Looking back over the course of the past 2 years that I’ve been in UF’s International Scholars Program, it’s difficult to pick out just a few examples of how the classes I’ve taken, the campus events I’ve participated in and my trip abroad have impacted my goals for future career as well as changed how I view the world and its people around me. Each facet of the program has revealed to me insights on the role I can play as a global citizen in a world that is rapidly growing more connected and a future that demands cooperation and understanding amidst diversity.

 

        For example, as a microbiology major, many of my more technical classes emphasize health as physiological homeostasis. Although this knowledge is vital for healing biological disease, it tends to lose the humanity side of science. Taking the ISP course Global Health Culture, has reconnected the two, showing how different cultures can redefine what it means to be healthy- not just biological. I recall a specific moment when it clicked: I had been reading an assigned article on Eastern medicine that viewed the body holistically, with concepts of qi energy and the balance of “hot/cold” conditions. Though I had been exposed to it before, I had always subconsciously dismissed these practices as “alternative” medicine in favor of scientific explanation and chemical drugs that are the gold standard of Western medicine. However, after comprehending its origins and its long history, I recognized my previous bias and furthermore, realized that I had learned to truly respect it as its own valid form of medicine. I no longer placed these cultural differences as inferior or superior, but simply different.

 

     While international coursework expanded my personal mindset of cultural differences, the Learning without Borders events allowed me to experience and discuss international issues more tangibly. For instance, I had signed up for the conflict and peacekeeping workshop at  the 2015 Gator Global Initiative conference. One of the speakers was the founder of the local River Phoenix Center for peacebuilding. She pointed out the necessity in actively building peace on the macro-level, nation to nation, and how it started at the individual level, person to person. The other speaker vividly illustrated this point, as a peacekeeper - he told stories of how he flew to the heart of conflict-ridden countries unarmed, and familiarized himself with combatants, victims, and local governments to try to encourage compromise, accountability and peace by merely providing an international presence. I remember he broke down crying detailing some of the horrors he’d seen. These experiences exposed me to the realities of international aid in a way I never could have grasped otherwise, and has kept me grounded from the idealistic extreme in pursuing international development.

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     The last component of ISP I probably enjoyed the most: Under UF’s Florida Alternative Breaks program, I traveled with nine fellow students, all of us with different specialties and backgrounds to Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica. There we stayed and worked at La Gran Vista Agroecological Farm, home to and managed by Señor Donald Villalobos. More than anything, I believe that this trip taught me the importance of listening: I had to listen to learn from Señor Donald as he showed us composting, organic fertilization, and soil and water conservation techniques for sustainable agricultural farming. I had to listen to my teammates as we labored side by side planting, shoveling, cooking - filling in for each other’s strengths and weaknesses to complete our tasks efficiently and well. I had to listen really carefully to the Spanish spoken by Señor Donald’s wife in giving us instructions when helping out for dinner, and responding with my admittedly broken Spanish in turn. Being immersed in another country and farming alongside its people was a humbling experience and stressed that successful cooperation, between individuals or between countries, begins with listening to and respecting the other party first.

 

     Albert Einstein has said, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” While my time with ISP is coming to an end, I feel as though I’ve only just scratched the surface to understanding the nuances of international development, relationships, and issues. However, the little that I have been able to experience as a result of this program is enough for me to recognize a passion and contributed to my decision to join Peace Corps in Cameroon after I graduate university in the hopes of promoting cooperation and international understanding.