Hannah tells us about studying abroad in South Africa and how the Honors Program helped her get there.
On choosing Simmons
Simmons gave me the opportunity to experience living in Boston while also benefiting from a small campus environment, with low student-professor ratios and student-run organizations.
The public relations and marketing communications major allows me to take courses in everything from journalism and graphic design to marketing and project management. Besides meeting my interdisciplinary interests, the variety of courses in this major prepare you for life after graduation.
On the Honors Program
While touring Simmons my senior year of high school, I attended an honors course taught by Professor Dawna Thomas about the different experiences people with disabilities face throughout diverse communities in the United States. In that class, I saw a group of students who applied introspection and critical thinking to a topic outside a "required" course. After that tour, I knew that in the honors program I'd be challenged to be a more engaged, well-rounded person and student during my time at Simmons.
One of my favorite aspects of the honors program is that we're constantly learning from one another — each student brings different lived experiences, interests, majors, etc. Additionally, honors students have access to honors designated courses and the Honors Global Scholars Scholarship, which helped fund my study abroad experience.
On studying abroad
I studied with the School for International Training (SIT) in South Africa in the spring of 2018. I spent two months studying social and political transformation in Durban, and the remainder of my semester in Cape Town interning at the Sunday Times. The semester culminated with an independent study project in journalism. My chosen topic was the private security industry, inequalities of safety and policing in South Africa.
On being published
I had five stories published in TimesLIVE, two published on Times Select and one story published in the Sunday Times print edition.
These articles were meaningful for me — the researching, writing and editing I put into them — and for the numerous South Africans who shared their stories with me hoping they would be heard. Whether I was speaking to the lawyer’s of Cape Town’s most notorious mafiosos or an up-and-coming circus acrobat from the Khayelitsha township, I learned that storytelling, when done accurately and humanely, is a means of democratizing our world.
On her Simmons moment
Presenting my final paper for my Honors Program Learning Community course on race, meritocracy and education in America is my Simmons moment. I researched how the current system of racism reinforces our capitalistic class structure along racial lines by disproportionately subjecting Black students to an integrative education that ultimately inhibits their social mobility. My professors gave me the resources and freedom to find this topic — I know that this is an experience I only could have had at Simmons.