Name: Sarah Robinson

Type of Project: Study Abroad

1.Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.

I studied with the Siena Italian Studies program in Siena Italy, attending class 5 days a week and living with a host family. In my free time outside of classwork and studying, I traveled to a total of 7 other countries, experiencing as many different cultures as I could.

2. What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.

I gained a greater understanding of the English language through learning to speak Italian. As we were learning different grammatical rules, our professors would explain concepts in English when necessary, but one of our classmates is from Ecuador and her first language is Spanish. She described her experience very differently than we did, because while she was fluent in English, she was learning a new language through the lens of her second language. It gave me a greater appreciation for learning a second language as facilitated by my native language. 

Furthermore, my experience in teaching english unofficially to my host sister gave insight to how the English language is learned in comparison to how I started learning Italian. I learned just how complex and varied the English language is, with all the grammatical rules being broken half the time. All this, however, is to say that through my experience analyzing the learning processes for learning a new language, I realized a greater empathy for people who live in a society that speaks a language other than their first language. Even after years of practicing, there are things that evade you, or references that don’t make sense, and the native speakers of that language will certainly treat you different than their peers or those who grew up speaking their language.

3. What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.

Living with a host family for three and a half months definitely affected my perspective on language and culture. The family had a lot of similarities to my own, and though they occasionally functioned in a different way than I have observed in the United States, there were far more similarities than differences, despite the use of a completely different language. Teaching my host sister English on occasion changed my perspective o

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n the language learning process— my interactions with her, a woman of roughly my same age, showed me the value of learning another language in a perspective I had not considered— she wanted to learn English so she could move to London to find work, because there are perceived more job opportunities there than the small Italian town in which my host sister lives.

The other students in the program with me also affected my cultural perspective on how non-Americans view Americans. To my surprise, there were a few girls in my program who felt very very strongly about the “superiority” of the US over all other countries, and who took offense whenever our country was the butt of a harmless joke. Their actions and attitudes towards others and towards the culture of life in Siena was appalling, and made me realize that people like that are the reason non-Americans dislike American tourists. It made me re-evaluate my own actions and attitudes, and I tried to be more cognizant of how my actions might affect the citizens of Siena and the other countries and cities to which I traveled. My belief is that I was a guest in the country, in the cities, and I should act as a good guest should; that is I should be gracious towards those who made accommodations for me, but should not expect every door to be held open and the red carpet rolled out before me. I felt I should try to experience the cultures in which I was, by trying new foods and drinks, by not infringing on private spaces for a photo, and by trying to learn what I could about the area.

Finally, my wide travels across the European continent affirmed my belief that in order to be a good citizen of the world, one should travel as widely as they can and experience as many different cultures as possible. There is so much of the world to see, so much history to learn and phenomenal people to encounter. I want to continue to travel and appreciate different parts of the world, from the ancient ruins to the modern installations. I also realized I would love to learn more languages and be able to communicate with people from not just English speaking nations.

4. Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.

As a student, I know after graduation I will have a job in which I will have to interact with people— all jobs have that to some extent of course. I do not know whether I will need to travel for work, or if I will stay at the same location. I do know, however, that the interpersonal skills and appreciation for culture that I developed while abroad will help me in my day to day interactions with coworkers and bosses, and will help me to build strong relationships in the company for which I will work. If I do travel for my future job, then I already have the necessary skills to keep calm and collected on my journey, and to be able to be a gracious guest of wherever my work will take me.

In my future life, I plan to travel more and experience as much of the world as I can. Now that I have good traveling skills, and the ability to independently solve problems and think on my feet, I feel much more able to do my own traveling, and to encourage others to do the same, to hopefully cultivate the same level of appreciation for other cultures that I have developed in my time abroad.

My STEP signature project was a study abroad focusing in Human and animal interactions in The Republic of Ireland. During the trip I visited many different farms and research areas to see the different management systems that were used due to the unique climate of Ireland. While at these places I also learned about how current political events were affecting these businesses.

