Name: Chloe Pappa
Age: 20
Year: Junior
Hometown: Ormond Beach, Florida
Major: Spanish and International Affairs
Chloe Pappa is a Spanish and International Affairs double major. She has traveled extensively during both her formative years and her college career. She is a strong advocate of engaging in multicultural experiences to gain perspective and understanding. Chloe is a volunteer with the Center for Global Engagement and works with InternatioNole and International Coffee Hour.
Her Campus (HC): You have traveled quite a bit since coming to college – what study abroad programs have you participated in?
Chloe Pappa (CP): I went on the Switzerland program and the Iquitos, Peru program with FSU International Programs and I went to Jamaica with Beyond Borders.
HC: Tell us more about what you did in Switzerland.
CP: The Switzerland program was based in Leysin, Switzerland which is on Lake Geneva and about two hours away from the city of Geneva. It is in the Alps in a ski resort area – we were there in the summer so there weren’t a lot of people. There were camps for children there which is where we were lodged. It was a Hospitality program so it was mainly for Hospitality majors but I went with the intention of getting a minor in Hospitality. You get to pick three classes out of four available and I picked International Food, Wine and Culture, European Lodging and Luxury Hotels and European Travel and Tourism. For Travel and Tourism we would go on an independent trip every week. You had to plan it yourself – wherever you wanted, with whom ever you wanted – you just had to plan your lodging, budget and transportation. The trips would happen during the bulk of the week and then we had class on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and sometimes Tuesday. For Food, Wine and Culture we would go to wine tastings around Switzerland and once we were close to the Cailler Nestle factory and we got to tour the chocolate museum – which was awesome! We also did some wine tastings in France and we toured hotels in both areas.
HC: That sounds amazing! Tell us about Jamaica next.
CP: I found out about the Jamaica program through the Globe (Center for Global Engagement) my freshman year. It is a part of Beyond Borders which is a cross-cultural exchange program. For the program, you spend one week in Jamaica during spring break. They select twelve students from Florida State and twelve students from Kingston, Jamaica – they are from the University of the West Indies. The students from Jamaica come in the Fall semester and we host them on campus while we go in the spring to Jamaica. We do activities, foster friendships and shadow each other for classes. We took the students who came here to the Rez and we did the ropes course. We participated in leadership and communicating tasks and we took them bowling, which they had never done before and they loved it! We also took them to Wakulla Springs, so they could see the natural environment of Florida and to the mall because they wanted to go to get candy and protein powder – I thought that was so funny! While we were in Jamaica they took us to the Blue Mountains (which is where the famous Jamaica coffee comes from) to hike and then we participated in a lot of on-campus activities. We were there right at the start of Carnival so we got to stay for Jouvert which is a huge nighttime concert with food, dancing and they throw powder paint on you! It was a very immersive experience because before we left we took a class to learn about Jamaica’s culture and their politics since we went during an election cycle.
HC: Wow, that is incredible. Lastly, do you want to tell us about Peru?
CP: Absolutely! I went to Iquitos, Peru the summer after my freshman year. I was there for a month with the Learning and Service Journey into Amazonia program. We did a lot of different things and the program was open to anyone. Before we went we had an online class to learn about the culture of Peru – about their belief systems, the cosmologies, their folklore – it was very unique. Everything was in Spanish but people with all different backgrounds in Spanish language went on the trip. We also had to do a literature review of a plant or animal native to Amazonia before we left – I did the Cabybara. We did this because while we were there we had to do a natural history project about the culture and environment. We conducted random interviews with people of the city and would ask them about the plant or animal we had done our project on. I got to meet a Cabybara when a woman who had one as a pet came to the market where we worked!
CP: We did a homestay with a host family. My host mom worked at the university and I did my internship with her. I helped teach English. On the weekends, we would go on excursions into the riverine communities – we traveled there in motorized canoes. We went on hikes and once we planted rice – we got covered in mud! We camped in the forest for one night and that week the people of the community had taken dead trees and made us beautifully crafted tables out of them. It was amazing! It was interesting because this trip, while it was very rugged, I think it equates to the level of hospitality that we were learning about in Switzerland, but just from a different culture. These people took care of us and treated us like family.
HC: Why do you think it is important for students to engage in a multicultural experience?
CP: It helps you gain insight and perspective about the world around you and the people around you – their perspectives, lifestyles and beliefs – so you can accept them as opposed to just tolerating them. Engaging in multicultural activities opens new ways of understanding people and issues and can help you with your own issues. It is especially important now because we have so much global communication and interaction.
HC: How can students get involved in the multicultural experience. What kinds of resources do you suggest?
CP: They should use the Center for Global Engagement (The Globe). You can learn about Beyond Borders there and other kinds of student exchanges. The Globe also offers a lot of opportunities to interact with students from other cultures – like International Coffee Hour, which is every Friday and Global Café, which happens about four times a semester. They also host the English Language Club – it is international and domestic students and you get to help other improve their English skills while learning about their life and where they’re from and you make great friends! There is also International Programs, which you can find in University Center A and they will tell you all about summer programs or semester and year-long programs. If you have questions just always ask and don’t be afraid to do something you’re not comfortable with – it is so important to help you find things that you love to do and meet people who are important the rest of your life.