I participated in a study abroad program in the capital city of Havana last summer—it was crazy to be one of the few Americans there. It was even crazier to experience the culture and politics firsthand (albeit to a much, much lesser extent) and separate it from the negative stereotypes and assumptions many Americans hold of Cuba.

While you may have spent your spring break catching up on homework or watching TV, 14 freshmen in professor Joseph Schraibman’s FOCUS class Stranger than Paradise: Cuban Experiences of Revolution spent their break in Cuba.