Studying abroad: Reflections and connections in Santiago, Chile

Guest Writer: Maddison Wilder (’25)

February 25, 2025 marks one year since I landed in my second home in Santiago, Chile. The last year has been filled with so many amazing and unique experiences from the pre-abroad process to my experience in Chile to reacclimating myself to life in America after living in another country for over three months. I am so grateful to share my experiences and what I have learned.

Preparing to go abroad was not a linear journey, especially since I am a biology and Spanish major on the pre-medicine track. Many students in rigorous majors think that studying abroad is not in the cards for them because their schedules are too concrete to allow for it. With early planning and strategic class selection, however, it can be done.

Although I was told that I would have to make sacrifices to pursue studying abroad, I was not deterred from making this experience happen— I knew early on that I wanted this to be part of my Hope College experience. Every semester, advising season consisted of meetings with my biology advisor, pre-health advisor and the Global Engagement Office to discuss schedules and classes to ensure I was still on the path to going abroad. When choosing an abroad program, I wanted something that would combine my Spanish knowledge with healthcare. I learned about the Santiago, Chile Health Studies Program through IES, and immediately fell in love with the idea of going to South America to explore a culture so different from my own and be able to practice my Spanish while peeking into another country’s healthcare system. So, after many semesters of planning, I arrived in Chile on February 24, 2024. 

Love at first sight is real. At least that is how I felt the first time I saw the hot pink Andes Mountains from the windows of the airport, illuminated by the early morning sun. As the taxi drove away, I watched the airport get smaller and the city, engulfed by the mountains, get bigger. I could feel the anticipation for what was to come in the following months. When I arrived at my host mom’s apartment, I was so nervous to meet her, and worries started to flood into my mind. Would my Spanish be good enough? Would she like me? What if I got homesick? All of these questions were perfectly natural, but my fears melted away when she came out of her apartment and immediately embraced me. Although communication was difficult and required more thought than typical conversations at home, she was so kind and patient and made me feel at ease. My host mom undoubtedly shaped my experience to be as positive as it was. 

Going from having one Spanish class for 50 minutes, three times a week, to speaking Spanish from when I woke up to when I went to sleep was a huge adjustment, especially academically. My classes abroad ranged from traditional Spanish classes, native cultures, social role of arts and politics to medical Spanish and a Chilean health seminar. These classes challenged me in such a unique and necessary way and made my Spanish grow exponentially. Using my Spanish in academic, conversational and medical settings set me up to have a much better toolbox for communication. These classes dove deep into the ancient and modern Chilean culture, which allowed me to feel truly connected to the country.

In my health seminar, we explored the complex healthcare system Chile offers its residents, as well as patient care, social science aspects, health trends, laws, policies and the future health of Chile. In this class, we were able to travel to rural health clinics that offered patients a variety of care from primary health, urgent care, obstetric needs, pediatrics, mental health, dieticians, physical therapy, pharmaceuticals and more. We also traveled to the public health education center that participates in disaster care and health education initiatives, offering resources to underserved communities and drawing attention to the disparities seen in Chile.

Furthermore, every Tuesday, my cohort of Health Studies students and I traveled to different clinics and hospitals to do clinical observation. This experience was so immersive and engaging, and great for practicing the medical Spanish we had been learning in class. The shadowing ranged from being in the operating room, participating in group therapy on the psychiatric floor, exploring nutrition in infants in the NICU, watching the production of chemotherapy drugs in the pharmacology suite and much more.

What I learned in the healthcare seminar and through clinical observation has challenged me to draw connections from United States healthcare and make necessary comparisons to better understand healthcare as a whole. One of the main reasons I decided to pair Spanish studies with biology studies is that I want to use my medical platform to be an advocate for Spanish-speaking patients in the United States and shed light on the disparities found in U.S. health. My experience abroad gave me the opportunity to experience Latin American health firsthand and explore possible ways to improve the U.S. healthcare system for everyone. 

Outside of academics, I experienced immense personal growth. Growing up off a dirt road in rural Michigan does not naturally lend itself to diverse experiences. Before going to Chile, I did not have experience navigating a city. Using public transportation was a completely new experience and helped me with time management and learning to factor travel into plans. 

The diversity and spontaneity of city life was also exciting, and it kept me on my toes. My program hosted American students from all over the country and from those people, I made lifelong friendships. The friends I made are from New York City, Buffalo, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Columbus. Due to our different backgrounds, we all had different life stories and experiences to share. It was so fun to integrate with such a diverse group of friends and be able to share new experiences. For example, my friends cheered me on when I figured out how to change metro stations and get on the correct train and when I tried Japanese food for the first time. On the other hand, my program traveled to Chilóe, a small island right off Chile, and explored the rural area filled with history and culture. While there, a couple of my friends made their first trip to a farm.

During a week-long break, my friends and I planned a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay. It was exciting to plan and execute a trip with a group of people who I had only met a month and a half before. It was amazing to see those two cities and explore what culture they had to offer. The accents in Argentina and Uruguay are very similar but distinct from the Chilean accent— another growth moment for my Spanish acquisition and cultural awareness.

My friends and I often gathered in my homestay because it was very close to our academic center, and we would spend time doing homework together, making big meals and watching movies in Spanish. My host mom also had her niece staying with her. She is studying dentistry in Santiago. She and I became best friends and she started tagging along with all of the things my friends and I did. She helped us to better understand the city, culture and language, and she even invited us to stay with her family in La Serena, Chile, during Easter break.

Now that I have been back at Hope for my last two semesters, I have been able to truly absorb and reflect upon what I learned from my time abroad. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to explore a country, culture and language different from my own. This opportunity did not come without the challenges of feeling like an outsider, that my Spanish was behind or that I would not fit in. But because I lived those experiences, my empathy for people acclimating to new environments has increased greatly. It is humbling to feel like an imposter when so much of our lives are spent feeling so comfortable where we are.

I miss the freedom and spontaneity that came with city life and the daily challenge of growing my Spanish. Every day while abroad, I learned new things and explored new places, which made for an exciting life. I am so grateful for my time in Chile and cannot believe it has been one year since I arrived at my second home. The connections and friendships I made there will stay with me forever.