Remarkable International Studies Alum
by Erika Binegar
Long before treading a new path to England, and even longer before campaigning and winning the vice presidential seat on the University of Iowa Student Government in 2005, Lauren McCarthy made a small but lasting change — she added the International Studies undergraduate major to her already-full academic plate.
“It seemed to really fit my interests,” she said simply, referring to the major’s flexibility and scholarship opportunities for study abroad.
For McCarthy, the three-year-old major opened new doors to exotic locales and experiences. She was one of 63 students to graduate in May 2006 with an International Studies bachelor’s degree. She was also one of two honors students who also received a double emphasis in Latin American studies and development. She also took home political science and international studies degrees and a Spanish minor, as well as fond memories from a semester at the Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in Chile.
“It was really an ideal time to go abroad and to a totally different culture and use a different language than English,” McCarthy said. “College is a great time to experiment with what you want to get out of life.”
Lauren McCarthy spends her last day in Viña del Mar, Chile with her host father, Gonzalo Mendoza Bustos, in December 2004.
The trip to the South American country, which stretches along a 6,435 km Pacific Ocean coastline, was McCarthy’s first outside of the United States.
“It made me appreciate how challenging it must be for international students coming to Iowa,” McCarthy said. “It’s kind of scary to go away, but afterwards, you know you can learn to adapt and survive in a new culture.”
The 22-year-old lived with her Chilean host parents, Gonzalo, a retired police officer, and Nora for six months during fall semester of 2004, nestled within a hilly suburb and among brightly painted homes. She said the dwellings — scattered haphazardly across the landscape — were shockingly different from the neat rows of beige homes one finds in the Midwest.
In their early 60s, McCarthy said her host parents were more like grandparents.
“They were just incredibly sweet,” she said, joking that she probably gained 10 pounds from her mom’s rich hot cocoa, served up at least twice a day.
McCarthy’s mother, Kathy Koenig, said she was unsure what her daughter’s experiences in Chile would be like, but she trusted it was the right fit.
“She was so well taken care of by her family in South America — she was an only child of these empty nesters who just spoiled her rotten,” Koenig said, laughing.
Koenig said she wasn’t the least bit surprised her daughter added the International Studies major, or turned her eyes toward travel.
Lauren McCarthy spends time hiking in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile near the Altiplanic Lakes.
“I just always had a sense that Lauren was going to try to do big things in the world and it wouldn’t necessarily be on a local scale,” she added. “I think it’s such an important time in the world for people to explore other cultures and other ways of life, so there’s a greater opportunity for understanding.”
In Chile, McCarthy got lucky with a private bathroom and her own room, which she said helped ease her transition. The middle-class to upper-middle class homes were small, McCarthy said, and sometimes the families made sacrifices. Sharing rooms with one another to secure their new son or daughter’s privacy and comfort was not uncommon, she noted.
But even in the comfort of her private quarters, the Des Moines, Iowa, native had to face one ever-present reality — her host family did not speak English.
“It was difficult at first,” she said, adding idle conversation could be a struggle. “There were frequent moments when I didn’t know what was going on.”
The problem stemmed from the nature of Chilean Spanish. As one of the trickier versions, speakers often drop syllables and sounds, McCarthy said. She recounted one attempt to buy a “Crush” soda from a street vendor, trying desperately to reach an understanding by pronouncing the word the American way.
“It never became so natural that there weren’t problems here and there, but it improved immensely,” said University of Iowa graduate Jennifer Kruse, who studied in Chile at the same time as McCarthy.
Kruse, currently in her second year at Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, recounted a ski trip in the Chilean Andes when first-timer Lauren had a hard time remaining upright.
Lauren McCarthy with her friends, Jenn Kruse (center) and Lucy Rutecki (right) in Patagonia, near the Torres del Paine National Park in southern Chile. The animals behind them are guanacos.
“She was just standing there crying, and this guy came and asked if she needed help. She asked for a tissue, but had actually asked for a diaper,” the 23-year-old recalled, laughing.
During her semester abroad, Kruse said she avoided saying much to Spanish speakers because she didn’t want to sound like an idiot, even though she earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish at the university. Eventually, she discovered the trick to easing her fears — simply ignoring the nervousness.
Yet comprehending professors was never a problem because they spoke clearly, delivering topical lectures and relying on the students to read individually, McCarthy said.
She expected difficult classes, but said her general education course load was relatively easy. She studied social work and Chilean political history but ended up enjoying Greek mythology most, reading tragedies like Oedipus Rex in Spanish.
