As a senior in high school trying to figure out where I would go to college, I never saw Rollins as an option. Being a low income, Latina woman, I am already a minority in this society, and even more so at a school with demographics like that of Rollins. So, I never even considered coming here; I didn\u2019t think I could make it. But then a few persistent emails from the college later, I ended up on campus for a tour, meeting all types of different Rollins staff and faculty. I specifically remember the admission team priding themselves in the stats that 85% of students receive financial aid and that over 70% study abroad. I knew I could be part of that 85%, but being part of that 70% never even phased me.
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But here I am now, a Rollins first semester senior, just a few short days away from living in the Eternal City that is Rome, and I\u2019m taking my low income, Latina self with me to experience this ancient part of the world. And I am excited about this fact, because I know I will be able to appreciate my experience in a unique way. For example, I\u2019ll be on a low budget, so I won\u2019t be eating out every day. Instead, I\u2019ll be discovering the local markets and having an authentic local meal experience. Also, as a Hispanic, I have come to have a deep love for community building and developed a more collectivistic culture. However, it\u2019s my understanding Italy has more of an individualistic culture, so this may be different from me. On that note, I plan to participate in a language exchange and meet some locals and build community with them. Also being Latina and knowing the Spanish language has given me an appreciation for diverse languages, so learning Italian will be a true joy.
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Friends, family, and acquaintances keep asking me, \u201cAre you excited? Are you excited? Are you excited?\u201d and out of the mundane routine of being asked this question, I plainly answer \u201cYes, I\u2019m super excited.\u201d And while this is true, writing this blog post and reflecting on my thoughts has helped me formulate a new response to that question: \u201cI am excited. I know there\u2019s going to be a lot of new people and new things. There also may be a huge culture shock for me, considering I\u2019ve been raised by Hispanics while living in the States. That\u2019s exactly why I\u2019m going though. I want to experience and learn something new. So yes, I am super excited to do as the Romans do.\u201d
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As a senior in high school trying to figure out where I would go to college, I never saw Rollins as an option. Being a low income, Latina woman, I am already a minority in this society, and even more so at a school with demographics like that of Rollins. So, I never even considered…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":626,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[369],"class_list":["post-19639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-isarome","tag-rollinsabroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19640,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19639\/revisions\/19640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}