Tag Archives: SIT

Meet a Resident Director: Fabián

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Fabián Espinosa has a deep love for nature and culture. He combines them both with his passion for teaching and travel through his Resident Director position in Quito, Ecuador, with SIT Study Abroad programs. Read on to learn more about studying abroad in a diverse and beautiful country!

Fabián Espinosa
What brought you to be a Resident Director?
As a freelance naturalist guide and cultural interpreter I learned about the great work of SIT Study Abroad in Ecuador, and throughout the years I did serve occasionally as Independent Study Project advisor. The program was a double RD program at that time, and when one of the directors resigned I was encouraged to apply for the position. According to my colleague, the institution was ready to hire an Ecuadorian citizen as RD.

What are some unique aspects of your city and country?
Ecuador is the most biologically diverse country per square meter in the Americas. It is also extremelyIMG_6932 diverse in terms of culture and ethnicity. Fourteen distinct indigenous nationalities, two Afro-Ecuadorian cultural groups and several international communities consider Ecuador their homeland. Ecuador drafted the most progressive constitution in the world in 2008, which considers nature as subject of rights and demands the construction of an alternative paradigm to development known locally as Sumak Kawsay, a Kichwa philosophical principle meaning plentiful life in harmony with nature. Quito, the capital city, was the first city to be declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO given its spectacular natural setting, colonial architecture, and rich history.

What is one thing most of your students may not know about you?
Maybe that I have had six near death experiences all related to activities in the ocean.

What are some of your favorite aspects of being a Resident Director?
Establishing a learning community with my students, leading educational excursions, and witnessing how students become intercultural and biophilic beings.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Coping with local bureaucratic regulations, developing and revamping contingency plans on a regular basis, securing the participation of associates and lecturers, readjusting syllabi to meet the needs and/or expectations of students and sending institutions, and identifying appropriate research options for my students.

What have you seen as the biggest challenge for incoming students?
To learn how to unlearn and relearn.

What is your advice for students planning to attend your program, or to study abroad in your country?
To be assertive without being aggressive, to be kind without being docile, to be focused without being obsessed, to suppress self slightly, and to be tolerant with ambiguity.

What is one thing you think students shouldn’t forget to pack for life in your country?
Malaria prophylaxis medicine, or should I say sunscreen?

What do you think is the most important take-away for education abroad students?
The notion that interculturalism is highly relevant in the US as well.

Meet a Resident Director: Aynn

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Aynn Setright lives and works in Managua, Nicaragua. Aynn is an resident director for SIT study abroad programs. She has been a director for 16 years and is currently overseeing the SIT Nicaragua: Youth Cultures, Literacy, and Media program.
Aynn at her Desk in Managua l Aynn Setright

What brought you to be an Academic Director?
Well, I’ve lived in Nicaragua for nearly thirty years now!  For the first ten years, I lived in rural Nicaragua and worked in community development.  When I moved with my family to Managua in 1994, I started graduate work at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN- Managua) which introduced me to the academic world.  By the time SIT opened a program in Nicaragua in 1996, I was working on linking activism with academics and I served as the rural coordinator for the first SIT Study Abroad groups. Then I was named Academic Director in 1999, and here I am!

What are some unique aspects of your city and country?
Nicaragua is a great place to experience Latin America with an edge.  Because of its turbulent past Nicaragua has not grown much in terms of tourism, though it IS the safest country in Central America.Student in the Field l Aynn Setright

The country is divided into three regions, the Pacific where the colonial cities and program base of Managua is located, el Norte (The North) where most of Nicaragua’s coffee and tobacco is produced and the Caribbean, where the Afro-Caribbean influence is the strongest. We visit all the regions of the country on academic excursions and travel to Havana, Cuba for a 10 day comparative study of Youth and Cultural Expression.

Our program site in Managua is said to be the inspirations of U2s’ song “Where the Streets Have no Names” because of the 1972 earthquake the streets have no names, but on nearly every corner of Managua there is a story to tell from the Insurrection and Revolution of the 1980s-1980s.  The country is also a young country with 35% of the population under the age of 15.

What is one thing most of your students may not know about you?
I’ve never studied Spanish!  I learned Spanish completely by immersion have interpreted Spanish for years but know very little about Spanish grammar!

What are some of your favorite aspects of being an Academic Director?
I love turning students on to Nicaragua.  This whole country, and the people in it, make a great 20140905_110516classroom.  And I love introducing Nicaraguans to engaged, intelligent young people from the United States, so Nicas can see it is not like on TV.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Helping students understand the need to be autonomous and independent, but at the same time representatives of and part of SIT Nicaragua.  We’ve worked very hard to establish solid, respectful relationships in Nicaragua – we need our students to understand that they are a part of that!

What have you seen as the biggest challenge for incoming students?
It is hard to get adjusted to the heat, and the rhythm of going to class in Managua. Students are exhausted at the end of the day for the first couple of weeks, but it is important for them to develop habits to take care of themselves. Some helpful habits are getting exercise, staying hydrated and spending time with their homestay families and to not fall into the trap of free time connected to Facebook and friends or family in the USA. It is a challenge sometimes for students to really embrace being in Managua, because it is not familiar.

