In the spring of 2018, I studied abroad at Ulster University, and during my time I gained an appreciation for the United Kingdom education system. I formed this admiration after being supplied with a “buddy,” Sharman Finlay, who was supposed to help me adjust to life in a new country and who surprisingly held a position on campus known as a Support Provider. In this position, she offered support to students with mental health issues and students with autism. She helped me to consider how dominant, able groups often overlook students like the ones Sharman helped. This experience showed me both how to consider more aspects of what it means to truly care for all kinds of students and support them in ways that work for them. This was particularly impactful as my career goal is to become an English Literature professor, and I hope to be able to support my students in the same way Sharman has been able to support her students.
At my home university, we have a program named SUMMIT that is designed to be an “experience in which every student, regardless of major, is prepared to lead effectively in a global society through a curriculum and co-curriculum focused on global learning and leadership development.” Studying abroad allowed me to accomplish some of the learning outcomes of the SUMMIT program. For example, I was able to “critically examine the relationship between dominant and marginalized cultures, subcultures or group”as well as “articulate and appraise problems and solutions from multiple perspectives” through my discussions with Sharman about the marginalized groups of non-neurotypicals (SLO’s 3 and 6). I was also able to “identify, explain, and analyze global themes, processes and systems” by understanding how universities abroad handle diverse and important issues (SLO 8).
