You studied abroad in the former Yugoslavia, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. You also taught in Albania. These are destinations that have undergone dramatic changes in recent decades. What attracts you to non-traditional destinations?
I’m attracted to non-traditional destinations because they provide such rich opportunities for learning about people and their social, physical, economic, and political environments. Many of the places I’ve studied have been among the countries most devastated by wars and civil strife, yet each of them and their people have survived. Not only are their stories inspirational (and they definitely are that!), but they also have much to tell us about how individuals, communities, and states cope with traumatic events and move forward. I sought out these places as study settings because I am interested in how social life is sustained under the most difficult and unpromising conditions. Needless to say, I’ve learned a great deal in the process.
El Jabali coffee co-op 2014 group
El Salvador is still recovering from the scars of a long and painful civil war. What are the special Social Work needs of the country related to reconciliation and recovery?
All wars traumatize their combatants, the civilians who reside where the combat takes place, and civilians in communities to which combatants return. The trauma is arguably worse in civil wars in which many individuals have family members and friends who engaged in fighting or supporting both sides in the conflict. There truly are no winners in a civil war for this reason.
In post war El Salvador, citizens continue to face lasting emotional, social, health, mental health, economic, and infrastructure challenges. Re-building social support structures, or in some cases, building them for the first time, to support children orphaned by the war, women and men who lost their partners during the war, veterans on either side physically or mentally harmed by the war, is an effort in which social work plays a key role. The profession is also key to developing and implementing economic structures to address the pervasive poverty of El Salvador that was exacerbated by the war, as well as assisting in the creation of advocacy organizations, educational and child welfare systems, and integrated health and behavioral health systems. The profession has a significant role in the economic and social schemes of all countries worldwide, but its role is most essential in those devastated by war.
Even though El Salvador has enjoyed recent years free of conflict, it faces new challenges as gang members return from the U.S. increasing crime, as well as human trafficking issues. In part due to these issues, there are very few study abroad programs in El Salvador. What makes it a good study abroad destination?
El Salvador’s diverse people by and large are warm and welcoming, and they open their homes, communities, organizations, and agencies to social work students from Grand Valley State University engaged in international service learning study abroad programs. These students both contribute to and learn from their engagement with communities and organizations throughout El Salvador.
Beatrice is a great host in urban San Salvador
One of the primary ways Grand Valley State University students benefit is that El Salvador contrasts so sharply to West Michigan in terms of its economic, social, and infrastructure assets, and yet its people are fully engaged in working for a better future. For more than two decades, every student group has been inspired by this study abroad destination. They meet and work with El Salvadorans who remain hopeful for the future in the face of very significant obstacles to progress, and very limited national resources.
Nearly every GVSU student study abroad group has found this experience transformative in terms of how they view themselves and the broader world.
Why should every social work major study abroad?
Those students who enroll in a social work program who want to develop a worldview that is not restricted by the boundaries of their own personal experiences, who believe that there is much to learn about human diversity and cultural competency, and those students without an infinite comfort zone who want to challenge their comfortable thinking, who want to think outside of the box to solve real-world problems. These students would probably derive enormous benefit from study abroad. Students who desire to develop these characteristics SHOULD study abroad.
Your former student Elizabeth Richmond says that the experience was not only life-changing, but it changed her as a person. What makes a short service-learning experience have such a dramatic impact on an individual?
The dramatic impact comes from many features of service-learning experiences in study abroad contexts. The first is that the service provided is usually one that is very much needed and appreciated by its recipients. Students experience immediate feedback that is often extremely positive. In addition, students experience first-hand how much need truly exists in the world and how much good they personally can do. This is a more difficult lesson to learn in a resource-rich community, where most social work clients have more supports available to them than social work clients in underdeveloped, war-torn nations.
On the air at Radio Victoria
Another factor is that many students are impacted by their first realization of the privileged circumstances of their own lives. It doesn’t take more than a day or two to recognize that hot water, broad food choices, electricity, good roads, electronic communication – and many more of the elements of life they have taken for granted – are not equitably distributed among the world’s nations and peoples. They are forced to look at their lives in new ways, both in El Salvador and when they return to the U.S. That has a dramatic impact.
How critical is the service learning component of this program?
Service learning makes the study abroad experience one that is active. Students aren’t just passively attaining knowledge and skills, they are required to translate what they are learning into action. I believe this element contributes significantly to the program’s impact, because it affirms that social work knowledge can make a difference at the individual, family, community, and national level. Students engaged in service learning experiences see that difference, they hear El Salvadorans express the impacts of the services they receive. Students have affirmation that they can BE the change they want to see in the world. That makes service learning a key element of social work study abroad.
In addition to the program’s time in El Salvador, you spend time in the Western Highlands of Guatemala working directly with the indigenous population. Working with the indigenous population and the mestizo populations of these two countries offer unique perspectives. What do student’s gain from the hands on work with the local community at Lake Atitlán?
Guatemala and El Salvador present different cultural and social challenges for students to master. This contrast built into the study abroad program forces them to again readjust their learning lenses, and prevents them from falling into a false sense that they now “know” about all two-thirds world nations.
Masculinidades workshop with San Bartolome de las Casas
Having two sites makes it evident that learning is lifelong – each new nation, state, community, family, and individual requires social workers to bring something new to their helping relationships.
In short, work in Lake Atitlán is a means of stretching their appreciation for and comfort with diversity a bit farther, and highlighting the need for flexibility, agility, and appreciation of differences and diversity in professional practice.
It sounds like an incredible program, can non-Social Work students participate?
The program is open to any student who is ready for a mind-stretching, high-energy experience, and isn’t afraid to have her or his life changed forever.
