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“Travel is fatal to prejudice,
bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." -Mark Twain
If you've ever taken
the fantastic opportunity to check out the International Students Club, you may
have met Marie Adams without realizing it. She works here in the International
Education Offices as the Graduate Assistant for the International Student and
Scholar Services, facilitating programs for the many International degree
seeking and exchange students. She is also a student herself, in a Master's
program for counseling psychology. As an undergraduate, she took the
opportunity to study abroad in Italy as part of a Theology class. Her
conclusion? "It was fantastic…the best money I ever spent."
"I didn't expect it to be as life altering as it was.
Just being immersed in another culture and having that experience of being
displaced in a way, even for a short time, was eye opening—a little nerve
wracking, but eye opening." While on the trip, which took place through
the university she attended in Davenport, Iowa, Marie had the opportunity to
visit Rome, Milan, Florence, Assisi, and Sienna. It was a trip style similar to
the short term faculty led trips offered here at UW-P. There were no formal
classes, but students picked a topic beforehand to write a paper on and
present. Marie picked Dante: "We had to write a paper on that and it was
due before we left. During the trip we had to keep a cultural immersion
journal. While in country we had to do a presentation in whatever place was
significant to the topic we had chosen. Someone presented in the coliseum for
example. I presented in Florence, which was Dante's birthplace."
The group left for Italy just after Christmas, and spent New
Year's in Rome. They had heard that there would be fireworks in the Coliseum,
so they set out to see for themselves: "The process of getting there was
an odyssey…it was kind of ridiculous. We left our hotel about 10 or 10:30 at
night. On the way there we just kept getting stopped by people that wanted us
to party, everyone was drinking on the streets. We thought everyone would be in
St. Peter’s square. But when we got there it was completely empty. We were
wondering where the entire city was. We couldn't find the metro at first
either... But when we finally did, we realized that everybody in Rome was there…in
the metro, waiting for the train to take us all to the coliseum. It was crowded
beyond belief; we were scared we might get pushed onto the tracks. Everyone
wanted to get to the coliseum and see the fireworks…which, by the way, were
amazing. When we got on to the train you were practically plastered against the
windows because it was so crowded. But
despite the crowds, it was one of the better nights of the entire trip. The
restaurants stayed open afterwards and our group split a couple bottles of wine
and had some food. It was nice to see the city at night and see it come alive
and to share the moment with friends."
Given her current job working with international students, I
asked Marie if she thought this experience had any impact on where she is now.
"Absolutely it had an impact" she said. "When working with
international students, it helps to understand the initial barriers they might
face: simple things like language, not knowing where they're going, or getting food can all be challenges in the
beginning, as well as getting used to a new culture's expectations. Having studied
abroad has helped to make me more patient and compassionate toward
international students, and to understand that while they might be very
excited, they are probably very nervous too."
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Studying abroad also
has an impact on her studies as well: "As far as my academic pursuits with
counselling psychology, the field itself is seeing a recent resurgence of multiculturalism.
Having experienced a different cultural experience personally, however briefly,
of having to respect differences because you're the visitor and all without
losing yourself has been a great learning experience. And that compassion and
self-reflection is so essential to being a counselor. You have to be aware of
other people's culture but also very aware of your own. You learn very rapidly
when you're in another culture which biases you bring to the table. Having had
that experience on a study abroad has been helpful."
So what were the best parts about studying abroad? “One was
seeing things that I had only read about, and being so immersed in
history. I was very aware that I was in
a very ancient city that was basically the center of people’s universe for
centuries, and all the things that that meant. It was awe inspiring.
Also the community that developed with everybody that went
on that trip was great. We had about nineteen people and the friendships that
formed while we were in country were something that I didn't expect. Navigating
another place together was really cool.”
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