What if I told you that being a student at Rice doesn’t necessarily mean studying in a classroom in Houston all the time?
Since becoming a student at Rice University, I have spent time in Argentina, travelled throughout Louisiana to learn about the foster care system, and also led an alternative spring break trip in Texas to visit prisons and schools. These are just a few of the incredible fellowships available to undergraduate Rice students exclusively through the Center for Civic Leadership (CCL) — and this doesn’t even include study abroad opportunities!
Being a global citizen is extremely important to me. I grew up in a small town in Brazil and always wanted to travel the world, but this was a farfetched dream that my family could not afford. That’s why I was so excited to discover the international community when I first came to Rice and joined the Rice International Student Association as a social committee chair.
I knew I wanted to explore the United States to engage with social impact in the region, and this is how I came across the Center for Civic Leadership. I first found out about the CCL during my freshman year at a club fair and immediately applied to be an Alternative Spring Break (ASB) participant. That week, I travelled throughout Texas and Louisiana on a student-led, fully-funded program to learn more about the foster care system.
I loved this experience so much that I applied to become an ASB site leader the following year. This time, I wanted to explore the links between educational gaps and incarceration in Texas. We visited prison complexes in Huntsville, met with formerly incarcerated individuals in Austin and attended workshops with local NGOs in Houston. It was a fascinating experience that really shaped how I see education as a bridge for social justice. Hearing actual individuals’ experiences really humanized the statistics and put a face to a systemic problem.
My passion for experiential learning kept growing, and I decided to apply for the Loewenstern fellowship next. This fellowship is a fully-covered two-month internship program in either South America or Africa and is highly competitive. I really wanted to work with Enseñá for Argentina, an organization from the Teach for America network in Buenos Aires that is focused on closing educational gaps. This placement required fluency in Spanish, and I had a short interview in the language to ensure that I met the requirements.
A few months later, I received an email saying that I was accepted! I enrolled in a multicultural competencies class and also connected with other amazing students who were going to other placements.
That summer, I flew to Buenos Aires with my Loewenstern partner Joanna, who was placed into another NGO nearby. My work with Enseñá was extremely inspiring — I helped their marketing team with content creation and visited many of their partner schools in addition to attending workshops for youth labor inclusion. The team made an effort to ensure I felt both welcomed and appreciated, and the younger employees even showed me Buenos Aires from a local perspective. Joanna and I attended language exchange events where we met other exchange students from all around the world, and we also ran a 3k race together.
Studying at Rice has shown me that education extends beyond the classroom, and I am grateful to both Rice and the Center for Civic Leadership for providing me with incredible opportunities to form lasting memories and friendships. Connecting with international peers and immersing myself in diverse communities has taught me that true learning happens when we engage deeply with the people, cultures, and world around us. As I look forward to studying abroad in Spain next semester, I am inspired to continue applying the lessons that I’ve learned to build bridges across borders, foster social impact, and create meaningful change.
-Juliana, Sid Richardson ‘26 (Published on 5/6/2025)