The inter-relatedness of politics on the Ireland was very different compared to the United States. Also, the unique climate allows the farms on the Island to keep animals out longer and give a food source we don’t use much in the Unites States. However, the climate also raises several problems that we do not have here in the United States.

The Republic of Ireland has both its own rules for livestock and animal but also has to follows rules put in place by the European Union. One of the main topics that was reoccurring was Brexit. Many of the farmers were concerned about their supply chain and product prices since they freely traded with the United Kingdom. Several farmers were concerned about what kind of boarder would be installed because they took animals to processing plants in Northern Ireland and some processing plants in The Republic of Ireland harvested animals from Northern Ireland.

In the Republic of Ireland, the climate allows for them to grow grass almost all year. This lets the farmers have a longer grazing season than the United States and have a cheaper more abundant food source for their livestock. They actually had a research facility and worked with the farmers to have sustainable grassland management and livestock food supply.

The climate on the Island gives the farmers unique issues with their livestock. With the very wet and muddy environment the farmers have to run all hoofed animals through a foot bath with regularity. This prevents and treats infections in the hoof instead of using antibiotics right away since the European Union has strict laws on the use of antibiotics in animals.

The new outlook I have after this trip will be incredibly helpful in my current job and future career working in animal medicine. Working in a medical field will expose me to many cultures that are different then mine. I feel this experience has truly help me better other stand the complexity of other cultures and help me interact better in my future career.

1. Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.
I chose an education abroad as my STEP Signature Project. I went on a 10-day study abroad during winter break in various counties of Ireland, exploring human and animal interactions at different farms, agricultural settings, and other unique animal encounters.

2. What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project?     Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.
I am hoping to become a large animal veterinarian someday and thought it would be beneficial to work on becoming more globally minded and globally engaged in animal agriculture worldwide. This trip allowed me to experience animals from a different cultural perspective. I learned so much about Irish animal industry and how important agriculture is to the country. I gained a better understanding off the workings of different livestock industries and learned about the current “hot topics” in Irish animal news. Becoming more aware of the similarities and differences between US and Irish human and animal interactions will help me to become a better agricultural stewardess, and hopefully a better veterinarian as well.

3. What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.
The interactions that left the biggest impressions on me were ones that involved talking with local farmers about their animals and their time in that sector of animal agriculture. The two farm visits that stick out most to me are the ones where we talked to a beef farmer and a sheep farmer. In my opinion, there is no better way to learn about an industry than from someone who is in it for a living. These farmers cared an awful lot for their stock, and it showed in every word they spoke to us. They taught us about industry specifics, animal husbandry, and animal welfare topics.
These visits were most valuable to me because I share similar experiences with local farmers around home. These people are full of knowledge and wisdom that you can’t get from a lecture or just a tour of a facility. They were incredibly willing to share those things with us and were completely transparent in doing so.
I hope to apply the animal-related things to my career as a veterinarian. I also hope to apply the cultural-related things I’ve learned (such as open-mindedness, acceptance, adventure, and awareness) to myself as a person in general, a student, and an agricultural stewardess.

4. Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.
This experience has been very transformational and valuable to me. I chose this education abroad to expand my understanding of human and animal interactions, animal agriculture, and cultural awareness, and this trip exceeded all of those expectations. I feel like through this trip I have grown as a person, having experienced a different country and its culture for an extended period of time. I feel more culturally aware and I think that as a student, that is a good thing to be. This allows you to be more open-minded and to thing about things in a bigger scope. With the goal of becoming a large/food animal veterinarian, I thought this trip would be a great opportunity to experience agriculture from a different point of view. From this trip, I have a better understanding of beef, sheep, and swine industries from a different perspective. I hope to apply the things that I’ve learned to my future endeavors as a student, person in society, person in agriculture, and as a future veterinarian. Overall, this was a great trip and I got a lot of really great things out of it.