Eye-opening experience in South Africa

By Michael R. Malone [email protected] 06-09-2026

When Brianna "Bree" Fish first told her parents about her plans to travel to Cape Town, South Africa, to participate in the University of Miami's semester-long UCape Town program, they were hesitant, at least at first.

"They had this Western idea of what Africa is like and were a bit worried, but once I started sending pictures, explained I was living in student dorms in the city, and shared how valuable the experience was, they were so supportive," said Fish, who graduated with a double major in global health and international studies.

Fish's parents were already, in fact, a bit accustomed to their daughter's resolve to "do her thing." In high school, when she voiced her interest to leave home in Annapolis, Maryland, to study out of state, they'd said "OK, but you'll have to find a way to pay for it."

She did. In her senior year in high school, Fish joined the Army ROTC and went on to earn a national scholarship that financed her studies at the University. As part of the scholarship requirement, this summer she will commission into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Reserve as a second lieutenant to satisfy duty requirements for the next eight years that include a weekend a month and a few weeks each summer.

Fish described her experience in the South Africa study abroad program, which is coordinated and overseen by the University's Office of Study Abroad with instruction provided by the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Geography and Sustainable Development, as "absolutely empowering" and "eye-opening" in many ways.

"It was a culture shock at first. I had lived in the same place my entire life in Annapolis, and then it was hard moving to Miami, but coming to Cape Town was so completely different," she said. "Especially because I was going into the townships. That's been completely different and eye-opening for me."

Requirements for a global health studies degree include completing a capstone-an internship, thesis, or service-learning project. So, in addition to taking three classes at the University of Cape Town (UCT), one of the leading institutions of higher learning on the African continent, Fish secured an internship with Higher Health, a nongovernmental organization that provides public health resources and supplies to students studying at campuses throughout South Africa.

To fulfill the 150 hours of her capstone, Fish was first trained and then traveled with a Higher Health supervisor to "activations"-teaching basic public health practices, facilitating dialogues on gender-based violence and forms of abuse, and distributing contraceptives-at college campuses in the Western Cape area.

"I had a preconceived notion that most people my age would have learned basic sex-ed, but the primary and high schools there don't teach any of that. And because of the culture, it's just not common practice to talk about sex. They very much follow standard practices when it comes to men being in charge, women having to follow along and listen. Young women get pregnant, drop out of school because they don't have access to childcare-it's ingrained in their culture.

"So, it was a bit of shock for me and the students I was interacting with to be like, 'Here's this American girl teaching how to use a condom and about contraceptives, and she's just really open about it,'" Fish said. "I had to create a safe space for them to be able to ask me questions and have those conversations. That was a big learning moment."

A swimmer on the University of Miami club swim team, Fish tried out for the UCT swim team just for fun. She traveled with the South African version of a national team to Bloemfontein, the country's judicial capital, to compete there against South African swimmers from other colleges.

"It was cool to say that I participated in that. There were some really fast swimmers, some international, and everyone was so welcoming," Fish said.

Fish will return home when the program concludes on June 15. She's looking ahead to graduation, to begin her commission as an Army Reserve Officer, and to securing a job in the public health sector.

"This has been such an empowering and confidence-boosting experience," she said. "You can sit in a classroom all day and get told things like 'This is a big issue affecting a specific population,' but until you experience firsthand, it's really hard to visualize how big an issue is. It was really valuable for me to have the hands-on experience articulating things that I'd learned in the classroom to people in real life."