I’m Henry Leighton, a Wesleyan Class of 2025 Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Hispanic Literatures and Cultures (HISP) double major with a minor in Global Engagement (GEM). In Spring 2025 I was awarded the Scott Prize for excellence in Spanish by Wesleyan’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. I draw on my psychology and sociology STS concentrations as well as the Spanish proficiency and cultural competency to examine diverse, interdisciplinary perspectives on the social and cultural role of healthcare. I plan to apply this lens to pursue a future career in public health.
My intercultural journey began in elementary school at Independence Charter School’s Spanish immersion program. I’ve continued with my language studies throughout high school and went on to pursue it as my GEM language at Wesleyan. In Fall 2023 I studied abroad in Cuba, where I had numerous intercultural experiences both within and outside of the classroom that would go on to feature prominently in this eportfolio. Another pivotal moment in my intercultural journey came when I studied abroad in Taiwan as part of the Summer 2024 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) in Chinese, after starting to learn Mandarin through the Summer 2023 CLS Spark opportunity. This eportfolio follows my journey of reckoning with the biases of specific cultural narratives that I internalized growing up in the United States while also learning to become more comfortable with the nuanced and complex challenges of studying abroad in another country. This journey parallels a more personal project of grappling with social anxiety, perfectionism, and identity both at home and abroad.
