9/7/2020 2 Comments Preparing to go abroad Over the past seven months there has been a lot of uncertainty as to whether my study abroad trip was going to happen. Every few weeks I had to make another decision on whether I wanted to stick through and hope that everything goes well, or to drop the program and try to go in the spring. As my family and friends can attest, it has been a stressful few months (for many reasons!!!) and for me personally this program. With the support of my family, friends, my amazing boss in the Elon Student Professional Development Center, my Elon and SIT advisors, I decided to keep faith and have hope for the program.
This patience, faith, and stress has paid off. I leave for Rwanda on the 12th of September! I am beyond excited and still confused of how I actually am able to go on this program. Rwanda from the start made very quick and smart decisions with their COVID-19 guidelines and I will be very safe there. It has been sad watching my friends go back to school and bonding, I got to see a few people before I left which was really nice. Going abroad in the fall poses many more advantages for me rather than the spring. In the spring, there is my sister's graduation from her Masters program at UNC-Greensboro, and both my big and little's last semester's at Elon. I would have been very sad to have missed those times! Over the past few weeks those on the program have been doing Webex calls with our program directors and other heads from SIT to discuss our travel plans, any country updates, and answering any questions we may have. It has been a really nice thing for them to host for us so we can connect with others on the program before-hand. It feels very odd that this program is still happening. It has been so up-in-the-air over the past few months that I hadn't been letting myself get excited about it. However, now it feels very real and exciting as I pack and get ready to start this adventure!
2 Comments
Jo Binns
9/14/2020 09:25:59 am
Wow! What a stressful time! But it’s happened and you’re now in Africa! Bahati njema!
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Kenille Baumgardner
9/21/2020 05:50:04 pm
Totally awed by your going on this trip through all of what must have been a lot of stress. Kenille
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