Chile: The Best Country in Chile, of course
Penn Global Seminar: Health and the Healthcare System in Chile
Anya, one of the Fall 2025 Penn Global Seminar Correspondents, shares her experience abroad during the Winter Break. Follow along with the group of correspondents on our blog and look out for their images on the @pennabroad Instagram feed.
“Engineers can’t study abroad.”
This is the narrative that was fed to me since Day 1 of NSO at Penn. I remember my Orientation Peer Advisor telling me how every junior and senior year lab in the bioengineering course sequence is a prerequisite for the next, and that no abroad courses can replace them. And honestly, there’s truth in this – if I spend a semester abroad, I’d have to delay my graduation by one full year.
But that’s a false narrative.
Abroad experiences can come in many forms, and they definitely ARE something an engineer can have – and I’m eternally grateful to Penn for offering Global Seminars.
This trip to Chile was unforgettable. We met countless interesting people with incredible stories to share. Like the Machi, who quit his accounting job to embrace his true identity as the healer of his indigenous Mapuche community, now offering diagnoses and hope to those around him. Or our incredible translator Adrian, 21 years old, who fell in love with Chile after studying abroad there for a semester, and took a gap year from college to live and work there – now fully immersed in the culture, selling his pottery at various Valparaíso art centers, and fluent in Spanish. Or our wonderful tour guides, María Jose and Felipe, who, after studying translation and history, built their own tour-guide company from scratch… and only at the very end did we find out they were married 🙂
And my favorite story was that of Maca, Jose, and Vane: three nursing students at our Chilean partner university who were kind enough to spend the week with us – not just during our academic itinerary, but in the evenings as well. They invited us to their homes, introduced us to their families, took us to their favorite spots around the city, and introduced us to their favorite foods and drinks. It was through them that I began to understand why Chileans are so proud to be Chilean – a pride rooted not in comparison to anywhere else, but in deep connection to people, place, and community. In fact, their favorite saying is, “Chile is the best country in Chile.” Chilean Spanish is also known for how unique it is from the rest of Latin America. For example, the word for “baby,” while “bebé” everywhere else, is “guagua” here. The first time I heard that, I thought someone was pointing out a Wawa and got excited :).
I also made 13 new wonderful friends. Even at the end of the semester, we didn’t really know each other – our Penn Global Coordinator, Clemente, was shocked to see us doing ice breakers while awaiting departure at the Philadelphia airport. But on our journey back, we were already planning reunions. It was incredible to be surrounded by a group of students who were genuinely passionate about what there was to learn here. Max crafted beautiful stories about Chile’s nutritional status. Daisy’s passion for abortion access beamed through every additional interview she conducted. Akhila’s curiosity sparked a new line of questions after each hospital visit. Daja’s deep-dive into Chile’s maternal support programs captivated me. Everyone was amazingly inquisitive, always asking questions and sharing reflections that opened my eyes to new perspectives. From every bus-ride conversation about Chilean health privacy policies to late-night taco runs, I wouldn’t choose to frolic through the streets of Santiago with anyone else.
After coming home, I haven’t stopped thinking about how impactful this PGS experience has been. I’ve not only seen the main attractions and eaten the yummiest foods as I might on a personal vacation, but I’ve also understood diverse Chilean perspectives and gotten a glimpse into everyday life. I gained insight into treasured values and learned about a healthcare system that balances public and private care in ways that challenged my assumptions about access, efficiency, and equity. The appreciation I have for every moment I’ve experienced, every person I’ve met, and every place I’ve seen is unmatched. More than anything, this experience reshaped how I think about learning – as something that happens most powerfully through people, conversations, and shared experience. It reminded me how important learning through a global lens is, and it made me realize that I want to spend the rest of college seeking out those moments of growth.
And luckily for us engineers, Penn offers so many ways to do that – from more Global Seminars to winter break Patagonia backpacking trips. Chile taught me that exploration doesn’t require stepping away from engineering, but rather stepping into the world with it. There is so much beauty in our world, and I hope to expose myself to just a little bit more of it – because every country can feel like the best country when you take the time to truly be there.