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Keene State Global Exchange Trip Transforms Student’s Life

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Lauren Villanova
Lauren Villanova

Keene State College students often call their global exchange trips a life-changing experience. Many would be hard-pressed to surpass the transformative experience that Hamden, CT, resident and Keene State senior Lauren Villanova had during her global exchange trip to Colombia during the spring semester of her junior year.

Villanova was involved in class and on campus—during her time at Keene State she was a field hockey player, majoring in management. In 2014, she decided to take her studies to the Universidad Del Norte in Barranquilla, the main academic center for higher education in northern Colombia. Villanova had a particular interest in Colombia—she was born there and was adopted from an orphanage when she was three months old. Questions about her birth mother lingered for Villanova. She began the tedious task of researching her past. While Villanova knew the name of the orphanage and its location, she still had some work to do to find her birth mother. “They want the child to get accustomed to their new family,” Villanova explained. “Once the mother gives the child to the orphanage they are not able to see them again. Everything is very private.”

While taking an International Studies Abroad (ISA) excursion to Cabo de La Vela, a remote desert area located in the La Guajira peninsula of northern Colombia, Villanova befriended a woman who helped her locate her birth mother.

An anxious and excited Villanova, with her boyfriend Fermin, arranged to meet her birth mother at a local shopping mall. Villanova’s long and arduous journey came to a happy end when a woman and young man, who was Villanova’s half-brother, approached her.

An emotional hug between the two rekindled the relationship. “It felt surreal—like a dream. I said to myself, ‘Is this really happening?” said Villanova, trying to describe the life-changing moment. “There were a lot of questions to be asked—but many were lost in translation. You’re wondering your whole life, and then you finally know. It’s almost like you feel more complete,” she said.

No one was happier for Villanova than her adoptive mother back in Connecticut. “I know that Lauren has always wanted to find her birth mother,” said Mary-Kate Gill. “I am happy that she found her, and I am glad that she has another person in her life who loves her.”

Villanova and her birth mother will have more time to get acquainted. Following graduation this month, she will return to Colombia to work in the field of management.

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