Immersed in the world
UO senior applies international studies theory in South America
Just visiting—looking at a place from the outside in—is never enough for Alison Fox.
Over the past two summers, the senior from Vashon Island, Washington, has matched academic work in international studies with hands-on development work in Uruguay and Paraguay as she helped to manage summer volunteer programs for high school students for the nonprofit organization Amigos de las Americas.
“Studying development theory at the University of Oregon and then actually applying it on the ground in Latin America has been an amazing combination,” she says. “When I come back to Eugene I can connect what I am reading in classes to what I’ve seen or done in Latin America. It’s been a really powerful experience.”
So powerful, in fact, that Alison is digging deeper into the combination of field work with academic study for her thesis in international studies and the Robert Donald Clark Honors College.
Her research focuses on the way Amigos de las Americas—the organization she has worked with extensively—applies principles of community-based development, a philosophy that calls for empowering local people to solve problems and enrich quality of life in a sustainable fashion.
“Especially with Amigos, it is a powerful experience. Students live in rural communities with families and experience every part of what it means to be in a place, from what people eat to when they go to bed,” Alison says. “By immersing yourself you learn to understand where you are, which allows you to foster development rather than direct it.”
After graduation next spring, Alison plans to apply that philosophy on the ground again, this time working with recent immigrants from Latin America in a New York City classroom as part of Teach for America, a program that places recent college grads and professionals in two-year teaching assignments around the country.
“For me, it will be a completely different culture in a new place,” Alison says. “But my time abroad and at the University of Oregon will help me understand where the students are coming from and how they connect with the world.”
Click here for a quick video in which Alison discusses community-based development.