Appreciating Commonalities

As a young African-American woman traveling abroad to Europe, Jennifer Paige is very aware of what makes her different and how that will make her stand out in the countries she will visit during the summer voyage.

She relishes the opportunities to connect with other African-American women and share experiences, hopes, fears, and commonalities. One recent hang-out session with a few classmates wound up being a fruitful conversation that included Assistant Executive Dean Dia Draper and Lissa Place, a living-learning coordinator on the voyage. The group of seven women, talked for nearly an hour about everything from how they all came to be on the same voyage together, and finding financial to afford it, to sorority life and caring for their hair while traveling.

“It’s nice to have someone here to fall back on and to know that there are faculty here who can relate to me,” says Paige, who attends Winston-Salem State University.

Another important topic to Paige and her classmates was how to encourage other African-American students in the U.S. to consider study-abroad programs. “It’s amazing to me that so many African-American people I spoke to at home don’t know what being “abroad” means. It’s something I’m really hoping to change; to get people want to travel.”

For now, Paige is looking forward to her traveling learning experience.