Hayden Belleville is a junior majoring in natural resource management and minoring in Spanish. He traveled to Chile as part of the Chile: Agriculture and Agroecosystems program during winter break 2023.

I loved seeing the diversity in Chile's nature and getting to know some people from Chile. We visited a family of the Huilliche group, and I got to do a lot of translating for the other students, which boosted my confidence and was overall a fun challenge. 

I have wanted to visit a Latin American country to practice my Spanish, see the natural beauty and throw myself into uncomfortable situations (in regards to Chile's notoriously difficult Spanish). I wanted to see the nature of Chile, meet people and see wildlife.

I learned that Chile is really fairly similar to the United States, just a different language and a few cultural differences. Overall, they were very kind to us being Americans, and accommodating to bad Spanish.

To be a global citizen means to care about the people and places outside of our "bubble." It means to be interested in learning about places that you haven't been to, and being respectful and making an effort to learn the customs of different parts of the world.