Written by Kelliann Dougherty, Temple Family Council Member
“Study abroad where? South America? Does Temple have a campus there? What, no, but you can still go? Are you sure? How does this all work? Will the semester count? ARE YOU SURE?”
This is part of the conversation I had with my daughter who has always wanted to study abroad and found a program that Temple sponsors in Buenos Aires. I was hoping she would pick something we are more familiar with (i.e. Europe), or at the very least somewhere we could get to a bit quicker. Parenting adults is more challenging than others let on.
She wanted a Spanish speaking country and researched programs on the Temple Study Abroad website. This particular program is through the University of Minnesota but is open to Temple students and other colleges as well. She did not know anyone else going on the program.
The program is in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. There is an academic institution there - The Fundación Ortega y Gasset (FOGA), where all of the classes are housed. There is even an outdoor classroom on the rooftop that overlooks the city and the notorious Teatro Colón. The classes are small in size and take place Monday-Thursday with an outing on Fridays. One of the classes offered was Art and Architecture. Buenos Aires is known for its blended architecture styles, so each class was an outing to a different building, church or art museum. Everyone had to take a semester-long course called, “Understanding Argentina” which talked about the history and politics of Argentina, how to exchange money, and differences between stereotypes. The outings are to different sections of the city, neighboring towns, and even across the river to Uruguay. One particular outing was at a ranch where they rode horses and learned about gauchos (cowboys) and their history in Argentina.
Internships are also available. Since my daughter wants to teach, she was assigned to a school for her internship where she went two afternoons a week to Ciudadela by train and was an assistant English teacher.
For accommodations they stayed with a host family. The host family provided breakfast and dinner. FOGA has worked with the same families for over 15 years. My daughter’s family was absolutely wonderful. They basically adopted her, and she shared in their family get-togethers. They still text weekly.
On the weekends and holidays, the group was welcome to travel to other parts of Argentina or South America. Hiking in the southern tip of Argentina (Patagonia) was a highlight. Some students traveled to Brazil and Uruguay on their own. Students were able to travel but had to check in with the program and notify them on where they were staying.
College is about growing as an individual and making your way in the world. Visiting my daughter in another country was an amazing, validating experience. Not only is she an amazing human but I got to witness her navigating another country. She is now fluent in Spanish. She arranged for my transportation from the airport to the hotel, spoke with the hotel staff, spoke with the wait staff at every restaurant and navigated our way through the city on various buses, trains and taxis. The growth as a human that was evident in her was worth every cent. She has learned more in one semester abroad than we could have ever imagined. I would highly recommend your child studying abroad. For more information here is the link to the Education Abroad and Overseas Campuses office at Temple University: https://studyabroad.temple.edu/
