Shelby Sutton, 1st Place
Senior, Business Marketing and Management, Summer Abroad
Rennes School of Business, Cross Cultural Management Program Rennes, France
Cross Cultural Management in Rennes, France was truly a transformational experience for me. Embarking on this opportunity alone was the scariest thing I have ever done in my life; it was also a dream come true and resulted in me being confident in ways I never thought I could be. Additionally, due to the generosity of Washburn’s Study Abroad department, the School of Business, my family, and friends, I was able to afford not only the educational opportunity but some additional experiences including, but not limited to, Saint Malo, the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc de Triomphe.
There were 26 students from more than 20 countries and 17 schools that made up my class. We each contributed unique characteristics to our time together and established friendships that made it incredibly hard to leave each other at the end of our program. The opportunity to meet so many people from so many different places around the world is one of the things I will cherish the most about this opportunity.
Outside of my educational experience, the cultural things I got to experience will always hold such a special place in my heart, even though I had to explore most of those things as an individual. Our class did participate in a city tour of Rennes which allowed us to learn more about the history of the city. The chance to spend a day in Mont Saint Michel felt like a dream. Saint Malo was my first beach experience, and it was so fun that it happened internationally. I was in awe of the chaos that is called traffic at the Arc de Triomphe, but the view from the top was breathtaking and the history of the monument was incredible. An unpopular opinion may be that the Eiffel Tower is overrated, and climbing those stairs is a leg day workout like no other.
Looking back on my trip, I am proud of the strength and confidence that I gained during that time. I navigated 5 airports, 4 cities, 3 train stations, and countless bus stops by myself. While all of these experiences were fantastic for me, I highly recommend traveling with a buddy, selfies at the Eiffel Tower are not the easiest thing to accomplish. ;) I now feel I have the confidence to accomplish anything in my life and I’m so proud to say that I was a Bod Abroad.
Isabel Marquez, 2nd Place
Senior, Nursing, Summer Abroad
Nursing Perspectives in the Caribbean: Puerto Rico, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico
Our main purpose was to travel as a nursing department and help assist those in lower living conditions with any medical needs, learn from the community, and experience the culture differences. Puerto Rico has a humid, tropical climate and gets hit by many storms. Many people in the area did not have proper roofs as they were destroyed during the hurricanes. This has left the community to flee and migrate. The ones who are left are mainly elderly with low resources and little healthcare. They have adjusted to the changes but still struggle to seek medical attention.
Our main purpose was to travel as a nursing department to Puerto Rico and help assist those in lower living conditions with any medical needs, learn from the community, and experience the culture differences. Puerto Rico has a humid, tropical climate and gets hit by many storms. Many people in the area did not have proper roofs as they were destroyed during the hurricanes. This has left the community to flee and migrate. The ones who are left are mainly elderly with low resources and little healthcare. They have adjusted to the changes but still struggle to seek medical attention.
Puerto Rico
This trip was an incredible opportunity that I could not have imagined being able to do on my own. Studying abroad benefited me from the multitude of opportunities and activities we were involved in as a group. Including personal development, a different view on a foreign culture and a chance to dive in areas where my help was needed. Being put in an environment with different living conditions and different social circles I learned to expand my navigational and social awareness. The idea of jumping on and airplane and spending a week with twenty-five other people who I did not know was a bit intimidating. I also struggled with having to follow plans I did not set on my own and plans that changed every minute. Adapting was difficult but I stayed positive, and I knew studying abroad is something that I have always wanted to do but I had no clue if I could do it. I was worried about the costs as well as being a single mother leaving my child to be dependent on someone else was difficult. I felt great separation anxiety as I have never been away from my daughter for a long period of time. I knew I have always wanted to travel and help serve a community in need. Although, I had all some troubles I still pushed myself to take the risk as I knew I would regret not taking the opportunity to travel with my peers and help rebuild a community that is needing medical assistance. English is not my first language although I primarily speak it now. I grew up in an environment where I primarily spoke Spanish. I learned to read and write in Spanish first and combining my nursing education with my Spanish skills was important as I was able to use my skills to the best of my capabilities.
Volunteer Work
Each day as a study abroad student in Puerto Rico a team of bus drivers would pick up the students and take us to the community clinic where we would spend the majority of our day. The island has over ninety percent vaccination rate for Covid Vaccine. While at the clinic many people came in to get vaccinated with their fourth vaccine by other organizations who came to help out as well. During our volunteer work we helped the community by doing health assessments on each person that came in. We did assessments of ages as young as five to people in their seventies. We came up with a good system and designated tables where each assessment can be done, and everyone could take turns. We asked for health and history, students auscultated heart and lung sounds as well as blood pressures. The community had an option of getting a glucose check or with an otoscope the student can perform an ear exam and eye exam. After lunch, the staff would organize a community outreach where we would walk into the community and offer our care to people who wanted a health assessment as well as pass out supplies such as multivitamins, toothbrushes, and toothpaste.
