Alumni Interview with Hannah Latimer-Snell

What inspired you to go abroad?

I have known since I started university that I wanted to study abroad. I love traveling the world and I thought that studying in a foreign country would be a perfect opportunity to see a new place, learn about a new culture and meet new people.

Why did you choose USAC Chile?

I chose to go to Santiago, Chile through USAC because the program was perfect for my major. I knew I wanted to go somewhere that spoke Spanish because I have always loved the language and I was double majoring in Spanish and International Studies. The program through USAC had lots of courses that worked wonderfully for both of those majors and allowed me to receive credit for two majors with one course.

What was your favorite part about Chile?

My favorite part of living in Chile for a year was the beautiful and extremely diverse landscape of the country. The country is magnificent. You have the Atacama desert, one of the driest places in the world, to the North, and the Patagonia mountain range to the Southeast. Then the coast is to the West and even farther down South you have the unique and peaceful Chiloe islands. The environment of the nation is breathtaking. The city of Santiago is also a great place to live. It has plenty of tourist things to do like museums and monuments, great public transit, many community organizations to volunteer with and so much more.

What made your experience abroad unique?

What made my experience unique was my involvement in Cuban Salsa while I was there. My program was with other US students but our classes were on campus of a Chilean university. Because of that we had access to all the clubs that the regular Chilean students had access to. I found a salsa club that met every Friday and learned how to dance through that. I have danced my whole life so the dancing part was fairly simple to master but the better part was that I made friends through it. Once school was out of session they introduced me to a salsa class and group that met up and danced twice a week and then on the weekends went to salsatecas to dance more. It was the best part of my trip by far. I fell in love with the dance and Chilean culture.

How did local staff support you throughout your program?

Local staff were great. All the faculty were extremely helpful and seemed accustomed to working with students who were speaking Spanish as a second language. Luis, Jorge and Brenda were all kind, generous with their time and helpful. If anyone had an issue with their host family Brenda would help mediate. If there were course issues and credit malfunctions Luis helped with the academic side and of course Jorge was fantastic. He gave the group a young and adventurous spirit and would make students laugh and feel more reassured with every interaction.

What's one thing you wish you would have done differently?

One thing that I wish would've been different was that I wish the courses were integrated into the Chilean University so that we had both US and Chilean classmates. I think a lot of students were disappointed that they never made any Chilean friends because we were fairly isolated from them. Luckily I found friends through Salsa but my experience would've been entirely different if I hadn't found the dance club. I have no regrets with my own actions though.

Describe a typical day in the life of your program.

A typical day in the life of me in Santiago was waking up around 7, getting ready and eating breakfast before meeting a fellow USAC student halfway between my house and hers to walk together to the metro. We would hop on the metro around 8 and ride to campus arriving around 8:20. The day was spent having classes, all in Spanish, with a short lunch at the mid-day point. Once classes were over, depending on the day, I would go home do some homework and then head out to dance class in this courtyard by metro catholic. I would take the class for an hour and then social dance for another 2. Then I would go home and sleep.

What did you enjoy doing in your free time?

In my free time all I did was dance! If I had a long weekend or some free time off of school I traveled around Chile and saw most of the country but when I had the day off or the afternoon free all I wanted to do was dance.

What was your accommodation like? What did you like best about it?

My home stay was great. I am a vegetarian and I was placed with a vegetarian family. My host mom was delightful and we would sit and talk about life; her life and mine. I had some host siblings but they were all older than me and occasionally we would all get together to celebrate an event. I had my own room and bathroom and could come and go whenever I pleased. I even made friends with our doorman to the apartment building.

What is one thing every participant should know before participating in your program?

One thing to know is that your classes will be taught in Spanish but they are with other US students. This can be both a positive thing and a negative. Positive because it is less intimidating and easier to speak up in class when you know that you are surrounded by non-native speakers. Negative because it is harder to meet the locals; but not impossible.

Now that you're home, how has your program abroad impacted your life?

I can't wait to go back. My study abroad experience confirmed the thought that I feel more at home in Latin America than I do In the US. I love traveling and living abroad and I can't imagine my life any other way. My study abroad experience gave me the confidence to believe in myself as well as taught me how to be independent, brave and how to take life one day at a time and live in the present.

Would you recommend USAC to others? Why?

I would absolutely recommend my program to other students. The USAC program is fabulous. There is a ton of support and guidance from people who are there to help if you need it, but also plenty of room to be more independent if that is the experience you are looking for. I thought the academics were great as well. Challenging enough so that I felt like I was learning things but not so overwhelming that I couldn't go out into the community and explore. I had the chance to do an internship while abroad in Chile and my program helped me set that up. There were options to participate in group trips, both long and short missions, and help every step of the way; if you wanted it that is.