Why I'm here

My name is Emily Nicholls and I'm a 20 year old junior at the University of Oklahoma. I'm currently on my 4th visit to la Isla del Encanto, but my first without my family as my mom is from Ponce, a city in the south of Puerto Rico. I'm so excited to share my experiences and encounters during my stay in beautiful Puerto Rico! Just so you can have some extra insight about me, below you will see my interest essay which stated why I originally wanted to apply to this program.

I am applying to the program Communicating Culture. Travel Writing in Puerto

Rico in December lntersession for a variety of reasons:

First of all, I have what the Travel Channel refers to as the "travel bug". I

absolutely love to travel. I think it's great to see and experience other peoples

and places to really broaden one's understanding of the world. I'm an

lnternational Enterprise Studies minor because I love to learn about different

places and interactions between them. I think that because individual countries

depend so much on one another due to our increasingly global economy, it's

important to be interested in the histories and practices of other cultures because

I feel that getting an understanding of those who are different really helps people

to relate better to one another. As far as traveling is concerned l've been to

Puerto Rico before as that is where my mother is from and l've learned much

about the history of it, but I think it would be great to learn about it in a way that I

can share with others, which is travel writing. I watch the Travel Channel all the

time and I'm so envious of the hosts of the shows because they get to

experience so many different cultures and lands and share their experiences with

the entire nation which really helps others to learn about the world outside of the

United States and reshape perceptions that we get from the variety of sources

we have access to. lt's secretly a dream of mine to have a show like that.

Definitely not one dealing with creepy crawlies & odd foods, but more along the

lines of increasing awareness of what the world has to offer beyond what we

have been exposed to.

Additionally, I am a Spanish minor so it would be great to practice in an

environment where I could be immersed in the language but still have English as

a safety net as everyone there does speak English also. I feel that practicing is

the key to success. Because my mother is from there, my grandmother and

extended family (see the above picture) still live there so it would be great to be able to see them while on the trip because I know it would make them all so excited that not only do I

want to learn about my heritage but I also want to share it with everyone else.

I'd really appreciate the opportunity to join you on this trip to Puerto Rico not only

for my own benefit, but also to provide a different perspective for others on the

trip because I do speak the language and have a deeper understanding of the

culture I feel that I would be a valuable asset to the trip. Especially since my

grandmother loves to cook!