Hola, my name is Aylén (the closest pronunciation for non-Spanish speakers is like island without the “d” at the end), and I am from Argentina. I live in a city called Monte Grande in the south of Buenos Aires in which you can find a mix of the countryside and a small town. The main thing that you should know is that I am the daughter of a History teacher that teaches in public high schools. With that already mentioned you will understand my passion for other cultures (especially mine), for my strong opinions and love for education.
For coincidence or causality, I ended up studying in Pearson College, one of the UWCs spread around the world. This one is located in Canada, British Columbia. To be more specific in the middle of the woods, visited sometimes by cougars and bears.
Because of this opportunity I had the privilege to cross one of my dreams off my bucket list and travel. First, inside of the country, since one of the stages in the application process gave me the chance to travel for the first time to another province. And second, I traveled to Canada, another country, once I had been selected. However, this is by far one of the immense opportunities that I experienced since I discovered UWC.
Pearson College challenged me in more than one way. I spoke, learned and lived for the first time in a language that I had never spoken. I developed friendships in which the only thing we have in common is that we do not think alike. I learned about other realities, I cried for these and stood up next to strangers just to learn and give visibility to issues around the world.
Because of this, when I learned about Lewis & Clark, almost at the end of my research about universities, something clicked. Because L&C has everything that I was looking for: a small tight-knit community and a chance to have a combination of hands-on and academic experience in university, while I am surrounded by nature. Plus, a considerable amount of international students will make me feel that I am not too far from home.
I have been planning to major in Rhetoric and Media Studies, since high school I have a big interest in communication. I was part of the newspaper and radio of the school. I am still considering whether or not to do a double major in Psychology. But I am sure that I want to minor in Arts. The reason why came when I was in high school, I participated in a program in which through different art expressions we gave visibility to the periods of censorship that happened in Argentina, and Latin America, discovering in this moment how helpful art can be when you want to communicate something.
For now I have only two big expectations for my time in Lewis & Clark. One, is to make the college and the people here, a place to call home far from it, and the other, is to study something that I am passionate about every day.