Honors Study Abroad immerses students in South African life

They are teaching people about HIV, working with the sick, and debating politics in their classes.

They have talked with Nelson Mandela’s former prison mate, surfed in the Indian Ocean, and been chased by rhinos during an excursion.

The 12 students in the Cape Town Honors Study Abroad Program this semester are experiencing more than they had ever imagined.

“The things that I’m learning about life in general, the world, South Africa, the government, and the people, through this internship is wonderful,” says Breyonne Golding, a junior majoring in urban and community studies. “It has changed who I am.”

The Cape Town program, offered for the first time this year, provides students with hands-on experience and traditional course work, says Ross Lewin, director of Study Abroad.

“It creates a dialectic whereby the theory in the classroom enriches the experience in the internship, and the experience in the internship complements the theory in the classroom. It also taps into the core values of the University of Connecticut: human rights.”

The program was developed by Lewin and Lynne Goodstein, associate vice provost of the Honors Program.

“It’s a very focused curriculum that allows students to immerse themselves in the culture and living history of South Africa by working with prominent organizations that are part of the exciting South African project of creating a modern democracy,” Lewin says.

Although students don’t need to be in the Honors Program to participate, they must demonstrate the intellectual curiosity and discipline to do honors-level work, he adds.

The heart of the program is a three-day-per-week internship in a non-governmental agency involved in issues of social justice.

These include the Independent Electoral Commission, Solo Mongololo, involved in Children and Women’s Rights; Black Sash, whose focus is civil rights and poverty alleviation; the South African Commission on Human Rights; and the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.

Every effort is made to match students’ interests, skills, and passions, Lewin says.

Goodstein says, “One of our major goals in Honors is to encourage engagement beyond the classroom, and the student participants are intensely engaged. Every day they are learning something new about this important part of the world.”

Students are required to take two three-credit courses, Politics of South Africa and Natural History and Ecology of South Africa, and a research seminar. The politics course is a series of lectures that offer an overview of the social, political, and economic history of South Africa.

The ecology course, taught by John Silander, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UConn, integrates classroom and field work focusing on topics including climate, geology, humans and their migrations, biocultural diversity, and conservation.