Study abroad opportunities provide students with the transformative experience of other cultures, speaking different languages, providing hands-on care and learning about a country’s health care system. The School of Nursing values these opportunities for our undergraduate and graduate students. During 2024, we will be sending small groups of nursing students to Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and Japan. We also will be sending at least two nursing faculty per trip for their knowledge and supervision.
The cost of travel continues to rise. The School of Nursing is proud to be able to award scholarship money to students to travel and to help offset their costs but we also need to provide funding for faculty travel.
In the words of two nursing students who traveled to Costa Rica in January 2023, we learn the benefits of these experiences. Elsa Cozine, first-place winner in the Washburn University student photo essay contest shared, “The people of Costa Rica will forever have my heart. They are a people unlike any other. Many are refugees from nearby Nicaragua and come from nothing. They have little to no belongings in their scrap-metal homes that stand unevenly on the mountainside, yet they have everything. They have a joy unmatched.”
Breuana DuVal, second-place winner in the student photo essay contest stated in her essay, “Overall, my time in Costa Rica was completely eye-opening and gave me so many different skills to take back to America. I now have practice caring for someone who does not speak my language. I now have practice caring for someone without having access to my full arsenal of supplies like I do at the hospital. I now have exposure to a completely different culture, which will help me to be able to respect and understand the cultural differences of patients in my care in the future."
Your gift on Day of Giving goes directly to students and faculty to participate in these life-changing experiences.
