Isabela Echeverry ’06: Confronting cultural issues in Boston’s multi-ethnic communities
By Laurie Morrissey

Isabela Echeverry knows Cali, Colombia, the city where she was born, as "salsa heaven." She thinks of Medellin, where she lived as a teenager, as "the city of eternal spring." But for most of the people Isabela meets in New Hampshire, the South American country of Colombia is identified by its decades-long civil war fueled by drug trafficking. And here, the names of the cities she calls home are usually followed by the word "Cartel."

This fact underlies two of the tasks the 22-year-old international relations major has set for herself. On the Saint Anselm campus, she wants to tell people the good things about her country—the salsa dancing, warm weather and "flowers always blooming." And one day, she would like to have a role in ending the violence that has forced 2 million people out of their homes and pushed several indigenous tribes near extinction.

It’s a tall order and she knows it. But she has two traits that will help her: "I never give up," says Echeverry ("Isa," to most of those who know her). And, "I’m chatty."

‘Chatty’ is putting it mildly. Donnamarie Kelly Pignone, director of student multicultural services, calls her articulate, eloquent and inspiring—in English and Spanish.

"Her speaking events are simply too numerous to list," Kelly Pignone says. They include Saint Anselm Open House, admission tours, leadership conferences, Latino conferences, and cultural events. Last spring, when the NHIOP sponsored a speech writing contest to introduce speaker Mario Vargas Llosa, one of Latin America’s most famous writers, she won the competition. In November, she was on a panel of speakers at the NAFSA: Association of International Educators’ regional conference.

Although she started out as a politics major and has enough credits for a politics degree, Echeverry switched to international relations with a certificate in Latin American Studies. Her plans include graduate studies and a job in diplomacy
or international development. And like many Saint Anselm students who want to improve their
graduate school and employment prospects, Isabela took the opportunity to do an internship related to her major. Last summer she worked as a research assistant at Roca, a youth development organization in Chelsea, Mass., on the edge of Boston.

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