Study abroad strengthens bond to South Africa
ON THE GREEN | As a senior in the Lerner College of Business and Economics, Margaret Quigley spent last January studying in South Africa, where she had first traveled at age 16 and developed an enduring friendship with a young woman who grew up there as an orphan.
Quigley concluded her undergraduate studies in hotel, restaurant and institutional management (HRIM) with a study-abroad trip to Pretoria, her third visit to the country she considers her second home.
She says that her bond with South Africa grew even stronger during her latest visit, although she was not able to meet her friend, Sinethemba Shelembe, who is now studying at a university six hours away from Pretoria. Instead, Quigley says, she made new friends with the children at a center for those orphaned or otherwise affected by AIDS, where she worked as a volunteer in addition to taking a three-credit course.
“Getting to interact with the children really opened my eyes to the reality of AIDS for the first time,” she says. “For one whole month, we spent two days a week playing with and attempting to teach them as much as we could through art, sports and reading to them.”
The trip was part of a course, “Cross-Cultural Etiquette,” for HRIM majors. The course is designed to make business students aware of the various ethnic cultures in the workplace and develop sensitivity to people with different backgrounds, according to Francis Kwansa, associate professor and associate chairperson of the HRIM department.
“More so than on typical study abroad, this is a life-changing experience that you see in the students when they come back,” says Robert Nelson, associate professor and chairperson of HRIM. “We are developing leaders, not only in business, but leaders in the community.”
Quigley says the ease with which she has embraced South Africa was mostly due to her friendship with Shelembe, who is nicknamed Sne. Both young women were featured in a 2005 documentary, A Tale of Two Teens, by Susan Walker and Geoffrey Poister, which compared the life of an average American teenage girl with that of an orphaned South African girl.
Quigley’s interest in South Africa developed in high school as she watched children singing in a video of a visit to KwaZulu-Natal Province by members of Old North Church in Marblehead, Mass., where she lived. She says she immediately volunteered to go on the next trip.
One afternoon during the first week of the visit, Quigley was scheduled to meet Sne, who had lost both of her parents to AIDS at a young age and was living with her grandfather.
“The film crew set up and I stood there in the dust, waiting, sweating in my long skirt, sneakers and North Face jacket,” Quigley says. “The camera crew said, ‘OK! Get ready!’ I stood at attention. Sne came around the corner, just as timid as I was. But then, she let out a huge smile that broke the ice.”
Thus began the lasting friendship that grew with regular correspondence over the years, a second visit by Quigley in 2006 and a transition to communication via email and now Facebook.
“Because we share the same story, I plan to keep in touch with Sne no matter what,” Quigley says. “I will always treat her as a sister and keep South Africa in my heart.”
Article by Martin A. Mbugua, BE ’09M
