This past spring break, I had the incredible opportunity to go on a study abroad to Belize. The experience was very interesting, and it opened my eyes to a different culture while allowing compared to our current lifestyle and experiences available in the United States.

This was my first time ever going outside of the United States and I did not think that this was a possibility due to my time in foster care. I am an African American first-generation college student that has been independent for a long time. I believed that until I graduated college and made more money that I would not be able to travel and that it was not very important. I took a chance and had the most amazing time.

Throughout the week, I volunteered at a Catholic primary school, where I connected with local students and learned so much from their perspectives. My teacher in the class was very helpful as well by sharing their culture and knowledge with me. Helping out in their classrooms and participating in educational activities was deeply rewarding. I often found myself comparing the way that education was in Belize to American educational practices. Beyond volunteering, our group participated in a lot of cool activities. Whether it was exploring Mayan ruins, learning about Belizean traditions, every activity felt like a brand-new experience to participate in Belize.

I enjoyed that my specific group had no drama, and everyone got along very well and looked out for each other. We also had good and very fun times with our professor.

One thing that I learned the most was not to make assumptions about other cultures/countries just because they are different. We were told that Belize is a poor country and that in some areas it is very dangerous so trying to picture what that looked like can lead to lots of wrong assumptions.

Lots of people in the group were saying that we wouldn't be able to have any fun but that was far from the truth. We got to visit a village run by women, snorkeled over a coral reef, saw what the school environment is, the iguana conservatory, learned about Garifuna culture and enjoyed their music, visited Mayan ruins and so much more that others chose to do individually.

This study abroad experience was one of the most amazing experiences I have had so far.

Name: Chariay Hastings
Status: Junior
Major: Human Development and Family Studies
Hometown: Inkster, Michigan
Program: Contemporary Issues in Developing Societies in Belize