Global/Local Ideas
My Nexus Global/Local Experiences helped me the most in collaborating with diverse groups to improve community health.
Major: Sociology
Nexus Track: Sustainable Development
Thesis:
Study Abroad:
Advanced Degrees:
My Nexus minor in Sustainable Development and Community Based Learning fellowship helped me reframe my early interest in international education into the skills and knowledge I needed to engage authentically with my local community as a global citizen. In my Mount Holyoke sociology and nexus courses I learned to analyze the socio-political context of spaces, and how to take that analysis to inform the content and approach of educational programs I implemented.
With Nexus/Community-Based Learning, I refined my skill in building reciprocal community-based partnerships, seeing them as a tool for sustainable community development. During my Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in the Brazilian Amazon, I shared these partnership building skills with my colleagues and students. We practiced listening to our local community鈥檚 expressed needs, developing a place-based programmatic response, and allowing our community partner to then shape it to fit their needs. With my partners and students, we built two partnerships with local youth-serving agencies that have continued now for over three years.
I continued building community partnerships in my work with youth as a comprehensive sexuality educator in Holyoke, MA. I鈥檝e learned that in order to improve the health of communities, a diverse group of individuals and ideas must be involved. It is in this collaborative space that my global/local experiences from Nexus are most useful.
This fall, I will continue to explore ideas of how the wellbeing of our community is affected by the space around us by pursuing an MPH/MCRP dual-degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. I am the TA for a 鈥淭echniques in Community Development鈥 course where I will support the community partnerships for a service-learning project.