Kristen Chislow

International Experience Country:
Germany
Cohort Year:
2012
Home Institution:

University of Pittsburgh | Johnstown

Heinz Programming Area:
Arts and Culture
International Experience Summary:

Kristen Chislow spent four weeks of her summer immersed in German culture. While studying in Berlin, Kristen was at the heart and center of German tradition. Berlin, a city located in the northeastern area of Germany, is rich with traditional culture and diversity. As a nursing student, Kristen was very interested in learning about the many different cultures Berlin had to offer and how these cultures affected available healthcare. Throughout the program, Kristen embraced many opportunities to talk with students from all over the world about their home country’s healthcare practices and how their healthcare differed from that of her own. In particular, Kristen spoke to many students from Africa about traditional healing rituals and natural healing. On the weekends, Kristen took advantage of the opportunity to travel to various destinations throughout Europe including London and Prague. While spending a weekend at each of these destinations, Kristen had the opportunity to experience and learn about different cultures and how culture affected healthcare. Since returning home, Kristen has become very interested in learning about the various cultures found within our own borders and plans to continue learning and exploring diversity in order to become a successful and culturally competent nurse in the future.

Community Engagement Experience Summary:

For our community engagement experience, Carrie Law and I not only wanted to entertain and educate the members of our community, but we wanted to inspire them as well. We wanted to inspire others to take their first step towards becoming a global citizen, to becoming more involved in learning about the many different cultures of the world, and to understand and respect diversity. In order to accomplish these goals, Carrie and I decided to host a study abroad photo contest in which students who studied abroad would submit photos in three categories. Members of the Pitt-Johnstown community could then travel the world through pictures and vote for their favorites in each category. The three categories of photos were landscape, portrait, and corss-cultural moments. We held our event in the Mountain Cat Club on the PItt-Johnstown campus and had an online voting session in case any student of faculty member could not stop by to vote. We had over 270 voters! By holding this photo contest, students and teachers were not able to just stop by and vote for their favorite photos, they were truly able to travel the world through the pictures and envision themselves visiting many different countries. Carrie and I were able to inspire many others to take their first step towards becoming an international leader and a global citizen. After the voting closed, the results were tallied and we sent out a campus wide e-mail announcing the winners in each category. Prior to the contest, Carrie and I asked local businesses to donate small gift cards that we could present to each of our three winners. Each winner received over $50.00 in prizes from many different local oragnizations.