Finding a Way Back

When Gabriela Alemán ’18 was a young girl in Miami, she remembers looking across the horizon of the Atlantic Ocean, feeling like she could almost reach out and touch Havana, the city where her mother once lived. One day, she thought, she would find a way back.

And because of Carolina, she did.

“The study abroad program in Cuba was one of the reasons why I really wanted to come to Carolina.”

At Carolina, she dove into Latin American studies, learning to become a policymaker who could help bridge the gap between the U.S. and its neighbors to the south.

“Being there made me realize that the way U.S. policy and history is taught to us in high school, we think about Cuba — and a lot of countries, really — in very specific and sometimes very dismissive ways,” she said. “In reality, they’re wonderful, brilliant, resilient people who have created unbelievable ways of surviving and thriving.”

If there’s one thing her Carolina experience has taught her, it’s that finding common ground is never out of reach.

Read the complete Carolina Story…

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