Pointlife
Elizabeth Ganshert, UWSP alumna, is working as an intern in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she is researching women’s lives in the Afghan culture.
Alumna finds herself in a very unfamiliar place
The Pointer
kshan945@uwsp.edu
When you’re studying for midterms and haven’t slept in two nights, the idea that you may be trapped in your dorm room forever seems imminent. Many students may not realize the amount of impact they can have on the world once they set foot off campus as a graduate and just where they may end up in this world.
A University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point alumna has not only made it out of Stevens Point, but has made it all the way to Afghanistan. Elizabeth Ganshert has made traveling a necessity to her everyday life. Ganshert studied abroad during her time at UWSP in France in a language and culture immersion program.
With this experience, she learned that travel was alive in her heart. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts in French and International Studies, she returned to her beloved country of France to get a bilingual dual master’s degree from the American University of Paris and the Institut Catholique de Paris.
“Through my coursework I gained exposure to the concerns of post-conflict societies throughout the world, as well as in-depth knowledge of international human rights law, policy development, and conflict resolution. I chose my general thesis topic, U.S. foreign assistance, and needed to highlight a specific region, people or culture in my research,” said Ganshert.
The specific topic Ganshert chose was Afghan women. She believed that this topic was interesting due to the struggles that they endured and the impact the country is faced with from U.S. foreign policy.
“I began my research at the Library of Congress in January 2009 and, through various contacts was put in contact with Nasrine Gross, founder and director of the Roqia Center for Women’s Rights, Studies and Education - an encounter that was crucial to my research and eventually provided the opportunity to travel to Afghanistan,” said Ganshert.
After Ganshert researched Afghan women, she returned to France to continue her work. She then realized that she needed to get more of a real life experience concerning Afghan women. She contacted Nasrine Gross and proposed to Gross an internship and research opportunity with her in Afghanistan. Gross was delighted and made the trip both memorable and cost effective. Ganshert only had to pay for her plane ticket – the rest of the costs were covered by Gross.
“At this point I rushed to the Afghan Embassy in Paris to process my visa request and started looking for plane tickets. There are no direct flights to Kabul, so the end result was: Paris-Doha-Dubai, with Qatar airways, and Dubai-Kabul, with Pamir airways. A long and fatiguing set of flights, though the most worthwhile 18 hours I have ever spent in transit,” said Ganshert.
Ganshert then began her life-altering experience in Afghanistan. Some moments for her were challenging, while others were a definite learning experience and tested her strength.
“One of Nasrine’s initiatives is to donate supplies to girls schools in the Kabul region. On the road I saw many newly built schools swarmed by little girls wearing the typical white veils. This is an extraordinary sight considering women and girls were forbidden to attend school and were isolated in their homes during the rule of the Taliban. We continued on and stopped at another school, though this one was different from the others, as it’s structure was made up of old U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team trailers and a metal tent frame. It had started to rain and as we inspected the school I found that the math, science, Dari and English classes were proceeding in the rain as well due to leaky roofs, the metal tent frame provided no protection what so ever from the rain, yet the students and teachers remained underneath it. As I moved around with my video camera I soon had a following of little ones who wanted to observe what I was doing but shied away from the camera when it turned towards them,” said Ganshert.
“Nasrine tried to gather a large group of students to talk to them. She was speaking in Dari, discussing their hopes and dreams. One girl wanted to be a lawyer, another the President. Then the conversation switched to English and Nasrine asked the students to stand up and speak. One by one each girl introduced herself speaking perfect English. Considering the circumstances and outstanding dedication of the teachers and students, the entire event was overwhelmingly moving and we received a warm send-off when we left. As soon as I got back in our vehicle, I burst into tears. In fact, remembering this story right now brings tears to my eyes. In many ways the Afghan students are more devoted to their education than American students because they understand how precious it is. Unfortunately, many of the girls do not make it past the third grade due to an unprepared national education system and lingering patriarchal values that hinder progress for women’s rights,” said Ganshert
Ganshert’s experiences in Afghanistan were something that she will never forget. She believes that each student should travel abroad – she does know the complications of money, but believes that money is nothing compared to these life-changing experiences. Not only does your viewpoint change, but you, yourself change.
“At first I felt ignorant, as many of the Afghans I met, some having barely an elementary education, were teaching me things about the situation in their country that I would never be able to learn from a textbook, journal article or Western media source. However, I quickly realized that this was a unique opportunity to learn about one of the most complex regions of the world, add crucial information to my research and, perhaps most importantly, grow as a person,” said Gershant.
Gershant’s mentor, Bob Tomlinson, states the importance of traveling abroad as a student at UWSP and everything that you hope to aspire to.
“I try to encourage every student I meet to aspire to achieving their own individual goals. Each student is a unique individual with dreams, aspirations and goals as unique as the individual. I hope every student will find the right combination of experiences, mentors and challenges that will assist them in attaining their goals,” said Tomlinson.
