EOF Student  Mahalia Bazile Spent  8 Weeks in Cape Town, South Africa on State Dept. Scholarship

Bazile won the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship and left her hometown of Newark for Cape Town, South Africa earlier this month. “I love it here!” she said in a recent email.

“I wanted to travel to South Africa to learn indigenous languages and culture, because, as a black person in predominantly white institutions, I want to understand the history and cultural value that lies in Cape Town,” she said. “In times of increased cultural misunderstandings and racial tensions, I am deeply interested in learning about South African social culture after apartheid, to build and gain through interpersonal experience a more inclusive and global perspective of the world and its agents.”

 Bazile is working on developing a blog, so check later for posts about her trip on: onestepfromtheheart.tumblr.com