"I wanted to discover an entirely new culture"

At Sciences Po, all Undergraduate College students spend their third year abroad on an internship or at a partner university. Marion Vonfeld made an unusual choice; after studying transatlantic relations on the Reims campus for two years, she decided to spend her third year at Universidad Icesi in Cali, a city in western Colombia.

You lived for a long time in France, then in South Carolina in the United States, and chose to take Sciences Po's Europe-America programme in Reims. Why did you decide to go to Cali in Colombia for your third year abroad?

Marion Vonfeld: I found it very interesting to study European-American relations at Sciences Po, but I wasn't particularly drawn to the United States. On the other hand, I had always been interested in Latin America; I wanted to know the continent better and improve my Spanish.

The next question was which country I wanted to go to. It was speaking with Olivier Ruchet, [head of the Europe-North America programme] that helped me decide on Colombia. He asked me what I was looking for in my year abroad. I explained that I wanted to live in a country that contrasted sharply with the culture I had been steeped in until then, and that I wanted to take courses on social exclusion, integration and recognition of minorities. He advised me to choose a country in the north of Latin America. I then read some very positive reports from Sciences Po students who had been to Universidad Icesi in Cali, Colombia, so that was the destination I chose.

To help international students settle in at the start of the year, your university offered accommodation with Colombian host families. Did this help you adapt to the new environment?

M. V.: In fact there were several housing options: living with a Colombian family, flat-sharing with other international students, or living alone. I chose to live with a family when I arrived because I thought it would be the best way to immerse myself in Colombian culture from the outset and get to understand it better. I also thought it might help me with practical issues when I arrived; I didn't regret it at all because it made it easier to adapt and I was able to improve my level of Spanish very quickly.

Did you choose courses that followed on from what you had been studying at Sciences Po? Which courses did you prefer? What was most difficult?

M. V.: What frightened me before going to Icesi was not having a good enough level to take courses in Spanish. It's true that I had to put in a lot of time to understand the lectures. But the language came pretty fast, so it wasn't the handicap that I'd imagined.

I mainly chose sociology courses about minorities. I especially loved the course on African minorities in Colombia focused on the city of Cali, which has an Afro-Colombian population of 22 percent. It allowed me to build on the "African-American Odyssey" course taught by Sylvie Laurent on the Reims campus. I also took public policy courses, and this led me to choose the Master's in Social Policy and Social Innovation at the Sciences Po School of Public Affairs.

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