Hannah Cazzetta ’15 recalls her studies abroad as defining experiences in her personal and professional life, teaching her life skills and history lessons that she couldn’t have learned in a classroom.

“Studying abroad was the largest influence for my professional work and academic studies after my junior year,” she says. “I am a huge proponent for becoming a global citizen, as it promotes a larger understanding of your role in this world, the ability to think outside the box, and become a dynamic person.”

A global studies major, Cazzetta participated in a month-long program in France the summer after her sophomore year. As a junior, she spent a full year in Chile at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso, where she also interned as an English teaching assistant in an under-funded public school for young girls.

After graduation, Cazzetta taught at Lycee Rene Auffray, a vocational high school in Paris that attracts a mixed population of French and first-generation North African students. She was then awarded a Fulbright foreign scholarship to teach English at the University of Boyaca in Tunja, Colombia, the country’s original capital.

Her work as a Fulbright-funded English teaching assistant was both personally and professionally rewarding. “My older two sisters were adopted from Bogota, Colombia before I was born, so I applied to Colombia because it was a part of our family,” Cazzetta says. “My family got to visit me in Colombia, where we were able to retrace some steps from my sisters' birth stories. It was by far my most challenging year abroad but it was absolutely rewarding.”

As part of her plans to continue her global career, Cazzetta is pursuing a master’s degree in international higher education at Boston College.

“There is constant conversation about small liberal arts colleges in the U.S. and abroad,” she says. “I have grown to be really proud of the education I obtained at Salve. The variety of courses I was offered and the core curriculum made me able to keep up with political, economic and religious conversation professionally. No matter how much you may think math, science or history is irrelevant to your future professional plans, the liberal arts education absolutely makes us a strong group of well-rounded students.” 

Editor’s note: To learn more about study abroad opportunities at Salve Regina, visit the Office of International Programs website.