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Women's and Gender Studies
International Study Testimonials
Anne Ballard studied at the University of Querétaro from August through December 2005. "The skills that I gained were monumental. I was thrown into a world so different from mine, yet the people I met made it feel so similar."
Jane Berkman studied at the London Metropolitan University from September through December 2006. “I always knew that I wanted to study abroad,” Jane explains. “Because I felt like it would be such an important part of my college education for me to see what the world looks like from outside the US.”
Kristin Cook studied at the University of Waikato, in New Zealand, from February through November 2006. Kristin posits that “Women’s Studies students often think that we’re the only ones who do feminism. It’s vital to go to a place where you can see that people do feminism in ways we might sometimes never even consider doing.”
Anne Ballard ~ University of Querétaro, August – December 2005
From August 2005 to December of 2005, I studied abroad in Querétaro, México. I had the time of my life and it has changed me forever. 
I lived with a wonderful señora named Patricia Ordaz. She was an elementary school teacher and had all the patience in the world with me while I was getting used to speaking Spanish 24 hours a day. I attended the University of Querétaro where my professors and the local students only spoke Spanish. It was an amazing opportunity for me because I was able to meet locals my age and feel like part of the community. I became best friends with Dañiela, whose family took me in as one of their own. Dañiela recently visited me in Arizona and it was nice to reciprocate and give her a glimpse into my life in the states.
I adapted in this unfamiliar environment by letting go and being open minded. I tried everything I could from cow eyes to lamb heart. I went everywhere I could from Northern México to Southern México. I played with the kids in the local orphanage and tried to teach adults English. I went to the outside market with my señora to pick out my weekly papaya and I took cooking lessons at a nearby restaurant. I ate frosted flakes with my señora at five p.m. and bought tacos, tamales and atole from street vendors at night. I found that adapting to another culture meant just living in it, loving it and trying it. Give it your all and you’ll get all out of it. Everyday I could see how I had grown and how I had changed. Everyday I surprised myself.
At specific times it was noticeable that my surroundings took me out of my comfort zone. One example is the comments I received from men. It did not 
matter who I was with, or how fast I was walking, men would yell things at me. At first this made me not want to go out alone but with time I realized, in this situation, I should not feel threatened because they shouted at everyone. It was part of daily life.
The language barrier also took some time to get used to but by the end I felt comfortable making mistakes. I had to get over being embarrassed if I was ever going to learn. The reality was, most people were so thankful I was even trying.
The skills that I gained were monumental. I was thrown into a world so different from mine, yet the people I met made it feel so similar. I think this is one of the secrets of the world: We should not just tolerate one another, we should respect and accept one another. My experience, studying abroad in México was one that changed my life forever. I expect many more of these stories in the coming chapters of my life.
Jane Berkman ~ London Metropolitan University, September – December 2006
I studied in the North London Borough of Islington, at London Metropolitan University, from September until December 2006. I always knew that I wanted to study abroad because I felt like it would be such an important part of my college education for me to see what the world looks like from outside the US. We are so central, so dominant a country, and I was curious to find out what the US, the most powerful country in the world, looked like from the outside. When I was choosing a location for my study abroad experience, I originally wanted to go further outside of dominant culture, but given my interest in Women’s Studies, I found that London was a great option. I love big cities and London is so cosmopolitan that I felt like the cultural diversity would be enough to give me some very new experiences. Before I left, I wasn’t nervous at all even though I was the only person from NAU going to that school. I had been there before, and I just felt like London is so comfortable for me, I knew right away that I could live there. I loved the free museums, the excellent public transportation and I even found the Londoners to be friendly and outgoing.
While I was there I took three Women’s Studies courses and one Psychology course. The Psychology course was similar to the ones I had taken here, but the Women’s Studies courses were really different and interesting. I was curious to see what feminism looked like in a different culture with a different history. This was especially so in London, since the UK was dominant in the world for so long and had exerted such a strong colonial power. It was interesting to see what the history of women looked like in that culture because while the center was largely the same, the margins were completely different, and that was the most important dynamic for me to learn about. English people of European descent have a very separate view of themselves from those who are not English. It was interesting to see that Afro Caribbean women, even those who were born and grew up in England, still were not considered truly English. Over there, it is even more than just an accent (although that is important too), if you look English you get to be English; the way skin color plays out is really different from the way it works in the US. But another thing that I found interesting is that we studied many American feminists. In one of my classes we talked about border theory, read Gloria Anzaldúa, and we wrote a paper on it and for the other women in my class, this was a whole new idea that they had never heard of or thought about. So that was a cool experience for me because I was already familiar with the theory and I was able to tell the other women in my class about my own understanding of it, having grown up in Southern Arizona only an hour from the Mexican Boarder. In reality we studied more American feminists than English ones, though the ideologies and theories are mostly applicable to US and UK cultures and the English certainly feel the same way.
