Juan Cardona

SFS ’14
Age: 23
Hometown: Cali, Colombia, but my parents have been living in Bethlehem, Pa. for a while
Major: International Politics

Do you feel obliged to be busy at Georgetown?
It’s more of a voluntary imposition. I choose to be busy, I don’t feel pressured into being busy, although I could see how some people might feel that way. Whenever you look around you always see someone doing something so cool you wish you were doing something cooler, but as long as you figure out what you want to do and pursue it as much as you can, all the opportunities are there for you.

What do you do on campus?
I’m currently starting on my own business. I’m working with the Colombian Cultural Association on campus. It’s called Por Colombia. I got inspired with a trip to Nicaragua I did a couple years ago. I was inspired to start doing academic diplomacy trips to Colombia. I’m putting together an academic diplomacy trip to Cartagena. It’s a program to take students who have advanced Spanish-speaking skills to Cartagena, which is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Part of the idea is to dispel a lot of misconceptions people have about Colombia, namely that it’s dangerous or that there are kidnappings or homicides. Although there is crime and some danger, Colombia is by far very different from what it used to be 10 years ago. It’s not even on the top 10 most dangerous countries list. I want to show people the cultural beauty that Cartagena has to offer. The program’s not a traditional service program and it’s not like tourism in general. My program combines aspects of cultural immersion, like doing cool activities that you would want to do anyways during a vacation, like snorkeling, zip lining, horseback riding, stuff like that, but also I’m giving people the opportunity to meet people in the community doing really cool things, like the president of the foundation that helped bring down child mortality by a ridiculous amount, the president of a company that has been building 50,000 homes for homeless people that have moved into the city. It’s a really unique opportunity and I want to be one of the first people bringing people to Colombia.

How have you gotten this idea off the ground?
It’s been me, mostly me. It wasn’t hard to get people interested in helping me out. In fact, there’s about seven other Georgetown students who have been volunteering their time to help me spread the message, help me shape how I’m putting forward what I want to do, how to market the program to students, putting on events. As far as the business development and the research that goes into it, I’m writing a 30-page paper to serve as the foundation for this, like why you should come to Cartagena. I say what there is to do. I’ve had to learn a lot of things and haven’t had a lot of money to spend because I haven’t taken out any loans or gotten any grants. It’s been kind of slow and hard but when you’re passionate about something you can decide to go all for it and that’s where I’m at right now.

Do you plan on continuing to work with this business after graduation?
No. I work in International Programs for Georgetown. I’m an executive programs coordinator for the Center for Intercultural Education and Development. I know these types of programs aren’t really profitable in the short-term so I can’t really financially devote myself to this for a couple years. What I’m going to do is get a job at Georgetown to pay the bills while I develop this program. But our pilot program is spring break next year. And I’m planning to do an early summer and later summer program if everything goes well.

Do you feel you fit in at Georgetown?
Yeah, I mean, I’ve never felt like I didn’t fit in. It’s just that Georgetown’s a place where a lot of competing personalities come to gather. I don’t know if anyone fits in, or if we all just kind of get along. I’ve never felt excluded, I’ve always felt like there was somewhere for me to go to find something interesting for me to do, or to find friends that I have things in common with. I really like my experience at Georgetown.

What’s your favorite class?
The coolest class I’ve taken is probably one I’m in now with Madeleine Albright. It’s very intimidating at the beginning, but once you get accustomed to it and learn to cope with the workload, it becomes a really interesting experience to be able to ask the former secretary of state questions. She brought in the former deputy director of the CIA the other day, and the guy, besides doing a lecture, finished by doing some magic tricks.

What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
Getting used to the United States. The whole experience of transitioning to a new culture has been very taxing and difficult at a lot of different times. It’s been a growing experience. Americans are very different from Colombians in a lot of different ways. The way of life in the United States, the styles of relationships, friendships, family, are all very different and are things I’ve had to learn and get used to. I think I’ve succeeded in that I’m comfortable where I am, but it’s definitely been a struggle understanding where people come from. Becoming a citizen was also part of the process and was pretty hard.

Do you feel more comfortable here or back home?
I’m at a point in my life where I’ve spent half my life here and half my life there. I feel like I don’t really fit in anywhere. Have you read about third-culture kids? That’s kind of where I am right now. I identify with both, I don’t really fit in with either, but I’ve also traveled a lot and absorbed a lot of other cultures, so I’m more a citizen of the world. I would feel just as comfortable living somewhere in Germany.

What’s your favorite city?
Amsterdam. The city itself is beautiful and the art there is amazing. Every day I took a stroll and walking outside was so beautiful. If I ever get the opportunity to live there for a year or so, I would definitely hop on that.

If you could lead a protest on one thing, what would it be?
I don’t like protesting, but I don’t agree with making a fuss about things. I did participate in one protest my freshman year. Freshman year, the former president of Colombia had been hired as a professor at Georgetown. There was a protest against him. They were saying he was allegedly accused of some human rights violations because of being president of the country and fighting a war on drugs and fighting against terrorists. He put forward some policies that people questioned, but he’s never been brought to the U.N. as a criminal. In my perspective the protests were unjustified. He actually made me comfortable enough to visit my own country again. The only reason we left was because it was so dangerous. Eight years later, thanks to him, my family finally felt that we could safely go back to our country and visit our family. I feel that as a Colombian I owe him a lot of respect. I participated in a counter-protest to the protest against our former president.

Interviewed by Kim Bussing