit and colorful buildings. 

4. Sometimes you have to just book flights and figure out the plan later

In the first week of our program, my friend and I booked flights to Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, South Korea. We didn’t have a plan or a place to stay once we got there, but we booked our flights and decided to go. All we knew about these places were the legends we’d heard about them. It was the best decision I’ve probably ever made. 

It’s hard in life not to get complacent. Before both trips, I wanted to back out, but I’d already booked my ticket so I had to go. 

And it’s so easy now to go someplace without a real plan. Hostelworld or Booking.com will find you a quality place to stay in a matter of seconds. Google maps will tell you the best places to go and find you a route to get there. 

Both Seoul and Japan were amazing because I got to see two countries and their people who are so often clumped together into the “Asian” category and see how wrong that categorization is. South Korean’s warm fall climate, perfectly matched the chill, calm nature of the people I met there. One of the favorites meals in South Korea is to eat a bucket of chicken and with a glass of beer if that gives you an idea of what people like to do there. Tokyo’s brightly lit billboards and tall skyscrapers were emblematic of the crowds of people in suits and the crowded trains during rush hour that I got to experience. Yet, the mystical temples and wide expansive parks also reminded me of the rich spiritual history embedded in the country. My friend and I walked 17 miles our first day in Tokyo so you can only imagine how much there was to see.

Yet, the trip I was most unprepared for was when I went to Thailand. The 11 other people I traveled with were even less prepared. So when we got there it was too late to book any island tours when we got to Phuket, in the southern region of Thailand. When we got to Bangkok, I was frantically googling different places to go. I ended up taking us to a floating market where vendors sell fruits and vegetables from their boats and a hop on and hop off boat tour. It was a rushed trip that reminded me that you can spontaneously book a flight and make a plan later, so long as that plan does get created.

Still, my trip to Thailand gave me the bug for travel. And travel I did: I ended up going to 11 countries while I was abroad and almost made it to all the South Asian countries. I only missed Laos, Cambodia, Brunei and Indonesia. For next time.

5. Never take for granted the privilege you have of getting to leave when things get difficult 

After I returned from Hong Kong, the first question people would ask in a hushed, eagerly curious tone was what was it like being in Hong Kong with all the protests? 

It’s a question that is difficult for me to answer because the protests really did not impede my life too much. Most of the time, I would simply avoid the areas with heavy protest activity. Sometimes, I might have to take a longer bus route in order to go where I wanted, but I never felt truly inconvenienced. Yet, it was hard to ignore in the city. One night we were out in a crowded area of the city that was full of restaurants and bars. We crossed a street that was full of lounging riot police, fully armed with masks and shields. I glanced to my left for a moment and saw what appeared to be an entire army of riot police. Although I couldn’t see them, I could hear the noise of protesters off in the distance. Just two seconds later, after we had crossed the street, we were back to the lively activity of the bar street where nobody seemed to be thinking about the standoff happening a mere few feet away. I felt like we had walked in and out of a warzone in a matter of seconds. 

And I think that pretty accurately describes my experience with the protests in Hong Kong. 

In the week before we were evacuated, my friends and I were eating dinner and we happened to look up at the news only to find that our university’s canteen had been burned down. It was at that moment we all knew that our study abroad program was most likely going to be canceled and all we could talk about was how much we didn’t want that to happen. We stayed up late into the night scheming ways for us to stay, but it was no use. The next morning we were told that our program and housing was going to be canceled. It was heartbreaking. I truly didn’t want to leave. I was fortunate enough that I had the resources available to me to plan a trip around Asia afterward so for a moment my anxiety was alleviated and my mind quickly moved on from the protests going on outside. 

Then, two nights before we were told to leave, the protests came to us. Three blocks away from our apartment, protesters had barricaded themselves in a university and our neighborhood became filled with people trying to help them escape. My friends and I stayed awake until 5 a.m., watching the street outside our apartment alight from the tear gas keeping the protestors at bay. Once again, it was a war zone. We watched the protesters attempt to approach the school, holding their umbrellas like shields. Then, the riot police would shoot tear gas and the protesters would have to retreat. It went on for hours. The whole time, my friends and I were watching from our windows, simultaneously trying to solidify our plans for where we would be going next in Asia. The next morning, the air in our neighborhood reeked of chemicals. The brick-lined street outside our apartment steps was torn to pieces. Signposts were bent, and fire still flickered on the street. 

Our program immediately had a plan to pull us out of the neighborhood. We had only a few hours to pack and get on a bus they had arranged for us. The director of the program in Hong Kong came to the apartment building to help us leave. When I went to drop off my bag, she gave me a hug and it was in that moment that everything hit me. I had watched the protests last night from a tall tower through glass windows. I had watched people my age being overwhelmed by tear gas as I tried to book my flight to Vietnam. And now here I was being whisked away to the Disneyland hotel (it was the only hotel with enough free spots at the time), but here I was holding a woman who didn’t have a flight booked anywhere because it was her home. 

