Sade Banks

International Experience Country:
Thailand
Cohort Year:
2016
Home Institution:

University of Pittsburgh | Greensburg

Heinz Programming Area:
Children, Youth, and Families
Bio:
Study Abroad Country: Thailand Cohort Year: 2016 Home Institution: University of Pittsburgh | Greensburg Programming Area: Children, Youth, and Families
International Experience Summary:

Sade Banks spent 7 weeks in Chiang Mai Thailand, where she had the opportunity to study Thai culture and society along with Thai dance. One of the most memorable experiences Sade had was when she visited Baan Sri Khum, a Northern Thai Village. For 3 days and 2 nights, Sade stayed with a host family in the village. Her host family owned a rice farm and Sade was able to volunteer an afternoon to help plant rice for the families of the village. Through the rice farm, Sade’s host family provided rice to the entire village for free. The rice that Sade helped plant that afternoon will stretch a full year. One of the evenings, Sade was able to help her host family prepare dinner. The dinner that she prepared was not cooked on a stove top but rather over an open fire. Though Sade’s host family did not speak any English, Sade grew such a strong love for her family. Additionally, Sade had a wonderful opportunity to spend a full day at a rescue elephant nature park. At the park, Sade helped bathe the elephants and feed them. In the Thai society class, Sade was able to have a true appreciation for Buddhism and the Thai society as a whole. Class was often held at Temples (Wat) so that the class could immerse in the religion and understand the culture more. Being in a developing country, Sade has decided that working in low-income countries in the medical field is the route that she would like to pursue. 

Community Engagement Experience Summary:

CEE Title: Knocking Down Walls: Campus Immigration-What it is and What You Need to Know

The Pitt Greensburg 2016 Cohort’s CEE was done by having a short Prezi presentation followed by a discussion led by a panel. The presentation in the beginning was done to give the audience an understanding of what the night was going to consist of. Being that we took immigration and redefined it, we had to give a presentation in the beginning so that everyone was on the same page. During the presentation, we asked a few questions to get an understanding of what the audience knew about immigration and how they defined our topic “campus immigration”. To ensure that our audience did not get bored, we gave everyone post-it notes and asked them to write down their responses. After giving the audience a few moments to think about the questions and write their response, we gave time for anyone that wanted to share what they wrote. Having these questions in the beginning of the presentation was the stepping stone to the panel discussion that followed the Prezi presentation.

After the short interactions of the audience my cohort and I gave the official definition of immigration followed by our definition of campus immigration. Before we moved to the panel discussion we then explained how we were campus immigrants to our host countries and how it related to the topic that we were discussing. Before the panel discussion began, each member of the panel gave a short introduction of themselves. The powerful panel discussion lasted roughly 45 minutes and though the conversation was great we had to conclude the discussion due to lack of time. After the panel discussion, we then asked the audience to take out their last post-it note, on this they wrote what they will now do differently on campus being that they are aware of campus immigration. When everyone was complete with their post-it note, they were asked to place it on a trifold board that we provided. This board will be displayed on campus so that the rest of the campus community is also aware of campus immigration.