Rachael Winder shares with us about her study tour to Chile...

Recently I spent one week in Chile with seven other young people from around New Zealand on a fully-funded study tour to learn about business. The Chilean culture continued to surprise me throughout the trip. Everywhere we went, we saw a lot of beautiful street art and I love how they could cover up ugly buildings with bright colours. However, underneath the bright colourful street art and many Chilean flags there is an obviously large wealth gap. Coming in to Santiago from the airport we saw slums that many people call home. In the same city there were high rises and fancy apartments. We later learnt that Santiago has a very unequal distribution of income. Unfortunately this a very hard problem to solve and one that is commonly found around the world. While in Chile we visited 10 Chilean companies, the NZ Embassy and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. We were able to ask the representatives of the companies questions about doing business in Chile and the opportunities and challenges they have faced. I learnt so much from these visits and they were experiences that I will never forget. At the beginning of the trip we were told to “sacar el jugo” which means to suck the juice. We were told to make the most out of the trip and to extend our cultural and business knowledge. I believe that I did make the most out of every moment and I enjoyed every second of being in Chile. Personally, the trip grew my love and passion for South America and has made me realise how important it is to me that I return to South America for a longer period of time. The trip pushed me well out of my comfort zone and helped me realise that I am much braver and more confident than I thought. Overall the trip to Chile was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget.