Text by Allysia Ruggiero
Photo by Savage Frieze

Many Norfolk residents have had the opportunity to pursue higher education and follow a winding path toward their futures. For 23-year-old Kaelin Hester, a Norfolk native, higher education has led to astonishing experiences and travel. She is currently completing an anthropology degree completely in Spanish at the oldest university in Argentina, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. 

Hester has traveled to many Spanish-speaking countries including Spain (Barcelona) and Costa Rica. She had some background in the language, having learned to speak Spanish roughly from an early age. But it was while she was an au pair in Spain that she started to relearn the language. She chose to travel to Costa Rica to improve her fluency and while there worked on farms. She volunteered to teach English in Colombia for a few months as well. 

Hester’s family has been residents of Norfolk since her father’s grandparents came from Italy and her mother’s parents from Queens. She has five siblings, all of whom have attended Botelle Elementary in Norfolk. Her parents are very supportive of her and her travels, although concerned about her safety. Initially they may have been a bit apprehensive, if only because of the unfamiliar countries and cultures Hester would be moving to by herself. This apprehension mostly melted away as Hester grew her support system, education, and life in these new places.

As with most people, her path was never cut and dry. She started her schooling, following a set path of becoming a teacher. She pursued this goal at UConn in Torrington, but the school shut down in 2016, just one year into her attendance there. At the time, she didn’t want it to close and fought against it, attending meetings and speaking to those in charge, unaware of the effect the school’s closure would have on her future. 

She chose not to transfer to another branch of UConn, partly because of the negative experience of UConn Torrington closing. “I learned to go with my gut. It felt wrong to go to UConn. I didn’t want to play into the system, I wanted to travel.” 

In 2018 Hester graduated from Northwestern Connecticut Community College (NCCC) with her associate’s degree in general studies, still unsure of her future. She chose Argentina as a possibility for further studies because of its free higher education. While searching through the list of offered majors, she stumbled on anthropology, all of whose classes were of interest to her. 

When asked, “Why anthropology?” Hester responded, “In general terms it’s basically the study of culture and people… Anthropology asks a lot of whys. It goes into the deeper meaning of things.” 

As a child in elementary and middle school, Hester wanted to be an archaeologist. Now, almost coming full circle, she’s in a field that includes the option of archeology, as well as linguistics.

The anthropology field encompasses many topics, including language, which Hester has always been interested in, and the many facets of culture. At this time she is particularly interested in social anthropology-—the comparative study of the ways people live in different social and cultural settings around the world. 

The versatility and broad applicability of anthropology are of great importance to Hester. She’s happy to have diverted from her original path of teaching, whose strict professional qualifications might have rooted her in Connecticut. Anthropology will allow her to travel anywhere, as she wishes.

On February 26, Hester returned to NCCC and gave its students the chance to meet with her and hear about her travels.

Hester arrived back in Argentina on March 15, and was promptly quarantined to her apartment due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She was allowed into the country only because she has residency. All of Argentina is currently in quarantine, set to end on April 1, which is also the day her classes will begin online. 

She will continue her pursuit of an anthropology degree. She knows that there will be more turns and unexpected twists in her future because, as she says, that’s what life is.