As for the classes themselves, the psychology class mostly consisted of English students, and in Women’s Studies some were English, but many were from other countries. The women I met were from countries like Trinidad and Tobago or Namibia, or Germany. It was so great to hear the perspectives of people from such different countries. The school that I studied at focuses on this diversity by providing an excellent international program which specifically caters to those students. The living arrangements were another story. I lived in a six story university hall, although there is no traditional campus so buildings are clustered around the city. The building I lived in was a renovated women’s prison which now resembles an apartment complex. Although it wasn’t very fancy, and the neighborhood was said to be on the “dodgy” side, I always felt safe. The university was just down the block, as was the nearest underground station Holloway Road, and the street was lined with cafés, off license (convenience stores), and shops with groceries and clothes. The off license places were open late, and there were always people around so it had a real neighborhood feel. In each apartment, or flat, there were six individual bedrooms, a kitchen and two bathrooms. My five flat mates were all American, but from different parts of the country. They were all spectacular women, and we all got along well and even became really good friends. I had such a fabulous experience with them; we took trips together, hung out together, had classes together and we still keep in touch. It was great to make such good friends so quickly because we immediately began to plan trips to Dublin, Cork, Belgium, Canterbury, we went to Stonehenge, Bath, and Salisbury, Scotland. I was able to drive all around Ireland when I went to visit my boyfriend who was studying there, and some of my flat mates visited friends who were studying abroad as well. There are so many opportunities to visit other countries, and it is more affordable than we expected, though I traveled the least out of all of my flat mates.
Aside from the great relationships I developed with my flat mates, my favorite part of studying abroad was going to class. The Women’s Studies department was small, so a lot of the same women were in all three of my classes and it was cool to hear the students’ stories, and to interact with people from all over the world. Especially being an American, it was great to be challenged. People had both negative and positive ideas about America, but I never felt anything negative towards me specifically. People shared their thoughts in conversation and it was enlightening to see what America looks like from outside the country, good and bad. I feel like this is such an important experience that all I think students should absolutely study abroad if they have the means to. Especially in women’s studies, we spend so much time navigating the margins, but I did not really know how I felt about it until I left the US.
Coming back, I found was a little harder than I thought. Leaving my friends there was sad, and I really do appreciate the lifestyle over there. When I was in London, I realized that we are really efficient in this country and it really pervades many facets of everyday life. Going to the grocery store here is just faster and easier, everything is labeled, there are more checkout counters, the carts are bigger, I can just bring my groceries right to my car and drive them home, rather than carrying them down the block. We are all about efficiency in the US, and yet we’re not efficient at all when I think about how much we waste. It is actually nice to walk down the block rather than drive through 4 lights when I need to pick something up from the store. Now I’m disappointed to see paper towel holders rather than hand dryers in public restrooms, those simply do not exist in England. It may take an extra minute to use a hand dryer, but we waste so much paper with disposable towels. Now I can only use hand dryers if they are provided. I also really miss the excellent public transportation. The planes, trains, buses, the underground, I love the underground, it is all so convenient and affordable as compared to driving. Probably one of the hardest things for me was to come back and drive my car everyday and reconcile myself to the amount of pollution I was creating all on my own.
It was such an enlightening experience to begin to imagine another way of life, I actually think that the government should pay for study abroad programs as part of normal school funding. Even at NAU, many of the programs are more affordable than people tend to think. Programs that are listed as “exchange” programs allow students to pay NAU tuition to cover the costs of the international university tuition and NAU will even accept tuition waivers that a student can normally use towards tuition and fees.
I also have a different perspective on America now that I have come back, but it is not what I expected. I feel like we do have a lot of freedom, even compared to England. There are a lot of things that enter the debate, the discourse in the US about what we are allowed to do—school prayer, flag burning, gun control—but in England, there was a feeling that it was all a bit more oppressive. A prominent politician, Jack Straw, who seems to attack anything he perceives to be anti-English, has perpetuated a campaign to disallow women from wearing burquas. That debate is so salient in England, everyone knows Jack Straw and everyone seemed to be aware of his arguments. We just do not have serious debates like that one about personal freedoms in the US. People seemed to feel like they did not have a lot of control over what their government did, and more often than not, I heard jokes made about things like the constant video surveillance that the British Government keeps on the entire country. To me, it seemed quite a bit scarier than the freedom debates going on here.