What is your advice for students planning to attend your program, or to study abroad in your country?
Come with an open mind and be ready to embrace Nicaragua – it’s hot, sweaty, and complicated!  It is a 20141022_132537country that gets under your skin, which is the title of the Nicaraguan author, Gioconda Belli’s autobiography – Country Under My Skin.

What is one thing you think students shouldn’t forget to pack for life in your country?
A sturdy water bottle!

What do you think is the most important take-away for education abroad students?
The most important take away is to gain understanding and appreciation for different perspectives. Things are complicated, there are a lot of nuances to understanding these different perspectives.  Be open to understanding and don’t make your time studying abroad just about travel, make it about learning.

If you’d like to learn more about going on Aynn’s program, follow this link.

Meet a Resident Director: Mary

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Mary Storm is a resident director for SIT Study Abroad in New Delhi, India. The OSU approved program that she facilitates, focuses on National Identity and the Arts. In this post, Mary tells us about her job, and gives a glimpse into her world.

Tea Time with Mary l Mary Storm
What brought you to be a resident director?
I completed my Ph.D. in South Asian art history at UCLA, so I spent a lot of time in India doing fieldwork as a graduate student. I came to love, not only the arts of India, but India itself. One day (many years ago) I decided that I would like to be immersed in what I study; I’d rather live and research in the same place.

What are some unique aspects of your city and country?
Delhi is a huge crazy city and just like NewExcursion l Mary Storm York, Tokyo or other big vibrant cities, it has its ups and downs. Delhi has many layers of history, back into antiquity, because of this there are monuments hidden away all over town. You’ll be walking down a road in a modern residential neighborhood and suddenly come across a 13th century building. As the capital, it has great exhibitions and arts festivals. There are good restaurants, shops and medical facilities.

What is one thing most of your students may not know about you?
I have a diploma from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, but I cook mainly Middle Eastern food. I am a dedicated vegetable gardener, and I have two much loved dairy cows.

What are some of your favorite aspects of being a resident director?
I love to see students rise to meet the challenge of living in a very different culture. We see students arrive in India shy, hesitant and unfamiliar with Indian society. They usually leave confident and excited with a world of new skills and knowledge. Studying abroad truly can change lives.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
We travel a lot during this program. Travel logistics are difficult in India, and Alternative Classrooms l Mary Stormwe spend a lot of time fine-tuning schedules. I give about 1/3 of lectures, but it can be a challenge working with other academic schedules. India is infamous for government bureaucracy and we must negotiate that.

What have you seen as the biggest challenge for incoming students?
Physically: the heat and dust of India can be hard, and some students have tummy troubles. Socially: Learning to negotiate different gender expectations and notions of social behavior can be difficult for American students.

What is your advice for students planning to attend your program, or to study abroad in your country?
Come and join us! Experience a very different part of the world; come with “an open heart and a strong back.”

What is one thing you think students shouldn’t forget to pack for life in your country?
Curiosity.

What do you think is the most important take-away for education abroad students?
Humility and open mindedness.

To learn more about Mary’s program, follow this link!

A Feeling of Place and Pace

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Kimberley Preston is a junior in the Oregon State University Honors College studying both Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences and International Studies. During Fall 2013, Kim studied Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management at the School for International Training (SIT) in Madagascar.

My whole life I have been a naturally fast walker. As soon as I decide on a target destination, I charge forward, taking long strides, and moving with purpose. After spending a semester in Madagascar, however, my technique has changed.  As a student in a biodiversity and natural resource management program, I spent the majority of my four months abroad trekking through rainforests, spiny thickets, deserts, mangroves and the infamous tsingy (stone forest). All the while I learned about nature and immersed myself in the diverse environments and cultures of Madagascar. But, in a country rooted in the theme of mora mora (slowly, slowly), where success in life is measured by zebu count, family and land, where people live and breathe the environment around them, no one goes out hiking for fun. For most Malagasy people, hiking is not an activity of pleasure; it is a necessity of daily work.

In every new region we explored, the theme of mora mora persisted. Nearly three months into our semester, we reached Le Parc National d’Andringitra. This place was unlike any others we had seen yet. We hiked to base camp with all of our gear on our backs. The elevation gain revealed itself in the hours of steep climbing and in the cooling air around us.

The very next day, we woke with the sunlight hitting the cathedral mountains that formed a ring around our little plateau. Packing plenty of water and layers to shield against the cold, we followed our local guide to the trail head. Before leaving, Fidel, our guide, explained rule number one: he would set the pace. Composed of experienced hikers, the group was antsy to charge the mountain to reach our final destination, Peak Bobby, but we respected the rule and obediently kept pace with Fidel throughout the hike.

I soon realized, though, that this was not the usual, aggressive Western pace I grew up with. This was a hiking experience following the rhythm of a Malagasy man. For the first time I truly felt the heartbeat of this amazing place and I realized the value of living by the pace of mora mora. It gave me time to taste the cool, moist air; to hear my shoes scuff the dirt; to exchange ideas with my peers and live in the moment.

Today, back in the U.S. it is easy to fall into pace with those rushing around me—everyone charging forward with a purpose. Now though, I slow down every so often and appreciate the value of experiencing not only different places but different paces as well.