In Fall of 2018, Shannon McGuire LAW ’19 completed a semester-long study abroad program at our Temple Law partner school, Del Rosario University in Bogotá, Colombia.

I went to Rosario with an interest in seeing how Colombia was handling the Venezuelan refugee crisis, to learn more about human rights law, and to improve my Spanish language skills. I left Bogota having achieved each of those goals but also having made lifelong friends, having acquired an addiction to arepas de yuca and yellow dragon fruit, and having gained a deeper understanding and admiration for a peace process that transitioned a country from decades of internal conflict to a new horizon that aimed to uphold the rule of law while rehabilitating offenders and giving victims a voice.

I cried seeing exhibits of paramilitary slaughters of Colombian villages. I debated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with my classmates in my Anthropology of Violence and Conflict class. I hid my face every time we learned about yet another Latin American country where the U.S. meddled in their domestic affairs during the Cold War era (and I was always the only ashamed American in the class). I wrote several papers I am proud of all in a second language. I ate too much and danced too much. I used my Spanish language apps an awful lot. I made study buddies who explained what in the world was going on in a class where I only understood maybe half of the lecture.

I had a wonderful time, but I also learned an incredible amount of substantive law and policy from gifted professors at a beautiful university nested in Bogota’s historic district. Even though giving up opportunities to take internships and additional classes at Temple was a difficult choice in the moment, I am so glad I took a semester to study at Rosario and would not have traded that experience for one more writing class or one more course with one of my favorite professors.

Visit our website to learn more about Temple Law’s Study Abroad Programs.