So when people ask me what it was like to live in Hong Kong through those protests, I say honestly: It was fantastic for me because I got to leave when I wanted to. And I make sure to tell them about the friends I made when I was there whose new extracurricular activity was protesting. Or how I came to class one day and one of my project team members wasn’t there because he had just been arrested. I know for years to come I will talk about how I was there when Hong Kong was going through a political and cultural upheaval, but I will always remind people of the real humans who lived through it and the impacts it had on them. They don’t get to run when it gets difficult and that makes all the difference. 

6. If you ever have to finish a final on a beach in the Philippines, make sure to wear sunscreen

While my university was canceled, I still had to complete multiple school assignments while I was traveling through Asia. After a six-hour bus ride down the island of Palawan, I arrived at my hostel on the beach. I had no service and the hostel only had WiFi turned on from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. I wrote my entire essay in two hours, frantically trying to finish it while the ocean crashed around me. I think most people would tell me I was lucky to be on the beach, but as I was running up and down the beach trying to get enough bars to upload my paper, I didn’t feel too lucky. Yet, my frustration was less with the situation and more with myself for assuming that this beach would have WiFi. It was one of those assumptions I hadn’t thought about because I was so used to having all the resources I needed to get my work done. Access to WiFi had always been something I had taken for granted. I wasn’t prepared to not have it. Luckily, I had learned from my Thailand trip to the beach that sunscreen is your best friend, so I was prepared to not get burned and I submitted my paper just in time. 

There’s a lot of morals to my time in Hong Kong and my travels around Southeast Asia. Some are funny and a little obvious (of course you should wear sunscreen on the beach) and others are deeply serious (a city who so clearly feels they have their own identity should be given a say in the laws they are subjected to). However, I think the biggest lesson from my time in Southeast Asia is that in order to truly understand a culture, a place or its people, you have to go there. By going to that place, you will learn so much, not only about where you are but also about yourself. It will force you to think about your own culture and it may inspire you to change some things about your own home. That is why it should not be a privilege to travel. Everyone should be given the opportunity, whether it’s through your school or another organization, cost should never be the thing that holds someone back from getting to see the world. 

Gibbons-Shapiro was first drawn to this opportunity through the because she wanted to do work that combined her with her concentration, a new program directed by . With the aid of this fellowship, the Davis Fellowship Program, and the Disability Studies Learning in Practice  Fellowship, Gibbons-Shapiro traveled to Kazakhstan to conduct research on the .

Working to End Disability Discrimination

Founded in 2017 by  Nazarbayev University undergraduate Maulen Akhmetov, the Kunde Social CafĂ© is a coffee shop that primarily employs individuals who have an intellectual or mental disability, such as autism or schizophrenia. The goal of the cafĂ© is to give these persons jobs and pay regardless of their educational backgrounds. On a deeper level, Akhmetov wanted to provide assistance for these employees and their families, but also normalize people with these types of disabilities in the workforce. 

During her two month stay in Kazakhstan, Gibbons-Shapiro worked on a social impact assessment of Kunde Social CafĂ© to determine how well these goals were being met. She was given full control of the project and oversaw its design and implementation. 

Gibbons-Shapiro interviewed each of the beneficiaries and their family members about various aspects of the program and its effects on the lives of the participants and those around them. With the assistance of Audrey Zhou (MSB’21), data was compiled into a 20 page report that found that those who worked in the cafĂ© had seen improvements in their lives. 

“Before Kunde CafĂ©, many of these people were social outcasts and did not have friends or a network outside of their family,” says Gibbons-Shapiro. “But the cafĂ© has given them a community and a sense of belonging. Many of them are friends outside of work.”

The café workers are not the only ones who have felt the positive impacts of the program. Due to the stigmas surrounding mental disabilities, family members of these individuals are frequently isolated. Now, they participate in monthly meetings with families of other café members, and can spend more time focusing on other aspects of their lives. The program has contributed to better relationships for the participants in many ways.

“Beyond just giving these people a job, the cafĂ© has helped give the employees a sense of self-worth and improved their relationships with their families,” says Gibbons-Shapiro. “They are now empowered and have something that is theirs that they can be proud of doing.” 

Next Steps

Due to Gibbons-Shapiro’s findings, Akhmetov will use the study to apply to grants in the hopes of expanding the cafĂ© to other locations. Gibbons-Shapiro hopes to continue to do work of this nature in the future.

“I really enjoyed sitting down and talking to people about their lives,” says Gibbons-Shapiro. “I was able to implement the theories that I have been learning in class regarding care, intersectionality, and community in a positive and impactful way. Specifically, this has encouraged me to orient my professional life towards the intersection of health and social justice using disability studies.”