Class DescriptionÂ
I participated in the CFAES First-Year Student Experience education abroad program in January 2016. To prepare for this ten-day program, I enrolled in the three credit hour, FAES 3797 pre-departure course. The emphasis of this course was to provide an overview of the global and agricultural issues in Nicaragua as well as an introduction to the cultural, historical, and political context that has shaped Nicaragua.
Class Reflection
As I mentioned previously, I greatly enjoyed this class for a multitude of reasons including meeting my fellow travelers as well as learning about the various places, histories, and cultures that I would be experiencing. Getting to know everyone in the class was really stressed by Dr. Hattey and Mr. Hornsby, and it wasn’t until after the trip that I understood why it was stressed so much. This was a first-year experience trip, everyone was an incoming freshman. We were all on the same page starting college, so it made for a very unique circumstance. As it turns out, some of my best friends today are people that I met in class and on the trip.
Learning about the culture, and history of Nicaragua helped provide a more conclusive window for when we were in-country. For example, when we were in Selva Negra, we saw a lot of German influence in the architecture. This was less of a suprise to us though, as we learned, this relates to an immigration wave dating back to the 1800s. I mentioned before that learning about something and then actually experiencing it in real life is one of the most magical experiences about education, and it happened over and over again on this trip. All of which can be attributed to the pre-departure class and its thorough preparation exploring the history, culture, and political aspects of Nicaragua.