Study Abroad Testimonies

Megan Jackson Senior, Global Studies
As a freshman in Global Studies, I knew that my major included a study abroad experience, and I knew that I wanted to go far. As a junior, I learned that the Fiji study abroad program was running again in the summer and decided to go! What I knew beforehand was that it would be a very different environment with a different lifestyle to what I knew in the U.S. and that past students had come out of it with cool stories and great relationships with the people there. What I could not have seen coming was how deeply I would love the lifestyle I became accustomed to and how much the people we met would become like family for us!

The Fiji program looks like living on Vorovoro Island and being taught by members of the Mali tribe about aspects of Fijian culture and sustainability, including using coconut tree leaves for weaving and construction, living in community together, never working without music or laughing (“No music, no fun” as my friend Wisea says), going fishing for dinner and being mindful of our water usage, which is collected from rainfall. We get to spend our entire day, and night, outside. All of this is made possible through the hospitality of Tui Mali, the chief of the tribe who hosts us, and through the partnership with Bridge the Gap Vorovoro, the nonprofit organization who helps to run the trips and sustain the Mali tribe’s ownership of their own development. For those who extend their time in Fiji with the internship option, we also get to live and work at Cegu Valley Farm. I was welcomed in as family again here as I was simultaneously taught how to harvest honey, make compost piles with material from all around the farm, use carpentry skills, see farm-to-table concepts applied with every meal and much more.

Over the course of the summer, I learned what it looks like to put down real roots in a place with a new culture over 7,000 miles away. I learned that it is possible and even enjoyable to significantly change the way I live to better steward the earth’s resources. Coming away from this trip and going into senior year at Auburn University, I feel much more capable in my ability to take on a project and problem-solve, and I know that this experience has been invaluable in preparing me for life after graduation!