Drew excited by how much there is to learn & experience in South Africa

Hello everyone! My name is Drew Pett and I am a Senior Economics and Human Rights major and am fortunate enough to be participating in the UCONN in Cape Town program in Spring 2016. I have been interested in participating in this program since my freshman year. South Africa’s Constitution is considered extremely progressive in the realm of economic, social and cultural rights but the country still faces huge hurdles it needs to address in these areas. This makes South Africa a uniquely interesting place to study the progressive realization process, which makes this nerd giddy with excitement. I am hoping to learn a lot in South Africa and come out with a much more open, well-informed perspective in regards to human rights issues in non-Western contexts.

I am so ecstatically excited to participate in this program. I received the news of my acceptance while at work and according to my coworkers I was borderline bouncing around the restaurant all night after I received the acceptance. That excitement has not died down over the last few days and I doubt it will any time before we leave. There is so much to learn and experience in South Africa’s completely different culture, human rights context, and ecological environment. I’m excited to challenge my fellow participants to dive head into these new settings with me and can’t wait to see how they will challenge me in other ways.