My second honors experience was planned to be a study abroad program scheduled to travel through the UK and Germany in the summer of 2020 but unfortunately, it was cancelled due to COVID-19. While we didn't end up actually partaking in the trip, we did meet twice before the its sudden cancellation, where we spent time learning about our goals there and preparing ourselves for the changes we would experience. Since I can't speak on my time studying abroad, I can speak to what I've learned up until its shutdown and how I can use these skills in my life, my career, and potential future study abroad opportunities.
For our first session, we met at Philippus United Church of Christ to go over the basics of our time there. We briefly discussed the two classes being offered, our full schedule with the dates of every event, a to-do list of checkpoints we need to accomplish before we depart, and the most time-consuming part of the meeting, our city activity. Almost as soon as our meeting began, we all were forced to go and make tables of complete strangers among ourselves. These groups became our teams for the rest of the day, not only to help us make friends to spend time with on the trip, but also to see how we respond to new situations we weren't comfortable with. These uncomfortable situations continues to appear as we were soon tasked with following a set path assigned to us throughout the city to explore and analyze what the place was like. We were located right by Findlay Market in Over-The-Rhine, which meant we were in a spot which allowed us to explore the area surrounding us and leading us to a diverse selection of foods from around the world. On the path we followed, we made note of several things, like the setup of buildings, the types of building spread out around the streets, the possible transportation methods, what food was available to eat, and, what we made of the most, the artwork. These observations allowed us to properly analyze a situation we had not yet encountered and figure out what to do. With this knowledge, our problem-solving skills in the US would transfer over into the UK to help us fix potential problems that might appear. This would also allow us to make comparisons to our usual society and culture to UK and Germany's world to make us more comfortable in those countries.
|
O V E R - T H E - R H I N E |
S E L F - C A R E P L A N |
Between the first and second meeting, we were tasked with designing a self-care plan for ourselves to help us prepare for the amount of stress we will experience in a different country. These helped ease my mind and made me realize that I had plenty of options to utilize in order to have a pleasant time abroad. At the second meeting, we discussed more of the logistics of the program, like the two classes being taught, the financial requirements, more self-care ideas, and packing luggage. While not as exciting as the first meeting, this session still brought valuable information for traveling abroad. When the program was still occurring, I was planning on participating in the design class as I hadn't ever taken a class in designing, and I believed it would bring me some very valuable skills for teaching, such as constructing a plan to accomplish goals from the very start of the project and working with others to make a successful product. Sadly, shortly after that meeting, COVID-19 had resulted in its full cancellation, meaning no alternate voyage, no alternative assignments, nothing. Despite this, I will still strive to utilize these lessons in my day-to-day life and my career, with hopes that one day in the rest of my college experience, I can participate in another study abroad experience through main campus, and explore the world that I have never seen before.
|