World Ready Women: Chatham Abroad Speech
by Sarah Stulga
For those of you who could not attend, this was the speech I gave at the World Ready Women scholarship competition! I thought it was so amazing more of you would want to read it.
Hello, my name is Sarah Stulga. I’m a senior here at Chatham University; my major is Arts Management with a focus in music. I am the supervisor for the Chatham Ambassador program, and President of the American Marketing Association. I'm also a senior member of the Chatham Scholars program. I am going to take a few minutes today to talk about the Chatham Abroad program.
The Chatham Abroad program is a great opportunity that we offer to all Chatham students. You are eligible to go during your sophomore year, in our Maymester term. For all of you that don’t know this, Maymester is a 2 ½ week semester in May. Each student must take 2 Maymester terms. The trip is subsidized by Chatham, so it is extremely affordable and gives every student the opportunity to attend. You apply for the trip during your sophomore year, and take a one credit pre-abroad course in the spring semester prior to the trip.
There are three or four different trips offered each year. This year, students are traveling to Belize & Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Germany and Russia. Each trip has a learning focus. For example, the title of the Belize & Guatemala trip is: Ruins, Reefs and Rainforests. The students will be studying environmental science. Instead of sitting in the class…you are actually in a hands on learning environment.
My trip to Russia focused on service, so we spent our time volunteering in the orphanages in Yaroslavl – a smallish city between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Our program partnered with Cross Cultural Solutions, a company that connects people and volunteer work across the world. We were able to stay at their headquarters (a hotel in the city) and we did have to take some classes while we were there – fun sessions that helped us navigate the city and learn some Russian words to help us talk to the children. During our pre-course, we had prepared activities that we could do with the kids. When we got there, we realized that nothing could have ever prepared us for those kids – they were so incredibly smart and talented, they blew through the projects that were supposed to last us two weeks in one day! It was a great learning experience for me to realize that no matter where you go, children are always rambunctious and challenging. You can probably see on the slide show behind me, for our last project we made t-shirts with the kids and signed them so that we would have something from them and they could keep something from us. It was such a big hit! Everyone wanted us to help them spell out their names in Cyrillic. Although a translator was with us when we went into the orphanages, it was interesting trying to communicate with the kids. One day, when we were playing outside, the teacher had the kids put on a play for us and performed traditional Russian songs. Another time, I was playing ball with a kid Gino, and he kept throwing it waaaaay out of “bounds”. I was exhausted at this point, and I kept saying in English “I’m not going all the way out there to get that ball. You go get it since you threw it out there”. After a few minutes, he started pointing to the ball he threw and saying to me “You get it”. It was hilarious – and just a little bit scary to think that I was able to teach this kid something in just a few minutes. When we weren’t working in the orphanages, we were able to go out in small groups and explore the city. Our meals were provided for us by the hotel we stayed in, but we took a LOT of trips to the grocery store anyway. It might just be because I’m easily amused, but I was blown away by products we have here written in Russian, as well as things I’ve never seen before – like chocolate bars for men. No lie, written right on the package, men only. Of course we bought like 20 bars, and successfully spoke to the clerk and paid for our items in rubles. We also went to a dolphin show with our host’s eight year old daughter… we were supposed to be watching her but it was more like she was taking care of us! She kept checking on us to make sure we were all here, and giving us stern looks when we laughed too loud. One day we took a trip to Rostov, a nearby city to Yaroslavl and went to the enamel factory – they make famous painted enamel and fashion the silver ornaments themselves. It was amazing to watch them work in painstaking detail on each piece. Afterwards we went to the local monastery and ate a home-grown/homemade lunch. At the end of our trip, we celebrated Victory Day in Russia – the day WWII ended. It was a huge celebration, the entire city shut down and we went to the parade, expecting fire trucks, confetti, maybe the Russian national anthem, you know. What we saw blew us away – they had full sized (and hopefully unloaded) tanks all around, all the branches of the Russian military represented, and a full reenactment of a WWII battle complete with fire and dancing, to the tune of Linkin Park. It was absolutely the last thing we were expecting, but let me tell you, the Russians really know how to throw a parade. We have our own “reenactments” each year at our Russia reunion.
During the weekend we were there, we took a trip to St. Petersburg by sleeper train. The train was one of my favorite parts… for any Harry Potter fans; it was exactly like the Hogwarts Express. We couldn’t contain ourselves! Once we got there, we met up with a Russian student from the University of St. Petersburg who spent the weekend taking us around and showing us different parts of the city. The best part of the entire trip was that we weren’t with a traditional guided group – we were running around the city and actually being there. Instead of being on a tour bus and separating ourselves from the people, we rode the subway like everyone else. It was absolutely amazing. Right before coming home, we took a trip to Moscow and had a tour guide… granted, it was at the end of our trip, we were terrified of the city and exhausted, but it wasn’t the same experience at all. I loved being able to really explore the city myself – it made me feel connected, and it made me more independent. You can’t exactly call your friends for directions in the middle of Russia if you get turned around coming home from the post office.
What the Chatham Abroad experience did for me was open my eyes to another region of the world. If you asked me in high school, I would have never dreamed I’d be traveling across the world, and I would have never been able to afford to go without Chatham. My trip made me understand the culture and community of Russia better than I would have ever been able to on my own! Chatham Abroad is a unique experience and my suggestion for all of you is to take this opportunity when you can! If you have questions about the various trips and what they are like, you can ask an ambassador: Jessica Cassidy went to Belize & Guatemala and Megan Sutton went to China for her abroad course. Feel free to talk to any of us later today! Thank you.
If you have any questions about the Russia or any other trip, please feel free to send me an email at chathamambassador@chatham.edu!
Posted by sstulga at 1:48 PM | Link | 0 comments
My name is Sarah Rice and I am a first year student at Chatham. I’m from Indiana, Pennsylvania and I graduated from Indiana Area High School. I am currently undecided on my major, but I am considering education with a possible focus in biology. I love to swim, read, and spend time with my friends. I decided to come to Chatham because of the beautiful campus, the small class size, and the university’s desire to empower women.
My name is Cheryl Sedlock. I'm a junior Environmental Studies major. I like to do tons of activities at Chatham! I’m a resident advisor for the environmental living community – Rea House, and I lead the student group Green Horizons because I think environmental issues are really important. I love being outside and I am a member of the crew club. I’ve also done a semester-long internship in Washington, DC with Greenpeace. I like to stay involved in Pittsburgh activism and love riding my bike through the city.
