Experiences of studying abroad in Peru - Part One

I always wanted to study abroad somewhere (probably a Spanish-speaking country since I’m working to obtain my Spanish minor here at Penn State), but I never knew exactly where I wanted to go. After researching various places, I settled on Peru. I was already too attached to Penn State, so I decided to study during the summer, and I had an absolute blast. During my time in Peru, we visited many different places across the country. Peru is known for being one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world, in which one can experience deserts, jungles, snow-capped mountain ranges, and highland pastures all within short travels of each other.

My home city was Cusco, Peru, which is situated about 11,000 feet above sea level. Within an hour of arriving to the city, I began to experience altitude sickness. I struggled to catch every breath, and it was a task just to walk up a flight of stairs. My host mother, who did not speak a word of English, gave me herbal tea as soon as I arrived to help reduce the effects of the sickness, which helped a little bit.

While in Peru, I took two classes; Spanish language and the History of the Incan Civilization. Though I did not take any agricultural classes in Peru, I certainly took advantage of looking at the different ways food is produced in the country compared to United States agriculture. Peru is known for their wool and potato production, in which there are over 4,000 different varieties of potatoes in the country.

One of the most interesting areas of agricultural that we were exposed to was an alpaca farm. There, they harvested the wool from alpacas, llamas and vicuñas (wild alpacas). The main focus of the alpaca farm was to keep the Incan heritage within the products they created. The main focus of the farm was sustainability; the farm used all-natural dyes, in which they grew all of the products used in the different dyes. After creating the dye, the farm would hand-spin, and weave the different products for sale.

Feeding an alpaca in the Sacred Valley

Boiling an all-natural dye at the alpaca farm

Hand weaving at alpaca farm in the Sacred Valley

Peruvian woman spinning wool and tending to her flock

Peru is mostly known as being part of the extensive Incan Empire. Cusco was the capital city of the Empire until the Spanish conquered the city in the 1530’s. We spent a lot of time traveling and visiting parts of the Ancient Empire. One of the main highlights of the trip was when we visited Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is located in the cloud forests of Peru, virtually an unknown area to the Western world until 1916, when it was discovered by Hiram Bingham.

A photo of me standing in front of Machu Picchu

I certainly had a wonderful time during my stay in Cusco, Peru. I gained so much knowledge about the Incan civilization, and it truly fascinates me how advanced the civilization was, in which Machu Picchu was named one of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World.

Interning With Pennsylvania Farm Bureau

This past summer was great -- I interned with the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.

PFB represents more than 50,000 farm members across the commonwealth, and has been recognized as one of the most influential lobbying firms in the state. I was the Governmental Affairs and Communications intern, so I got to see the day-to-day workings of what an agricultural organization does to promote the largest industry in Pennsylvania.

I wrote research policy development articles as well as articles for farm members to help them understand the commodities that they produce. I truly appreciate how the staff involved me with all aspects of the agricultural industry. I was able to attend meetings on dog law, animal welfare and dairy pricing.

The highlight of my summer was when the National Affairs Lobbyist and I spent a few days in Washington, D.C., where we visited with the Congressional Representatives and Senators from Pennsylvania. Our main goal was to meet with them and talk about the differences between two bills in the House and Senate, both dealing with the Clean-Up and Restoration of the Chesapeake Bay.

Much of Pennsylvania lies within the bay's watershed, so the information that we relayed to the elect officials was very pertinent to their congressional areas. Later, I got to tour the American Farm Bureau Federation’s headquarters.

During the summer, I also had the ability to help lead the FACE 2010 Conference – a youth conference held at Bucknell University for high school students to participate in a mock House of Representatives, strictly dealing with agricultural issues. It was great to see all the fresh ideas coming out of the student’s minds. Even though I still may be young in my agricultural career, it is nice to see that we have these young faces that are just as invigorated about promoting agriculture as I am.