I didn't know much about ISA before I embarked on my journey last summer and it was smooth sailing with really nice people the whole way! My time volunteering at the Children's Rehabilitation Center in Valparaiso was wonderful! I did an add on program after my six weeks of university classes were over, so it was a pretty seamless transition for me. I obviously improved my Spanish, a lot of times when I was playing with the kids they would tell me I sounded funny which I thought was cute. I learned about community service, because I believe that we live in a global community. Since I have returned I have kept active in community service. I now volunteer with the American Cancer Society and I have looked into participating in AmeriCorps programs. Unfortunately two days after my return home from Chile, my mother passed away. My mother passing away, and my time in Chile changed my entire prospective on life and I now have skills for dealing with sometimes stressful situations that I would have never had before I went to Chile. I also now have a Chilean family, who still keeps in at least weekly contact with me! It really changed my life!
Sarah Hannold Dobrydney - Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
Valparaiso, Chile - ISA Summer 1 + 6-week ELAP 2009
ISA's ELAP program has taught me so much and I keep recommending it to other friends that want to go abroad but do more than just classwork.
Volunteering at the Consultorio was amazing. It has definitely impacted me in so many ways and continues to impact me now. Of course, volunteering at a clinic in a Spanish speaking country made me use and work on my Spanish every single day. I had no other choice but to immerse myself! By volunteering in a clinic in Chile, I saw a whole different side to health care that I had not seen in the states yet. I saw how the community clinic functioned for, well, the community. I saw the friendships and relationships the staff in the clinic had with their patients, which were phenomenal. The clinic had a few patients that came to the clinic frequently for wound or medications so I got to know them well. I would practice talking in Spanish with them and they would be so fascinated by my foreigner's accent. I got to know their families and what was going on in their lives since they came into the clinic so often. I was able to make house visits to those who were bed-ridden and could not make it to the clinic. I will never forget the experiences I had at the house visits we made. Sometimes I could not understand the patients or families completely but you don't need to understand language to understand emotions. Some visits were so sorrowful while others brightened my day. I saw living conditions which were absolutely horrendous to those that had every western amenity imaginable. I also sat in on workshops that the clinic held for those with Diabetes, Hypertension, Bed-ridden family members, and those suffering from depression.
Volunteering at the Consultorio Medico was difficult for me because my Spanish was not top notch but it definitely threw me out of my comfort zone and made me learn Spanish fast. I also think the clinic expected me to already have nursing skills and be willing to practice them. At the time I volunteered at the clinic, I had not started the official nursing school program but was still completely pre-reqs. Therefore, I had no clinical experience and wasn't willing to give shots or dress wounds which required sterile dressing changes. I did, however, get to practice patient intake and take weights, blood pressures, and sit in on visits with the nurses. I am forever grateful for the experience ISA's ELAP program gave me because no other experience can compare.
Amy Taylor - University of Texas, Austin
Valparaiso, Chile - ELAP 10-week Summer 2009
