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Hanna Karnei

Hanna is passionate about learning how media and visual arts can be means of social change. She was involved in teaching art and handicraft to children in Armenia which has propelled her into thinking about the importance of education for personal growth. She also promoted well-being among the student body and provided consultations on crisis management as a Student Health Educator and a Peer Listener at UWC Dilijan. Her goals for the year are to strive to be her kinder and more genuine self, gain skills that will help her to be proactive agent of change in the future and establish meaningful connections with a new community. The quote that motivates her to explore is “The outer journey should assist us with the inner one.”

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LANGUAGE QUIRKS

Hanna Karnei

2017-05-09

The other day Benoit and I in a fit of nostalgia for our mother tongues were talking about French, Russian and Belarusian (in my country we speak both) — what these languages do well and where they fail to communicate what we think. We went on sharing our likes and dislikes about their structure, explaining...

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BELARUS, ALSO KNOWN AS TERRA INCOGNITA

Hanna Karnei

2017-04-29

In UWC we quickly learned to pick up the names of the countries that were unfamiliar to us and locate them on the world map. I remember I had to look up Swaziland when I found out my roommate is from there. I had a vague idea where Maldives were; neither did I know anything...

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Why take a bridge year?

Hanna Karnei

2017-02-23

This video is a brief summary of why I decided to take a bridge year and what this experience meant to me so far. Six months into my bridge year, I can tell that it’s been a tremendously meaningful journey marked by unexpected highs and lows. I’ve been molded and rebuilt by this place in...

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THE WORLD IS YOUR PLAYGROUND: THINGS TO LEARN FROM CHILDREN

Hanna Karnei

2017-01-12

  I spend a good deal of my time in-country with children and I learned a ton about them. For the past three months, we have been spending 20 hours a week together in kindergarten. I came there thinking that I’ll be teaching English. But honestly, I ended up doing all sorts of other things...

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MAKING SENSE OF CATHOLICISM IN ECUADOR

Hanna Karnei

2016-11-17

My host family runs the largest wood shop in the town. It was built around 20 years ago by my host dad Miguel and his brothers who since then dedicated their lives to sculpture-making. In this business, you have to start pretty early to master the craft. Miguel started when he was 15. Church-related sculptures...

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YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN ECUADOR WHEN…

Hanna Karnei

2016-10-17

Since I moved to Ecuador two months ago, I’ve been constantly finding myself surprised, charmed and amazed by the local culture. Here are a few glimpses into what I think makes Ecuador the way it is.   1. You master the skill of getting off the bus while it is moving. In rural areas of...

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WHY I’M NOT ATTENDING COLLEGE YET

Hanna Karnei

2016-09-06

Last fall college loomed large in my life. I built my routine around a list of things I needed to do in order to get into colleges. My average day would include such tasks as writing an essay “In 250 words or less, how do you imagine yourself living and learning at Bard/ Skidmore/ Wheaton?”,...

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