Katarina Jurikova '08 has focused her time at COA working on international development, poverty and social justice, and exploring
 ways in which people and communities become active in political, social and economic spheres, whether through NGOs or visual arts.
She spent a winter term in the Guatemala program, collecting life stories of war widows and living with a Mayan family. As she lived their lives, followed their customs, and learned about maize, she also, indirectly, learned about the effects of war and discrimination.
Katarina is Slovakian, and comes to COA from the Mahindra United World College in India. She is currently involved in a demanding collaborative senior project with her dear friend Ashlesha Khadse, in which the two women are documenting through video and writing, the meaning of agriculture to farmers in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. When that is done, Katarina plans on attending a graduate program in development studies.
Through a class in Documentary Video Studio taught by Nancy Andrews, Katarina says she was able to realize, "the power and ability of visual images to speak to people and provoke an emotional reaction." In Doreen Stabinsky's "Agriculture and Biotechnology" class, she learned that there is no way to separate poverty and development from food, coming to understand the meaning that new technologies in food production has for both common customers and small farmers.
"COA gives me the freedom to explore different dimensions of issues of poverty, economics, politics and human rights - issues that are often looked at separately, but are ultimately interrelated. The spirit, dedication and uniqueness of COA students and faculty pushed me to go farther and not stop asking."
"The spirit, dedication and uniqueness of COA students and faculty pushed me to go farther and not stop asking. See more testimonials |