What did we organize as a group assignment?
As a group we all took part in creating ideas to educate families the importance of dental care. We had games for the children, coloring pages of teeth care, and books for the kids to enjoy. Myself and my team of five members joined together and successfully donated 100 bags of dental supplies carrying a toothbrush with a cover, dental floss, toothpaste, and a disclosing tablet. Everyone who took a bag was so grateful as it is small supplies we do not think about needing but in an island where there isn’t any stores near by or having a low income can impact oral care.
Community garden
One of the goals was to create a community garden in our time in Puerto Rico. This garden will help generate enough vegetables for the people who live in this community. One main factor was to think about the soil and the climate for the vegetables. Not all vegetables can grow in this type of environment as the dirt is mixed with sand and rocks its not all soil. We also had to consider the types of vegetables that the community will enjoy eating. This was a hot humid day in Puerto Rico and it was difficult to dig everything up and get the dirt ready but it was a great learning experience as I did not have much farming knowledge
Culture and food
Plantains were easily adapted to the region's tropical environment and rapidly dispersed throughout Puerto Rico, quickly becoming a staple in the cultures diet. Plantains are not only a fruit or a dish, but they are also a family custom, a marker of identity and a piece of one’s country. Plantains were used in this culture in substitution for meats as it is hard to pay for meat is not a common food item for the locals, but plantains are easy to grow and have plenty full of plantains growing in many households backyards. As well as being inexpensive plantains were served for breakfast lunch and dinner in many forms such as diced and fried for breakfast. I thought it was potatoes served with eggs. Until one of the servers told me it was plantains. They were also served for lunch as a dessert creamy and sugary and for dinner as a side dish deep fried almost like French fries. They were even served with ketchup and mayonnaise to dip in. I did not have trouble eating the food as it is food similar to my Hispanic culture or what I eat at home. Many things were served to us such as pork, chicken, beef, rice, beans, salad, and we can’t forget the flan we had every night for dinner.
Conclusion
Studying abroad to Puerto Rico was an opportunity that I could not have imagined being able to do on my own. I was introduced to many of the cultures customs and provided me opportunities and activities to be involved in as a group and advance my practice in nursing. It has also allowed me to open my resources to doing mission trips on my own or offering my time to accompanying another study abroad trip.
Mercedes Egidy, 3rd Place
Senior, Nursing, Summer Abroad
Nursing Perspectives in the Caribbean: Puerto Rico, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico
The most fascinating thing about our trip to Puerto Rico was visiting the old historical sites. I sat with an elderly couple on the bench nearby Castillo San Felipe del Morro affectionately referred to as El Morro by the locals, they explained changes they had seen in the area to me opening my eyes to more than that of what a tourist would see. They explained that before the fort was adopted as a historical site that many homeless community members would rest beneath the shade trees, the shade trees have since been cut down as not to dampen the tourist experience. The idea that they wanted tourists to feel safe and be unbothered, "out of site out of mind" was their reasoning. The empty field leading up to El Morro was now used for flying kites where street vendors charged 8-20$ for a kite, the trash overflowed with them, and the field was scattered of debris harmful to local wildlife. Adjacent to the fort was a cemetery which contained beautiful stone sculptures, curious for an up-close visualization of them I walked towards the area. This cemetery looked out directly over the shoreline adjacent to the fort and unfortunately had been weathered by the storms and hurricanes which Puerto Rico is known for and susceptible to. Some headstones dismantled; other beds littered with pieces of destroyed stone. Regardless, the sculptures that remained were mesmerizing. I was taken back by the craftsmanship and detail of the sculptures; they simply do not make art like this anymore in this age. And just over the putter edge of the cemetery one could see where debris had simply been tossed over the edge and covered with a vine like grass. Again, "out of sight out of mind" is what filtered through my brain. Standing in this sacred place I got the sense that like this cemetery members of the community had also endured the rage of the hurricanes not just the stone. One could almost feel the emotion tied to destruction that follows such large hurricanes. Overall, I was humbled standing there alone in this cemetery realizing what challenges the community must have had to overcome during these storms. I wasn't seeing them from a tourist eye, I was sensing and feeling it's story.
