Kate Boerma: Taking international co-op to a whole new meaning.
4th year international affairs major Kate Boerma is finally back in Boston ready to start classes for the first time since last December. She has been living and traveling all over South America and Africa and is ready to tell us her amazing story.
Tell us a little about yourself and what motivated you to do an international coop.
I transferred to Northeastern from a school in upstate New York my sophomore year and I knew coming here that I wanted to be a part of the coop program. I also knew that I was only going to do one coop so since I’ve always been interested in traveling I sort of knew off the bat that I would be going abroad to do an international coop. After doing a dialogue the summer before in Bali, Thailand, my experience made me realize that if I could handle 7 weeks by myself I could definitely handle 7 months. So along with one of my good friends who I met in Bali, we decided to do an international coop for spring 2011. We heard about this organization in El Salvador called Epilogos through 2 friends who had done it the year prior and we sent them an email. It all happened pretty quickly. A couple weeks later I was booking my ticket to Central America!
Tell us a little bit about Epilogos and what drew you to work for Epilogos?
Epilogos, which means “what comes after,” is a nonprofit that strives to improve the lives of impoverished people in the town of San Jose Villanueva. We basically assisted in community development in the areas of health, education, housing, employment, water issues, energy, and public sanitation. The only requirement before I left was that I had to take some Spanish courses before so I flew to Antigua, Guatemala to take my Spanish classes and to get acclimated to Central America. I was drawn to Epilogos because I knew that the area in El Salvador needed a lot of help in a variety of areas. I wanted to really get my feet wet and experience the realities of working for a nonprofit organization. After starting work at Epilogos I was mainly teaching but I also helped on construction projects with volunteers that would come down. A lot of these volunteers were with Habitat for Humanity and other organizations of that type so it was a nice break to be able to interact with other Americans. We helped them build houses in the community, build wells to create water sources, and with providing supplies to schools and medical clinics. We also helped with crises situations like if someone’s house burned down. All in all we helped out the community. That’s what El Salvador’s about, you know, that you’re part of a community and you help it exist.
What was your favorite experience on your trip?
Meeting my dog Stevie. She always came around the village we lived in and I would always play with her. After really bonding with her I noticed that she had tumor on her lower back. I decided to get her chemo using my own savings and it wasn’t until after her treatments that I realized she had already had a family. Meanwhile I had already made arrangements to take her back home with me. I talked to the mom of the family who she said she’d been praying each night for her to get better when she noticed that Stevie was coming back with brighter fur, a plumper belly, the that the tumor was getting smaller. She said she thought her prayers were getting answered. After making sure Stevie was taken care of and had her tumors removed I returned her to the family. I am really hoping to go back and visit her in December.
What was the most important aspect about your experience?
I didnt really know what to expect before I left but once I landed and was finally there I realized what I needed to do. I learned along the way and met people who helped me. I now realize that if you’re truly open to experiences then only good can come out of them because you’re letting life happen. You’re proactively doing something other than just following with the day-to-day pattern of events. I feel like I came away from this so much stronger because I proved to myself that I could do this. I also learned a lot about the importance of education especially with the literacy program because these parents and these moms were learning how to read and write. This helped to reaffirm the importance of education in their families and the need to teach their children.
What would you say to students who are considering doing an international coop?
Just do it. Even if it’s not completely going abroad it’s important to take advantage of dialogues and programs of that nature. It’s all about getting out of your comfort zone because that’s how you truly learn and grow and figure out who you are. College is such a time to discover yourself and learning what defines you as a person and you’re not going to discover yourself on your couch so you just got to get up and do things! Traveling makes you so vulnerable and it pulls you out of your shell and gives you such clarity on what matters to you.
How does it feel to be back on campus after all you’ve experienced?
Being back on campus feels amazing. It is so good to be back but it’s also making me realize how much I’ve learned such as the importance of going out of your comfort zone, learning a new language and accommodating to new and different environments. I have two more semesters at Northeastern and I’m going to use the connections the university offers me and take advantage of everything. I have some travel plans for the future and would love to go back to Central America.
You can read Kate Boerma’s travel blogs at: http://kboerma.tumblr.com/