Erica Bertolotto graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in a dual major of political science and international affairs.

After graduating from UNH,  I moved to London, England, to do my master’s in international development at the London School of Economics (LSE). Since then I’ve been mostly London-based, and during these years countless people have asked me how higher education in the U.S. and in England compare. I tell them about the amazing opportunities I had as a college student in the U.S., especially the research I did with an International Research Opportunity Program (IROP) grant the summer before my senior year.  A program like IROP is unfathomable to European students and, in itself, made my UNH experience. But what that opportunity offered wasn’t easy.

In the summer of 2005 I spent two months in Iringa, a smallish town in southwest Tanzania, to research child labor in the agricultural plantations of the region. As an Italian living in the U.S., who had already studied in Central America and travelled lots, I thought I was “immune” to culture shock. As it turned out, I was not.

Culture Shock in East Africa

In Tanzania it was upsetting to find high levels of corruption and frustrating to realize that child labor is an extremely complex issue even in its definition, not to mention in the development of policies to address it. But I would be lying if I didn’t admit that my greatest challenge was being a young, white, clueless woman in East Africa. I didn’t understand the language, much less the culture or communication style, and I didn’t know how to handle being constantly singled out as different.