As Ethics, Culture, and Society Professor Matthew Bersagel Braley, Ph.D. plans the 2025 study abroad to South Africa, he reflected on the four previous trips over the past 10 years. The trips combine lessons in history, hands-on experiences, learning more about social movements, interacting with the people of South Africa, and touring the region. Alumni who participated shared how the experience impacted their views of the world and helped them make deeper connections to Viterbo values such as hospitality, service, and stewardship.

Nursing alumna McKenna (Eiberg) Rickman ’17, ’22 traveled with the 2016 group. “Studying abroad really helped me open my eyes to issues bigger than my own and what we struggle with in the U.S.,” she said, reflecting on learning about Apartheid and Nelson Mandela, and touring Robben Island and Constitution Hill, where Mandela was incarcerated. She has fond memories of educating the local people about health topics and working among South African college students in the free clinics. She also enjoyed the safari tour, and teaching young children of South Africa nursery rhymes.

Kalene (Weber) Ruehlow ’16, also a graduate of Viterbo’s nursing program, participated in the 2016 study abroad after graduation. She recalled how visits to South African museums tied in with the history piece of the course. “On the service side, we went to Sweet Home, just outside Cape Town, to educate community health leaders about HIV and tuberculosis. “What stuck with me was when we shared music together. Two different worlds collided, two different languages, but so much joy was in that moment of exchanging songs.”

Before arranging these study abroad trips, Bersagel Braley had previously traveled to South Africa for Emory University and his doctoral research. He explained how the Viterbo trips to South Africa, in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2023 have had different focuses, including global health, history, food insecurities, and social movements such as racial justice and student protests. An additional faculty member accompanies Bersagel Braley and the students, and they try to weave in that faculty member’s subject area of expertise. The group typically consists of 15 – 20 students.

It is thirty hours of travel to reach this southernmost country on the continent of Africa. When the group lands and gets situated, the cities and villages they visit and the experiences they encounter become the classroom for the next 18 days.

“South Africa provides a useful mirror,” Bersagel Braley said. “For instance, it allows students to reflect on race in our own country in a different way.”

Students who commit to study abroad pay for their own travel and in-country expenses. Before the trip, they complete all their coursework and reading with the Ethics, Culture, and Society Course 305: Resistance and Reconciliation in South Africa, so they can focus on the experience. Rickman recalled that for her, it was helpful to complete the classroom component before traveling. “It helped me understand what I was seeing and experiencing in South Africa,” she said.

Students take turns blogging their adventures and memories during their travels, and they each keep a personal journal. Ruehlow said that she often revisits the journal she kept in South Africa.

The contrast between the large, well-kept homes and the poor, deteriorating compounds was something Ruehlow has not forgotten. “That really stayed with me, because we see a lot of this in our hometowns. It may not be as drastic, but does that mean we should ignore it?”

“I think in the end, going to South Africa has helped me to look for sustainable and stewardly ways to help others and to be aware of the different lives around me,” Ruehlow shared.

Rickman, who also traveled to Guatemala when she returned for her DNP program at Viterbo, said the South Africa study abroad makes one appreciate what they do have for resources, including health care.