The Denisonian

Issue date: 10/2/07 Section: Up Hill, Down Hill

Media Credit: Becky Syrowski During her time abroad, senior Becky Syrowski worked with indigenous students in Ecuador at a school that teaches them to be proud of their culture.

Media Credit: Stephanie Hoover Senior Stephanie Hoover (right) studied abroad in Ecuador last semester. She grew close to her host mom Alicia (left), a political activist, and her son Matías (middle) because they challenged her beliefs and educated her about the culture there.

Senior Stephanie Hoover studied abroad last semester in Ecuador, but she didn't spend much time studying.

Far from just taking classes and living up the city life of Quito, Ecuador's capital, her program involved an interactive element of social justice.

Hoover, a sociology/anthropology major, lived with an Ecuadorian host family and assisted women at a domestic violence shelter for 20 hours a week. She shared her life with workers there to help women recover from abusive relationships.

Her two classes were designed to reflect on this experience and learn about social justice movements in Ecuador.

Hoover said that the program was rewarding both academically and for the experience.

"I really liked it because it was integrative and holistic," she said. "I get fired up about sexual violence so this program was a good outlet for me to think about a lot of different issues in innovative ways that only experiences could allow for."

More Denison students are choosing study abroad programs that have internship-like aspects that are focused on social justice issues.

Hoover enrolled in her program through Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA), a nonprofit organization that hosts cross-disciplinary learning programs for students.

HECUA's programs all involve an internship aspect that focuses on the students' area of interest. Denison is a new member to the organization.

Martha Moscoso, HECUA's director of study abroad programs in Ecuador, said that the organization aims to make social justice more than just a word.

"Social justice is not only a big name to sell products like our program," Moscoso said during an interview while she visited campus last week. "Social justice is an experience every day in political issues trying to change things or teach to make students sociable and conscious."

Moscoso is one of the faculty members who taught Hoover last semester.

She said that HECUA's programs help students to recognize that other worlds exist outside of the U.S. They place students deeper into the issues they learn about, she said.

"It's important for American students to leave with a perception to change things," Moscoso said.

Senior Becky Syrowski enrolled in the HECUA program last semester with Hoover. She worked with a school of an Ecuadorian indigenous group called the Quichua.

The school is focused on having them identify with and learn about their culture, she said.

The larger ethnic groups in Ecuador discriminate against the indigenous immigrants there for having different cultural behaviors. Syrowski told a story about one man who cut off his long, braided hair, an important part of the Quichua culture. His family no longer accepted him and he still did not gain full acceptance by the general population.

"I think a lot of students are aware of those kind of issues, but going abroad and experiencing it is a totally different thing," Syrowski said. "In my case, it made me 100 percent more aware of something that I never thought of before."

Syrowski, an education and Spanish major, said she wants to become a teacher and has already thought of ways that her experience has influenced her ideas for education.

"The way they deal with behavioral issues, they take every situation for itself," she said. "Every child is different and every situation is different and they decide from there what they are going to do."

Hoover is now applying for a Fulbright scholarship for a teaching assistantship plans in Uraguay.

Similar to Syrowski, Hoover learned about a diversity of views to help women that she plans to apply in her future studies.

"We're not just women, everyone isn't the same," she said.

Even though Syrowski and Hoover were already engaged in social justice issues before going abroad, Moscoso said that the program is a learning opportunity to be taken advantage of by even those who don't have such exposure.

Hoover said that students with an open mind and a desire to grow would do well and enjoy the experience.

"You need to be open to learning new things and looking to question cultural images in different places," Hoover said.

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