Name: Sam Bailey
Type of Project: Education Abroad
Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.
My STEP Signature Project was carried out through the Spain Global May study abroad program through the Office of International Affairs. I spoke a new language, lived with and met new people, ate new food, and made a new place my home. Throughout this month-long project, I had the opportunity to learn about Spain’s rich history and culture and visit many of its famous cities and sites. In understanding more about Spain’s history, I was able to make comparisons between the United States and Spain to better understand multiculturalism, immigration, and people in general.
What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.
In exposing yourself to a new culture and way of life, you begin to learn a lot about yourself and your own culture. You realize the things that you value most, and you begin to understand what you can and cannot live without. When traveling to Spain, I tried to be very open-minded to all of the cultural differences and the language. With this, I certainly had some assumptions that changed as I spent more time in Spain. For instance, I was under the assumption that like America, life in Spain is centered largely around money and working hard. This assumption could not be further from reality, however, as Spaniards value free-time and time spent with family and friends. They do take work seriously, but only during the hours for which they are required to work. Spaniards value enjoyment and leisure in activities such as the siesta (where stores, businesses, and restaurants close in the middle of the day so that people can go home to rest), sobremesa (where people sit around the table and talk for sometimes hours after finishing a meal, and Sundays (where many places are closed, and people focus on rest and relaxation before the work week begins). These cultural differences made me appreciate time spent with family and friends as it is so highly emphasized in Spain. I found myself to be more present and engaged in conversations, often neglecting my cellphone for hours at a time. I also find myself to be enjoying time more and trying to avoid rushing or overloading myself. Living in Spain taught me to both live in and enjoy the moment, and to take time for myself and those close to me.
Having the opportunity to experience a new culture led me to have a greater appreciation for my own as well as other cultures around the world. I learned that people are shaped by culture and that it’s what makes us different. I also learned that although people come from many different cultures and backgrounds, it is possible for everyone to coexist and come together, which ultimately comes to shape the culture and history of a certain region.
What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.
During my program, I lived with a host family in a neighborhood (or barrio) outside of the center of Madrid. Prior to my trip, I had taken many Spanish classes with the intent of minoring in Spanish and eventually becoming a fluent speaker. Upon my arrival, I was eager to practice speaking, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my host parents did not speak any English. In other words, throughout the month that I was in Spain, I only communicated to my host parents in Spanish. This experience greatly improved my ability to understand and speak the language. The experience of living with a host family also taught me a lot about Spanish culture as my host mother shared stories about her life and her family. In learning about Spanish history and culture from my class as well as from my host family, I feel that I was able to view the culture from multiple perspectives and gain a great appreciation for it.
Although the program was based in Madrid, I had the opportunity to go on excursions with my program where we visited other Spanish cities, such as Toledo, Segovia, Santander, Portugalete, Getxo, and Bilbao. All of these cities became home to migrants from many different regions, especially northern Africa, Latin America, and Europe. I was able to see the presence of various cultures in the different neighborhoods through language, food, music, dance, and art. For instance, people of the Basque Country (which includes Bilbao) speak a language different from Spanish: basque (or vasco), and they have different traditional dances and sports that are not as common in Madrid or southern Spain. In visiting the cities of Toledo and Segovia, I was able to learn about Spanish history in terms of rule, even before the 15th century. For example, I now understand that the Romans first invaded Spain, followed by the Muslims (711-1492), and then the Christians. Under the rule of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel, the Christians reconquered Spain and drove out any Jews and Muslims living in the region (1492). Although many different groups occupied Spain, their presence can still be found in the cities, especially in the architecture of the streets and buildings. With this exposure, I was better able to understand the relationships between different religious groups and about how we have come to understand multiculturalism (the coexistence of distinct groups in one area) versus a melting pot (the blending of different cultures into one unique culture). This distinction allowed me to analyze American history and the cultural changes over the last few centuries.
Because I took a history-based course in Spain, I attended a few lectures on migration to and from Spain, specifically from Africa and Latin America. Through this, I was able to learn about regulations on immigration as well as public opinion on immigration. This topic was very relevant to the students of my program because we were able to make comparisons between immigration to and from the United States. Additionally, immigration was a very significant topic in the last presidential election and remains relevant today. It was also interesting to compare how Spaniards view immigration and refugees versus how Americans view them. Surprisingly, there are aspects that the citizens of each country agree on and aspects that people handle differently.
Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.
My experience abroad allowed me to meet and communicate with a new and different group of people. In the hopes of becoming a pharmacist one day, I have the goal of becoming a fluent Spanish speaker so that I can use the language to help a greater number of people. Because I challenged myself to speak Spanish as often as I could in Spain, I now feel that I am many steps closer to becoming fluent, especially since I now know what I am capable of achieving when I have the right mindset. This experience gave me a greater sense of myself and others, and I am eager to use the experience I gained abroad to enhance my academic and social life at OSU, in terms of applying my gained knowledge to approach situations differently and from multiple perspectives.
In studying abroad in Spain for a month, I gained a valuable experience that I never would have gained in my OSU classroom. Instead, I was able to take the knowledge and language learned at OSU and apply it to the new situations I faced in Spain. My eagerness and passion to learn and think critically allowed me to have a very transformative experience. I was placed in a vulnerable situation and had to step outside of my comfort zone in order to learn and grow. I learned how to navigate a new city all on my own, how to communicate in a different way, and how to function normally in a foreign culture. Through this experience, I learned to cherish my family, values, and my own culture. I learned that differences among people and cultures make the world the way that it is, and that diversity stimulates growth as we all learn from one another. Above all, I learned that I now have a home away from home.
