
About the Author
Constance Bourguignon is a senior in Eliot House pursuing a joint concentration in Romance Languages and Literatures and Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality along with a secondary field in Educational Studies. She is originally from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Read her student view here.
Photo Essay from Guatemala
I wished to make the most of the countless opportunities Harvard offers to explore other countries and experience various education systems around the world. After having visited Namibia, China and France, I made my way to Guatemala last summer to teach dance and arts at Project Somos, a non-profit elementary school serving underprivileged children in the Mayan village of Chibaraval.
On a weekend trip, I visited the Cerro Tzankujil Nature Reserve and snapped this shot of a man fishing under the silhouette of two volcanoes. The picture was awarded the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Prize as well as the “Elevated Risk, Elevated Reward” Prize from Harvard Global Support Services at the annual OIE Photo Contest in February.
More Student Views
Decriminalizing ‘Colonial’ Laws in the Anglophone Caribbean – ‘Buggery’
The moment I stepped foot back on the island, I was no longer the 14-year-old boy who once proudly wore his school uniform to Wolmer’s Boys High School—the oldest school in the Caribbean—and to Maranatha Gospel Hall, my local church. I had become something else entirely in the eyes of the state: a criminal. An illegal presence.
Empathy Is Listening and Seeing Through: Mapping the Unseen Patient Journeys of Chagas Disease
I write these words not based on my experience from a distant field site in another country but from clinics and community spaces in our neighborhoods in Massachusetts and long video calls—spaces where I’ve had the privilege of listening.
A Journey of Encounter with the Rabinal Achi´and Las Guacamayas
Rabinal Achi’ and Las Guacamayas are among the oldest dances in Guatemala, whose origins date back to before the Spanish conquest.