- My STEP Signature Project was an education abroad trip to Panama through the College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Science. The program, titled “Panama: Through the Lens of AgriCulture, Diversity, and Sustainability,” was intended to help students study the differences between the agricultural industries of Panama and the United States while exploring a new culture and discussing sustainability efforts. We traveled from Panama City north to Boquete, visiting many different farms along the way.
- I learned a lot about myself on this trip based on assumptions I made about the types of interactions and relationships I would encounter, as someone who felt I was in a very different place than the majority of the students and the resident directors of the trip. As an Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability (EEDS) and Spanish dual degree student traveling with mostly people with animal science and meat science backgrounds, I assumed that I would have a hard time getting along or agreeing with many of the students. I felt this way because of my lack of an animal agriculture background and because I am a vegan- which I did receive backlash for from the first day. Ultimately, we needed conversation to engage with, understand, and learn from each others’ perspectives, and I found that I judged some people too soon.
- My interactions on this trip that led to my transformational experience began with group meals and farm visits. My background in environmentalism and sustainability is part of the reason I am vegetarian, meaning that I look at the meat industry with a wildly different set of eyes than the animal and meat science students. I was feeling very frustrated because I felt like I couldn’t express my true opinions, beliefs, or knowledge set in front of people who did not want to hear me discuss the environmental and moral issues I have with the agriculture industry. This created a somewhat toxic environment for me if I am being honest, until we were all able to have our viewpoints understood and until I was able to accurately convey the fact that I had never seen the agriculture industry from this side and that I wanted to learn from and engage with my peers. My perception is that we both saw each other as close-minded about an issue that we learned about from different perspectives, and I’m glad that this is something I recognized and tried to reconcile.
I began engaging more with my peers and asking them questions about processes I didn’t understand and that not only helped me grow and see both sides, but also by asking questions I think I helped redeem myself from a somewhat stand-offish outlook I may have projected about the topics. After engaging more with my peers and showing greater interest in the things I didn’t learn about from their field of study, that opened up two-way conversations. People on the trip asked me why I ate the way I do and why I felt the way I do about certain things. After I was able to share my opinions in a more open environment, people began asking me questions about things they didn’t understand either from the point of view of my field of study. All of my interactions and relationships ended up being positive, and several of my peers and I thanked each other for the interest in the other side of an issue that we each conveyed, even if not from the get-go.
- This experience helped me grow by reminding me that even though my beliefs may be firm, discussion and engagement is crucial to positive relationships, to fully understanding issues, and that I don’t actually know everything about everything. I learned more about farming and Panamanian culture, but the interactions and relationships I encountered on this trip were truthfully more impactful for me than the bulk of the information I learned. I am a very opinionated and strong-willed person, but this trip reminded me of the importance of seeing the big picture and grounded me in new relationships and ideas.
