Each year, the Elizabethtown College social work department sends seniors abroad to complete their 600 hours of internship time. This year, two social work majors traveled to India and New Zealand to complete their first 200 hours of service.
Alyson Courtney ’17 spent fall 2016 in Dunedin, New Zealand. She worked 150 hours with a Christian-based mentoring program and 50 hours at a night shelter. Both of these programs helped her to understand small cultural differences between the US and New Zealand, such as not sitting on tables and how people from different countries can be similar. The girls Alyson worked with struggled with many of the same high school issues as the girls in the United States. At the end of the semester, the mentoring program took a trip outside of the city. It was a highlight of Alyson’s time abroad.
Sasha Dellazanna ’17 spent her fall semester in Chennai, India. Since she was previously abroad in Italy, Sasha had known she wanted to work internationally. She originally worked teaching life skills to the community, but because of the language barrier she later switched to working at a children’s shelter. Going abroad, Sasha knew the language barrier may cause problems but wanted to put herself out of her comfort zone. The elementary students were in the process of learning English and Sasha was able to help them.
Like Alyson, Sasha learned much about the cultural differences. Both students had an excellent experience studying abroad where they developed connections, memories and skills which will help them in their careers.
Blue Jays Abroad 
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