Volunteering abroad while gaining clinical hours

Think outside the box

Just like everyone around me, I wanted to spend one semester abroad. My dream was to study abroad in Italy for 6 months with the international programs in Florida State University. The cost was about $16,000 for just one semester and after being denied scholarships for it, I though? How can I have a similar experience and gain something meaningful for my medical career, save money, take online classes, delay my graduation ( so that I can use up all my scholarships) and travel to many places. I began to do my research and found a way to intern in Morocco for one semester, backpack Europe, use my fasfa and financial aid, gain other scholarships, and receive student credits while still being a “full time” FSU student and complete a minor in International Affairs.

Things don’t just come, you have to search and work for it

Many people though I was crazy when I said I was going to do my own study abroad program. It took more work and effort than the normal study abroad programs because instead of being handed everything, I had to make sure many things were handled right. There were so many important things I had to consider before embarking on this journey. I had to contact a local organization in Morocco, make sure FSU could offer me credit for volunteering there, contact FSU study abroad programs and get a private health insurance, contact the department where I wanted to take online classes ( International Affairs), make sure my graduation and all of my credits were in order because I was graduating right when I got back. The entire semester fall semester of 2015 I had to diligently work on this almost everyday. I made sure I could still receive fasfa, do my work study online to have extra money for traveling, and apply all of my other grants FSU had always offered me. Basically I traveled Europe and Interned in Morocco for free.

Things happen for a reason

Just because I was not given scholarships to study abroad in Italy, didn’t meant I could not achieve my dream of studying abroad my last semester of college. Always remember, if you want to accomplish something, do everything in your power to make it happen. Now I look back, and I am so thankful I didn’t receive any scholarships, because the experience I had is something I will cherish for the rest of my life. I also visited the office of fellowships in FSU and I applied for the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. This is a national scholarship for minority students to study abroad and it usually gives students about $5,000 for their traveling experience. I was fortunate to also receive this scholarship and as return I had to create a project about my experience. I had to share it with other students to help create awareness on studying or interning abroad.

Don’t let others opinions affect you

I remember telling people I was traveling to Morroco by myself, and the first reaction was “ You are crazy, you are going to get raped and they are going to sex slave you, you are going to be attacked my ISIS “ I didn’t pay attention to people, but sometimes I let it get to me. The day I left my family in Spain ( we spent the holidays there) I was so scared being on my own, however this made all the difference. I still got my ticket, packed my suitcase and had everything ready regardless of the comments people made. I was going to spend the new year in a new continent, new country, with a new family, new friends, and learning a new language. People will always have an opinion and many are scared of traveling and experiencing a new culture, but this was one of the best experiences of my life. Take the chance, travel on your own, and you will realize the impact this will have in your life.

Traveling by yourself vs traveling in a school program

When you travel in a program, it’s expensive since they do everything for you its about $15,000 and that’s not including your weekend trips or anything extra. They coordinate your field trips, the classes that are offered in that location, and even your living arrangements. You also travel with a bunch of other students from your university or other schools in the U.S to your destination. The chances of having a cultural diverse experience is lower, you are not really exposed to locals or meeting people from different places in the world because you spend most days in class with the students you traveled with. You don’t really get to experience the real culture that locals experience and the way they live.

When you travel alone, you basically plan your own trip. I had to volunteer 10 weeks to be able to receive 6 credits for it. I also decided what classes I wanted to take and because I wanted to have a light schedule, I took some emergency management courses. I had to make sure I got my textbooks ahead of time and that I had no exams that required me to go to a testing center. Because I only had to be in Morocco for 10 weeks, I made traveling plans to backpack Europe before coming back to the US. I basically had 2 months to enjoy before coming back to my graduation May 1st, 2016. I backpacked Europe and traveled to about 7 countries with two other friends.

I had the opportunity to experience the Muslim culture by living with a host family. I learned so much about their culture and their traditions and they became like my family who I still contact in Facebook once in a while. I also met so many other international students from all over the world, I had friends from Germany, Spain, Morocco, Switzerland, China, and I learned so much about their culture, the languages they speak, and how they live. Making all of these Friends was amazing, because it led me to travel to so many other places in the future and exploring Morocco with them while we were there.

My entire traveling internship was $2,500 and this included my volunteering experience in a local orphanage and living with a host family. I spent about $1,500 in flights, about $1,200 backpacking Europe, and of course my health insurance and my tuition which was about $3,000, I also spent another $1,000 traveling Morocco, shopping and having food outside the house.

My internship experience

I volunteered in a local orphanage that was owned by the king of Morocco where I gained about 300 clinical hours. I took care of children with physical and mental disabilities who were abandoned and were there waiting to be adopted. There were children who had Down Syndrome, and others had very rare conditions, and were not able to do anything on their own. We had to feed them, bathe them and dress them up, play with them, take them outside to the park, and just be there for them for whatever they needed. It was challenging at first because I didn’t spear Arabic, and it was shocking seeing all of these children having all sorts of disabilities and difficulties. I spent about 5 weeks with the toddlers and 5 weeks with the new borns. I got so attached to the babies and I remember the nurses telling us not to carry them because we were not going to be there for long. It was sad because we were the closest thing they had to a parent and we were there to give them love but the nurses didn’t want them to get attached to us. There weren’t enough wheelchairs to take the kids outside to the park, so some were always in bed and developed horrible bed sores. It was sad grasping all of this, but it made me appreciate my life so much more in America and do everything I could to make the kids happy and comfortable.

Living in the Muslim culture

I lived in the Medina with a host family that had 5 children who were around my age or older. The children spoke English and the one I was closest to was my host sister Mereuym. The family was kind of poor and survived from the money I paid them to live with them. This was all arranged by the local organization MCAS where I organized the entire internship. Breakfast was bread, honey, and coffee, it was so different than what I was accustomed to. We ate all of our meals with tons and tons of bread, that’s when I realized how important diet and good nutrition was. Friday’s were traditional for Couscous and it was the day people rested and relaxed. My host parents prayed 5 times a day and were very religious. The family didn’t take showers daily, they would go to the hammam every Sunday, that’s where the Muslims shower together, it’s like a huge spa where all women or all men wash up together. My host sisters were not able to go out at night, they had to cover their hair when leaving the house, and could not have boyfriends.

Myreum’s story was sad, the family chose her husband who was a guy that stalked her and she was forced to get married with him because he had money and everybody around the neighborhood saw him going to the house all the time. She had no idea about contraception, so she was pregnant during the time I was there and she would tell me how she didn’t want to have the baby. There were two other students one from London and one from Netherlands who also lived with me and were studying in Morocco. we became really good friends and would escape the house whenever we needed some real American food or just to get away from the house a little.

Walking in the Medina and in Morocco in general was the thing I hated the most about this experience. Men were so obnoxious about foreign girls, they would look at you and stare at you, follow you, chase you, talk to you, it was so enjoying, they would always hit on you and it was the most anoying thing ever. I had guys who followed me to my internship and my host mom had to scream at them because one day I almost through one off his bike lol. I also had the opportunity to travel to many different cities in Morocco and visit one of the largest mosques in the world, I went to the Sahara desert, visited other cities like Marrakech, Casa Blanca, Ifrane ( where we got to see snow), chefchaouen, and others.

Here are some helpful links:

https://www.iie.org/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program

https://www.mcas-arabic.com/intern-with-human-rights-organization-in-morocco/

If you are interested in having a similar experience or volunteering in Morocco, don't hesitate to contact me, I will be happy to answer questions about the Gilman Scholarship, or how I was able to accomplish this =)