I also learned that we, Americans, certainly are everywhere. Everyone knows everything about our country and our politics. I had a conversation with a woman from Namibia about a few US Senators; she was well versed and I did not even know that Namibia had a female Speaker of Parliament. After the Senate elections in November 2006, the results were on the cover of every newspaper in London, including a few Irish newspapers that I saw that day. Everyone knew what was going on in Washington and it seemed the hype was much more exaggerated than in the US. The headlines on the newspaper were interesting too, they were all pro-Democrat. All of the sentiment that I encountered from newspapers and people whom I spoke with favored Democratic policies in the US. It made me realize how much US citizens really do inform and influence world politics. People in London are very aware of this, and it made me realize how unaware I am.
Overall, I think these experiences affected my view of the US in a positive way. I expected to come back with an armory of anti-American sentiments, but I came to appreciate some of the freedoms we have. I’m still very critical of what goes on here, but living in a country with a parliamentary government where people are not allowed to vote really changed my view of how much control I believe we have over our government. Now I know that there is no place else I’d rather live, and I would not have said that before I studied abroad. I really do feel at home in the US.
Kristin Cook ~ New Zealand, University of Waikato, February – November 2006
I was lucky enough to study abroad in high school in the Slovak Republic. While I was there, I made friends with three ‘kiwi’ girls, from different parts of the same country—New Zealand. Meeting such wonderful people made me totally convinced that New Zealand would be a country I’d want to live in. Living in Slovakia was a real challenge because of my age and not being able to speak the language, so New Zealand seemed really appealing since they spoke English. Everyone told me to expect ‘culture shock’, an experience I had had in spades living in Slovakia. Compared to that experience, adapting to life in New Zealand was a breeze.
The NAU International Office makes the application process fairly easy, but there are still a lot of hoops to jump through to make sure everything is officially put together. The visa process was especially arduous, but I kept on top of it and it all worked out.
The way courses are set up at Waikato is night-and-day to how it is here at NAU. I didn’t have nearly as much ‘busy work’ and they focus much, much more on lectures than discussions. Life in New Zealand certainly isn’t the same as life in the U.S. is, but kiwi-culture is so fun and laid back that you really get into the swing of things easily, and once you do, you’ll have an experience that you’ll never have anywhere else. I mean, I went bungee jumping and I’m afraid of heights! But that’s what you do in New Zealand; it’s an adventure capital.
Hamilton residents like to think of Hamilton as a small town with the perks of a big city. It’s got a mall, zoo, museums, and the Waikato River runs right through it. It’s two hours south of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, and less than an hours drive to the nearest beach, Raglan, one of New Zealand’s best surfing spots. Hamilton is a true college town. I lived on campus, although I was lucky, since space on campus is very limited. I lived with all international students; over the year I lived with two from Holland, one from the US, two from Norway, three from Germany, one from Great Britain, one from France, and one from Turkey. We all spoke English with each other, but we all had different eating and sleeping habits. We’d have big meals together. We had the same disagreements that you’d have living with anyone you don’t know. While it was strange, it was rewarding, because I got perspectives from people who were so different than I am. We also shared frustrations as international students; it was a unique experience, and one I’ll probably never have again.
I was in New Zealand for nine months, or two academic semesters. I took three Women’s Studies courses. Much of the work I did involved research and reading critically. They don’t talk about theory in the same way we do; they have a broader standpoint from which they work. It’s not that theory isn’t important, but the perspective is more clearly blended with activism. There you talk about the issues. When you bring in theory, that’s great, but they didn’t expect me to. They like talking about politics and even sports, and bring them into classroom discussions.
What’s most memorable? The people I met there are probably the most memorable, as well as the challenge of being an American abroad. I found myself discussing politics and social issues more than I had before when I traveled. Plus the country’s just really beautiful, as you can see from my photos.
I definitely would encourage WST majors and minors to pursue study abroad. You have to pick a place that you’re really interested in going to. You have to understand that you won’t always be praised as an American, but it’s a way for you to expand your horizons. In general, I think Americans don’t travel enough, we don’t even see our country enough. Unless you travel, you don’t get questioned.
Women’s Studies students often think that we’re the only ones who do feminism. It’s vital to go to a place where you can see that that people do feminism in ways we might sometimes never even consider doing. The rhetoric you’re using, the opinions you’re hearing, are things you’ve never think of on your own. You see things and do things you’d never think you’d do. I truly believe New Zealand is just a magical place, somewhere everyone should go to at some point in their lives. You don’t have know any kiwis before hand (like I did) or even like “Lord of the Rings” (like I don’t) to appreciate that it is truly an astounding country.