Carolina and her accomplishments have always impressed us. We spent the majority of our trip wondering how Mizzou went about finding her to lead our program in Buenos Aires, especially since she’s currently a freelance journalist. She explained that Fritz Cropp (Mizzou J-School study abroad director) had met her at a conference in Buenos Aires upon looking for a director, and went to a meeting a few weeks later in Washington D.C. with some people from the European Union that worked there with Carolina. They convinced Fritz that he had to find and hire her because she was so amazing. He contacted her and she was unaware of what she wanted to do—move to Patagonia, go back to Europe, whether she was staying in Argentina, but ended up accepting the job and figured she’d give it a try.
That’s already pretty impressive. How many people, in a time of uncertainty about their future, would volunteer to be the guardian, professor and trip organizer for American students with questionable Spanish in Argentina? Carolina would. She likes what she’s doing, and continues to freelance instead of work for a specific publication because of the government’s relationship with the press in Argentina. She even told us once:
- “Yo soy un freelancer, why? I do not want my name associated with the government.” -7-5
In here “free” time, she researches world issues and writes about them. At 34 years old, she speaks five languages (Spanish, French, Italian, English, Dutch, and is learning Chinese). Discussing her study on Argentina’s government spending on campaign advertising and its massive increase, Carolina said:
- “I will be in trouble in Argentina, so I will publish it in the states.” Carolina, 7-5
How intelligent! But that isn’t it. While some people choose to settle down, she chooses to keep going. The Argentina program is more popular in the spring and summer for J-School students, so Carolina gets this fall off. She’s moving to Bolivia to live with female farmers (campesinas) and learn more about how they see ecofeminism. If that’s not enough, she’ll be working at an institute for teenage girls who have been sexually abused, and teaching them coping mechanisms, laughter yoga and ecofeminism as well. While she’s there, she managed to schedule an interview time with EVO MORALES, the PRESIDENT OF BOLIVIA who is very controversial (not educated, Indian, only speaks Spanish, very anti-US, dictator, bureaucratic, the list goes on). She hopes to do a two-day interview with him in a casual setting to learn about his policies regarding women in his cabinet, having a family and the treatment of women as well as his presidency. She got the interview because one of her friends wrote a book about Evo and passed along some contact information. Can you imagine?!
Before she heads out to Bolivia, she has to finish her 85 page thesis on women in newsrooms and the types of programs they implement, focusing on Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and the United States. So between August and September, she will be writing this 85-page thesis, planning the program for spring 2012, interviewing Evo Morales, preparing to teach these young girls, preparing to observe the Bolivian farmers, flying to Missouri early-September to promote the Buenos Aires program, flying back to Bolivia, getting a visit from her French boyfriend as he flies in from Canada and living life. And I thought I was busy.
Not only is she a great role model, but Carolina also provides hope that anything is possible. You CAN be 34 and do all of this. You CAN learn six languages. You CAN research and read up on a topic to write your thesis in less than three weeks. You CAN keep track of all 10 of your students and their daily whereabouts in Buenos Aires. You just have to be patient, prepared and determined to carry these types of things out.
I am (was?) pretty nervous about how in my next three weeks, going home and running errands and seeing all of my friends for ~4 days, driving back to Mizzou this Friday, work week and recruitment, preparing for the GRE in THREE WEEKS, having meetings with all of my Maneater clients, working on Homecoming merchandise, doing all the vice president chapter-programming for my sorority, planning OCF meetings, planning Relay For Life and remaining a social and happy human being. But spending our last afternoon with Carolina and hearing about her accomplishments and future plans has given me a positive attitude and hope that all of this will just be a breeze. Thank you to Carolina for being such a great role model!
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