L ucia O’Barr is currently a senior at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., where she has been studying music and medical anthropology. She spent her junior year abroad, first in South Africa studying post-apartheid political identities and how people express this through music. Then she spent time in Denmark, where she attended Quaker meeting. At Smith, she has studied prison reform and helped create a Quaker worship group on the college’s campus.

How did you come to Quakerism?

Initially I came to Quakerism through my father. He has been very involved throughout his life. Until I was four years old, though, we were going to a Presbyterian church because there was no meeting around us. Then he and a few of his friends who were also interested in practicing, startedthe hospital. The sense of watching life leave someone and thinking about where it is going brought me back to my spiritual life. She was also deeply religious. She was a really radical Catholic nun who had done radical work. I learned a lot about her life and a lot about her spiritual practice through her family, through the books that were around us. My relationship with her brought me back to Quakerism. It provided the means for me to want to find that spiritual community again.

How did your recent year abroad influence your view of Quakerism?

A goal for my time abroad became for me to participate in any way I could in this global Quaker community. For that year abroad, I was in South Africa for seven