Not only did students bring hand-me-down futons, Ikea bags and box fans back onto campus in time for the first day of classes, but many returned with new lessons and languages learned, trinkets bought and memories and friends acquired.
Sophomore Beth Martinez, an accounting and economics double major, spent eight weeks of her summer in Costa Rica through the ND Bridge program. There, she stayed with a host family and two other Notre Dame students, Shania Marte and Will Ek, while working with a Nicaraguan community.
According to Martinez, staying with a host family was both one of her and her group’s favorite aspects of the experience.
“We got to experience San Jose in a way that you wouldn't have as a tourist, or even if you were just studying abroad,” Martinez said. “And we even were able to travel with the host sister, which was really awesome.”
Each of the three students had a different internship in Costa Rica — education, marketing and English teaching. Although Martinez had an education internship, she worked in a variety of settings, from camps and schools to clinics.
“I learned how to be independent and be resourceful,” Martinez said. “Each day was different, but I learned to appreciate that instead of being stressed out by that, and I learned how to kind of see where needs were and understand how I could meet them without having to ask permission.”
Martinez noted that the biggest challenge of the experience was the commute time. She would commute up to three hours every day and, thus, gained a deepened sense of patience that she had not had before.
“I really appreciated getting to speak Spanish in a context where I was forced to speak Spanish,” Martinez said. “It would have been hard to get to the level of proficiency in Spanish that I got in Costa Rica without living it 24/7.”
According to Martinez, her Spanish was on an intermediate level before the trip, and it improved to be conversational and fluid throughout. Martinez said she spoke Spanish about 85% of the time while in Costa Rica.
“It was a great experience to be able to go abroad, in a way where you don't have to take classes, but you’re learning a lot,” Martinez said.
Junior Kiki Shim spent the middle portion of her summer interning at the Department of Transportation in the Environment and Compliance Division for the Maritime Administration in Washington D.C. Not only did she intern at the Capital, but Shim also participated in a program that allowed her to live at George Washington University and take an economics class at George Mason University.
“When I set out for a goal for this summer, it was mainly about location and living by myself for the first time, kind of, and so the job itself wasn't as important to me,” Shim said. “Being around the government and political science stuff was definitely interesting … and kind of related to some of the Global Affairs aspects of my majors, but it wasn't necessarily something that I would go to post grad.”
Shim learned about the opportunity through the Women in Economics club at Notre Dame. No other Notre Dame students participated in the program, but Shim worked with one other student, from La Salle University, in her division.
“I do think that obviously the Econ class was very closely related to my major, and that's always good to have more opportunities to study that,” Shim said.
Shim also did writing, reading and synthesizing work that she believes is good for school in general. Shim is an economics and global affairs double major along with a gender studies minor.
“I liked … kind of like all that novel stuff, like … having to do the background check, seeing the secretary's photo on the wall, going down to the Situation Room, that kind of stuff,” Shim said. “It was fun to see.”
Sophomore Jack Simpson spent his summer at Ortho Rhode Island, which is only half an hour from his hometown and part of the South County Hospital. Simpson served as a medical assistant during the week and completed research focused on hip stability and total knee replacements over the weekends.
“I think my favorite part was getting to work with super educated people and doctors … because it really showed what I want to be eventually,” Simpson said.
Simpson is a science pre-professional and Spanish double major. According to Simpson, he wanted to get some clinical hours under his belt this summer while being able to gauge interests in the medical field.
“I know that I don't want to do orthopedics now, but … I got to go into the O.R. a lot during my time there, and that was super cool,” Simpson said. “Just like, getting to see them slice open and do all the surgery stuff was super, super cool.”
Similarly, sophomore Isaac LeFever volunteered this summer at a nonprofit organization that focuses on stroke, dementia and crash rehabilitation. The organization is located in LeFever’s hometown, Burkettsville, Ohio, which has a population of about 200.
“We do patterning and some other memory tests and things … in order to get whatever limbs aren't working anymore back to working and get the brain rewired,” LeFever said. “So we worked with that, and then … we did some stuff with some brain scans and working to make sure that we get neurons firing in the correct spots. It’s a really cool operation, definitely worth working for.”
The organization is completely free to all and is prescribed for patients by a doctor. There are no doctors in the nonprofit, so it is largely supported by volunteers and fundraising to keep the medical bills for patients at zero.
“I'd known a lot of people volunteering there, but I didn't know exactly what direction I wanted to take my career,” LeFever said. “I found that opportunity at home to volunteer, and it was clinical hours and volunteer hours and decided that would help me with my career path.”
According to LeFever, his favorite aspect of volunteering was meeting many patients.
“Working with the patients one on one you have the ability to foster relationships and make connections with people in the surrounding areas,” LeFever said. “Living in that small area, everybody knows anybody anyway, but to be able to form closer relationships, not just name recognition, is amazing, and it's a great way to just meet more people and kind of branch out.”
LeFever is a neuroscience major who plans to go to medical school to become a family practitioner. He aims to return to his hometown to work in an area where “that’s needed.”
“You show them [patients] a lot of respect, and they’ll show you respect, and it's all these people who are just wishing you luck and support throughout your entire journey to your career path,” he said.
Completing a mix of domestic and foreign work, sophomore Mia Valli participated in an ROTC scholarship program called Project Global Officer. Valli applied and was accepted to the 12-week Kyrgyzstan program which combines two months at Arizona State University and one month in Kyrgyzstan with a host family.
“It was super intensive programs,” Valli said. “I think in Arizona, I spent about 10 hours a day on Russian, so I'd spend like four hours in class, an hour or two, depends, on office hours, and then I spent like two hours on homework and two hours studying because we had an exam every week, and we had quizzes every day.”
Sophomore Mia Valli spent her summer in Krgyzstan through an ROTC program. Courtesy of Mia Valli.
In Kyrgyzstan, Valli spoke Russian “24/7” and took an official proficiency test to which she scored intermediate medium, meaning she could have a conversation with someone in Russian.
At Arizona State University, Valli took two semesters of Russian, which was followed by one more semester in Kyrgyzstan. In Arizona, Valli had school Monday to Friday, while in Kyrgyzstan she had school Monday to Thursday, with Fridays off for excursions.
Valli participated in many cultural activities such as drinking horse milk, completing a traditional cooking class and visiting the national park Ala-Archa. Valli’s favorite activity was a 48-hour stay in the national park at Issyk-Kul lake which included a four-hour hike, horseback riding, an eagle show and building a yurt.
“We did so much, and it was so cool to be there and see it,” Valli said. “Kyrgyzstan is like the Swiss Alps … in Malaysia. It's so mountainous, it's so pretty, and you can't even describe it. It felt so surreal; it felt like I never even was there, because it's such a surreal experience.”
While other Notre Dame students participated in the program, none besides Valli were a part of the Kyrgyzstan program. The program is open to students from all branches and schools.
“I have friends now at Michigan State, at Duke, USC, California, and literally it was just such a cool experience,” Valli said. “You meet so many people, and I'm going to USC for the USC Notre Dame game, and my friends are coming here for St Patrick's Day, so it's fun.”
Prior to the trip, Valli was a history major, but since the trip she has added on Russian as a double major. Valli took 13 credits over the summer, and eight will transfer over.
“I definitely want to go back,” Valli said. “I definitely want to take my parents and my family one day and just see it all.”
