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Danielle Bero ’07 (Astoria, N.Y.) will present a brown bag lecture 12-1 p.m. Oct. 20 in the Interfaith Chapel highlighting her experiences during her study abroad trip to Africa this summer.
The lecture is sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Development and a deli lunch will be available. A portion of Bero’s trip was paid for through a scholarship provided by Intercultural Development. The one-time award was developed for a student engaged in a service learning project in a country not usually visited, and was established in honor of Aaron O. Hoff, Lafayette’s first African American student.
Bero, who created a major combining creative mediums and social justice, was part of a 16-member student group led by the Center for Global Education at Augsburg College. The students took classes, taught, and traveled through rural and urban Namibia and portions of South Africa.
For most of the three and a half month trip, the students stayed in a large house in Windhoek and took classes. Bero took courses on the development process of Southern Africa, political and social change in Namibia, and the country’s struggles against colonialism and apartheid.
She served an internship at the Bright Hill Preschool located within an informal settlement west of Windhoek. Here she taught basic academic concepts and English to Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), many of whom were HIV positive.
Travel was also a large part of the study abroad. Bero had a rural home stay in Ozondati, Namibia and an urban home stay in Soweto, South Africa. She also explored a bit of the Namib Desert, saw Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, and spent two weeks in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.
During her time at the Ozondati cattle farm, Bero saw firsthand what life is like for poor Namibian farmers. While on the farm, which had no running water or electricity, she helped gut a goat, went to a goat auction, milked cows and herded animals.
Bero has served on the executive board for NIA and the Association of Black Collegians (ABC), and is an active member of Students for Social Justice (SSJ) and Questioning Established Sexual Taboos (QuEST). She has served two years as a resident advisor and currently works as a student assistant at the Landis Community Outreach Center.
She is also a founding member of Writing Organization Reaching Dynamic Students (W.O.R.D.S.), and has gone on alternative spring break trips to South Carolina through Habitat for Humanity and Chicago working with an after-school youth program.