“It certainly gave me a much broader look at education,” McCarthy said, adding she gained a new appreciation for courses at the University of Iowa, where faculty are more interactive with students.
Outside of school, she spent most of her time with other “gringos,” including Kruse and a number of American foreign-exchange students, speaking a lot of “Spanglish” and traveling across the Chilean countryside via bus. But when they weren’t writing to friends and family in Internet cafes or watching translated movies like “Shrek Two,” they were traveling.
“You become more risk-taking and adventurous,” McCarthy said, remembering their loose travel plans.
Lauren McCarthy spends a special moment with her dad, Jim McCarthy. They toured the breathtaking Valle de la Luna (Vally of the Moon) in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile at sunset in November of 2004.
The students found local activities and places to stay upon reaching their destinations instead of planning ahead, fanning out across the “non-touristy” country to see what it had to offer — which turned out to include a day-long excursion to Santiago; a trip north to see a beach town; a “Chilean poet tour,” with pit stops at the poet Pablo Neruda’s homes; a trip to Pucón, a southern “adventure tourism city,” offering views of volcanoes and white-water rafting opportunities; and a visit to Patagonia, the hiking region straddling Chile and Argentina.
It was in Patagonia where one of the group’s favorite memories unfolded, Kruse said. After a midnight arrival, the students realized they didn’t have a key to get into their hostel, Casa Lili. As they stood outside knocking and ringing the doorbell, their taxi driver pointed out a string hanging from the door, which unlocked the door when pulled. In a Goldilocks and the Three Bears-type fantasy, the students found three beds in the first room to their right and slept through the night, Kruse recounted.
Because Chile’s landscape varies greatly, McCarthy and her friends experienced all four seasons during their travels. In the Atacoma Desert, there is a stark region with sand dunes, known as the “Valley of the Moon,” that consumes the Northern part of the country.
“It was really beautiful, but physically I found it very difficult,” McCarthy said, recalling her constant thirst and runny nose.
In the South lies Patagonia, a scenic forest-laden region, where the landscape is reminiscent of that from a Lord of the Rings movie — crazy mountain formations and spontaneous blizzards overwhelmed the region, McCarthy said.
In Valparaíso, where McCarthy and her classmates spent most of their time, it was extremely temperate. In fact, heating and air conditioning was not necessary, and McCarthy said one Chilean friend called it the “climate for human beings.” Though it was winter in Valparaíso during their stay, the lowest temperature dropped to a mere 40 degrees and the foliage was amazing, McCarthy said, remembering huge aloe vera plants that flourished on the roadsides.
But after six months in Chile, McCarthy journeyed home to the Midwest, where winter temperatures routinely drop below zero. And although she originally planned to relax for the remainder of her junior year, she ended up winning a political battle for a top University of Iowa Student Government seat, instead. Among the added stress and responsibility of running a student senate, McCarthy got to share her study abroad experience with other students — many of whom lamented lost opportunities to do the same.
Lauren McCarthy spends time with her friends Jenn Kruse (left) and Lucy Rutecki (center) in Patagonia to see the glaciers.
The 22-year-old’s father, Jim McCarthy, visited his daughter in Chile and witnessed her skills with the language. He said his daughter’s study abroad experience could have been more complicated without the support of UI International Programs and the UI Office of Study Abroad as well as the money Lauren earned with study abroad scholarships and grants.
“I just think it’s a terrific program, and I think as we go forward, the ability to give students the opportunity to study abroad is going to be a good step in the right direction to cure a lot of positive things for our world — better communication, better relationships, hopefully world peace,” Jim McCarthy said.
And now, after a whirlwind year at the helm of the student government, Lauren McCarthy is broadening her international experience at the University of Cambridge in England to earn a master’s degree in Latin American studies.
“I’m really proud of Lauren for reaching out and taking this step because I think it’s going to reward her in many unpredictable ways,” her father said.
As for McCarthy, she said her experiences in the International Studies major and Chile were important because it gave her a deeper perspective.
“Having gone abroad as a student emboldened me to go abroad after graduation,” McCarthy said, noting it’s the perfect time in her life for a move — she can afford it, make new friends and experience new things, all while avoiding the worry of a mortgage. “It helped me better appreciate what it’s like to live in a place with not as many conveniences, just to understand that not everyone lives like us in the U.S. and to have some greater empathy.”
Though McCarthy plans to return to the U.S. after school, she eventually hopes to steer towards Latin America once again, working for women’s rights and possibly picking up some Portuguese along the way.
“I’m not entirely sure what I’ll end up doing,” she said. “But, hopefully, it will involve travel.