Two Different Study Abroad Experiences Teach Violet Barton How to Step into a New World and Succeed

in Global Matters
April 7th, 2025

International Relations Major Explores Humanitarian Work in Both Geneva and South Africa

Violet Barton (Pardee ’25) can count herself among the first students to have taken part in BU’s newer Cape Town, South Africa program. She can also count herself among the small number of students who complete more than one BU study abroad program.

An international relations major and someone who is interested in international development, Barton was eager to study abroad in Geneva, Switzerland, home of many humanitarian, political, and economic organizations. She did this in fall 2023 in one of BU’s Geneva Internship programs and had a variety of interesting and perspective-shifting experiences – complete with plenty of travel throughout Europe – during her time.

Originally a music major, Barton pivoted to international relations (IR) after one semester and has not looked back. “I realized focusing solely on music was not for me, and I’ve always been interested in global humanitarian efforts,” she says.

After taking a class on global poverty Barton was hooked and realized that her long-held interest in studying abroad would intersect well with her new IR major. While in Geneva, Barton says she was at the United Nations (UN) almost every day, and “it was exactly what I was looking for in terms of a glimpse into international diplomacy and humanitarian work.”

The level of access and scope of opportunities available to students pleasantly surprised Barton. Looking back on her time in Geneva, she recalls that when she first started the program, she had put meeting the High Commissioner for Human Rights on her bucket list. And by the end of the program, she could check that experience off her list.

“I had thought ‘oh it would be crazy to meet Volker Türk,’ but then it happened through an intern event,” she remembers. “I got to ask him a question about the UN’s ability to respond to disasters that don’t receive as much media coverage.”

She was also invited to a soiree at the French Ambassador to Switzerland’s house.

During one of her many visits to the UN, Barton witnessed The UN’s Special Rapporteur for Russia, Mariana Katzarova, address the Human Rights Council and sound the alarm on what she said was a pattern of suppression of civil and political rights in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.

After Katzarova’s report, Barton says different countries read out statements thanking her for her courageous investigation. Michèle Taylor, who served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council from 2022 to 2025 and who Barton met through the Geneva program, sharply condemned Russia’s invasion. “It was an amazing chance to see the international relations I study playing out in real life,” Barton recalls.

Though Barton loved her time in Geneva, she realized she likely will not pursue a career in diplomacy but would rather approach the work from a different angle.

“It just felt removed from the issues that I wanted to be tangling with, which is why I ended up going to Cape Town afterwards,” explains Barton. “I realized I want to be leaning more towards the NGO and foundation space and with people who are working in communities.”

BU’s Cape Town: University Studies program allowed her to do just that. During the Cape Town program, Barton took a community development course that has a volunteer component, where she volunteered at an education nonprofit twice a week. In this capacity, she helped tutor students and deeply enjoyed getting to know them.

“I found that sort of hands-on work – talking to people – to be transformational for me, and that’s the path I want to go down.”

Both programs helped Barton build her confidence, and she says she brought this home with her upon her return to Boston.

“My confidence is so much higher in my classes,” she says. “In both Geneva and Cape Town, I had to build up my new life in a new country where I didn’t know anybody. I had to build up my routines, my social circles, my academic habits – and explore new cities. So, I think I’ve taken a lot of that with me… I think I grew a lot from the experiences – and that’s probably the biggest reason to go study abroad: to see yourself step into this new world and watch yourself succeed in building a new life for yourself.”

Overall, Barton found her experiences in Cape Town and Geneva to be quite different – mostly because of the more independent structure of the Cape Town program, where she enrolled directly at the University of Cape Town. She had greater feelings of being a “fish out of water” in South Africa, at least initially. She also noticed some social tension in Cape Town because of the legacy of apartheid and said that in some ways it still feels segregated and unequal.

“The city has very impactful ways to engage with the legacy of apartheid, whether it’s Robben Island, where former political prisoners give tours of the island where they lived in captivity, or the museums which preserve the history of neighborhoods that were destroyed,” she says. “Most IES students volunteer for an organization of their choosing, many of which are in townships and informal settlements. I learned so much about history and patterns of inequality that reproduce themselves today.”

Barton thinks both programs were incredibly rewarding and challenging ways to ‘put yourself out there.’ “In Cape Town, I’d be the only American in my classes, so I stuck out more. But I also made some of my best friends in Cape Town, and I told my mom I want to move back to Cape Town one day. I found the warmth and connection I had with people to be unlike anything I’ve ever experienced anywhere else.”

“There’s never a shortage of ways to do experiential learning in the city [Cape Town] itself,” she says. “On every first Thursday of the month, the whole city becomes a festival with outdoor music, free art galleries, thrift markets in the streets, and discounts at restaurants. Every other day of the month has its similar share of activities, whether it’s night markets, unique neighborhoods, or concerts in Kirstenbosch Gardens.”

Eventually, Barton is hoping to do a master’s program at the University of Cape Town and to get more involved in the NGO space.

“South Africa has my heart,” she says. “I’m so interested in the politics and the development challenges and the diplomatic networks between our countries, so that’s the direction I’m headed.”