Poised to uplift her community
This year's Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship recipient aims to incorporate social justice into a career in health care.
International internships provide students with an opportunity to gain invaluable professional and intercultural skills that prepare them to excel academically and professionally in our increasingly globalized world. By living and working abroad, students learn to navigate cultural differences in social and professional settings through full immersion in the culture of their host city. In addition, participation in international internships affords students increased confidence, tolerance for ambiguity, and strengthened communication skills.
You don't need to be majoring in the sciences to benefit from doing research while studying abroad. Doing a research project abroad will enrich your academic experience, enhance your credentials, and be a benefit as you begin to build an international professional network. Faculty in some Boston College departments may have contacts abroad who can help you organize your own research project or work with a team of researchers on an existing project.
International service learning opportunities are availible in various locations around the world, whether it's working at health clinic in Ecuador, volunteering at a homeless shelter in Santiago, tutoring children in South Africa, or a month-long community service project in the Philippines. We encourage participants to take advantage of opportunities that allow them to delve more deeply into their abroad experiences. Placements foster meaningful interactions with locals outside the classroom and help students get to know the culture in a more profound way.
During the fall 2016 semester, Pre-Med student Chris Reynolds (MCAS '18) completed research at Universidad San Francisco de Quito with Dr. Iván Palacios, Professor of the USFQ School of Medicine. Chris recently finished a year in Colombia as a Fulbright scholar working on a public health research project, and has been accepted by the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan for his medical studies.
Read about the impact of his time abroad on his current career path in public and global health medicine.
"I am grateful to have received the opportunity through Puentes to intern at Ecohouse during my semester abroad in Buenos Aires. As an Environmental Studies student, my involvement at Ecohouse allows me the unique opportunity to apply my studies in order to understand new perspectives and challenges surrounding environmental issues in Argentina. In the Certificación Ambiental (Environmental Certification) department, I’m working with other interns to assess the sustainability of offices and businesses in Buenos Aires and to help these spaces achieve higher levels of sustainability." — Nelle Douglas, MCAS '21
"One of the most rewarding aspects of this particular program is the week and a half long rural retreat. The program takes students to the southern areas of Wadi Rum and Petra where a significant Bedouin population live, as well as to the lush, green hills of Irbid and Shobak in the North. Besides complete language immersion, this retreat provides unique cultural opportunities that expose students to a variety of traditional, Jordanian customs. I can truly say that this semester has been a semester of immersion and learning that has prepared me for my final year at Boston College." — Kyle Costa, MCAS '20
Julia Biango, MCAS ’16, was a McGillycuddy Logue Travel and Research Grant recipient for her study at the University of Cape Town during the fall 2014 semester. During her time abroad, Biango tutored in the Manenberg Township and volunteered through an NGO as an instructor at an after-school tutoring project for middle school children. After graduating from BC, she went on to study sub-Saharan development policy and global political economy at the Columbia University Master of Arts in Global Thought program. Biango won a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program award to South Africa, where she will work for nine months as an English Teaching Assistant at the University of Pretoria.
John DiBello, MCAS ’20, participated in a semester program at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito where he completed research alongside Dr. Iván Palacios, the Director of Global Health at Universidad de San Francisco de Quito Medical School. He also received a Civic Internship grant through the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, to continue his research work in Ecuador during the summer of 2019.
Based at the European Center for the Study of War and Peace (ECSWP), the program aims to form students who wish to think critically, holistically, and creatively about how to bring about justice and reconciliation.
Students who wish to take the 3-credit internship must apply through the ECSWP. Once approved, students are matched with partner organizations based on students’ academic and professional needs and interests.
“I was part of the SHAWCO education program at the University of Cape Town where we went to Nyanga, a nearby township, and taught children in an after school program.”