A unique feature at Agnes Scott College is its Global Journeys: a course in the second semester of the first year that focuses on a particular place and includes a week (Peak Week) of travel on a faculty-led trip to your destination.

Each course covers four themes:

• Globalization and its consequences
Our class primarily focused on the effects of globalization on economics and culture.
• The concepts of identity, self, and ‘the other’
We analyzed several texts that discussed how the perception of one’s identity can change with age, new experiences, and new surroundings.
• Imperialism, colonialism, and diaspora
A striking example of how imperialism affected our country of focus was in the fact that Costa Rica has no military, partially because of its few and small borders, and partially because of U.S. military dominance in the American continents… • The ethics of travel
Depending on how and where we travel, we may or may not consider ourselves “tourists”. Is tourism always beneficial to a country? How so? What are the potential harms of tourism and travel? Jamaica Kincaid’s 𝘈 𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 details the ignorance and carelessness that tourists knowingly embody for the sake of their leisure, and how harmful these attitudes and this industry are to the well-being of the people whose home is in a popular vacation spot like Antigua.

I went on my global journey in March of 2025 to various locations in Costa Rica, such as San Jose, the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), and Lima. We focused on topics of sustainability, conservation, colonialism and imperialism, Pure Vida, and eco-tourism.

Writings from my Global Journey class and trip: