Center Review

I ended up choosing Projects Abroad to fulfill my study abroad requirement (French major). The flexibility of their program helped me fit the three week minimum requirement into the term between fall/spring semesters.

Full disclosure: I’m timid and socially anxious, but I really felt safe in Senegal because of Projects Abroad. I knew enough French to get by, but I’d recommend future volunteers really brush up on it and use the Wolof tools available. I knew what I was getting into by volunteering in Senegal (ie that it’s not a vacation and it’s hard work) but I thoroughly enjoyed doing what I could with the limited time I was there.

Saint-Louis is beautiful. It’s easily walkable, and I never felt unsafe walking through the market (even as a single woman in her early twenties). Men did make sexual comments but it wasn’t anything more serious than the catcalls I get in America and, frankly, the encounters were never violent/threatening.