Consider your meaning making process across your entire global experience: from the first time it was described to you, through our discussions and planning, and up to this point. Describe and reflect on its evolution. Why has your global engagement experience been significant and how will you apply what you’ve learned moving forward?
There are few moments in my life where I have genuinely felt full and was further confirmed in what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. The first was when I became a tour guide in undergrad. What began as a part time job to make some extra money turned into a significant part of my undergraduate experience, so much so that I ended up continuing in the role all four years. The second was when I presented research on racial issues regarding public universities in North Carolina at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research and was encouraged to publish my work in the proceedings. The third was my summer internship experience at Georgia College and State University with a summer bridge program, and the most recent was my global experience to Japan as part of my Higher Education program at Elon. One of the reasons I was interested in Elon was because of the opportunity for us to study abroad. However, I had no idea what the process would look like, especially since this was the first time Elon had executed this program. My emotions leading up to our departure have evolved drastically. I have never had an interest in global education or internationalization, nor did I know much about it. My only other direct experience with study abroad was a short-term trip in undergrad that wasn't supplemented much academically. However, this experience has resulted in my fourth and most recent "a-ha" moment that has further confirmed my future endeavors: being a part of this East Asian journey. I have been able to find a learning experience in everything I was exposed to (whether good or bad) and feel like I couldn't have been in a better place in my life to take this opportunity seriously and make the most out of it.
Our visit to Kansai Gaidai truly opened my eyes to the importance of global engagement. I met with professionals who worked in international education and admissions and public relations. I was not prepared at all for such robust conversation that was relevant to my own work and what I am interested in. I admired how similar our dilemmas and processes were and realized in that moment that our issues in higher education transcend beyond borders, cultures, and societies.
I have seen my strengths at work quite a bit while in Japan. In my apprenticeship with career services, we utilize the StrengthsQuest assessment often with our students. I have found that it is extremely useful in helping me to articulate my experiences that I can share in networking opportunities or when being interviewed for jobs. When I took the assessment, my top five strengths were Futuristic, Input, Relator, Restorative, and Individualization. I have taken ownership of each one of these over the course of my time in the MHE program, but I feel as though they have been further enhanced through this experience. For instance, someone who has a strength of being restorative enjoys finding solutions to complex problems. I realized how much more developed I was in that respect when we were challenged with navigating public transportation. I have never used buses and subways to the extent that I had in Japan, and yet I found myself taking the lead in consulting directions and untangling tricky subway lines, in a foreign language no less. When faced with a challenge, I feel the wheels start to turn in my head, analyzing different strategies and choosing the best one to implement. In my future career, I will absolutely be faced with challenges I will be expected to solve, and this example will be a fitting one to share when asked about my experience with problem solving.
This has been the culminating result of nearly a year of collaboration and brainstorming that all started with a few "big picture" questions: Why are we interested in visiting a foreign country? What do we hope to gain from the experience? Who are we and why does it matter? In the beginning, I struggled with answering these questions, but I must say that I have a newfound sense of awareness and appreciation for global education work. In our program, we talk often about high-impact practices and their significance in the undergraduate career. If there are three key criteria that must be met in order to deem an activity to be "high impact", I believe that it must be intentional on both the instructor and student's part, involve consistent reflection and feedback, and require active engagement. I feel as though each one of these features were evident in our journey to Japan in everything from our global planning sessions earlier in the year to the intentional placement of theory and practice layered onto our experiential engagement. My emotions regarding this process have evolved tremendously, from trepidation and intense concern to elation and gratitude by the end of the experience. If ever there was a moment where I could explicitly pinpoint a time when I had to engage in healthy conflict with my peers, it was this one. Throughout the entire planning period, I feel as though our cohort struggled with being real with one another for fear of hurting one another's feelings or being shut down in front of the group. However, conflict can be a good thing. Simply put, conflict is a differing of opinion. Different perspectives can strengthen a thought or idea and encourage the group to see things in an alternative way, which can be extremely beneficial. I am particularly okay with being the one who says what everyone wants to say but seems to be afraid to, and it has definitely been an interesting adventure to watch others go through their own personal journeys with navigating difficult conversations and scenarios.
I had no idea how impactful Japan would be for me, and I'm not just saying that. I believe the combination of an outstanding external partner, phenomenal visits with universities, and the positive attitude I brought each day resulted in the transformative experience that I know this was designed to be. Sure, there were a few bumps along the way, but what program doesn't have those? This experience will only get better in the future, and I'm already excited to see how subsequent cohorts take in what was beyond life-changing for me.
