Preparing for my Global Scholar Experience in Rio de Janeiro
By: Colton Heine
Though I have yet to fully depart to Rio de Janeiro for my global experience, I have been preparing and contemplating what I want to make out of my time abroad, and what I intend to accomplish. I have been to South America once before, specifically Argentina, but have never been in the continent for as extended of a stay as this will be. I am quite excited to explore and visit the location that has been depicted in countless movies from the animated Rio of my childhood, to several passing shots of the Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) in various films. Overall, I believe that this will be a wonderful trip to both broaden my own worldview as well as research the greater impact on those of the people I will be working with for my internship.
If I had to narrow down to three things that I wanted to guarantee that I experienced during my time in Rio, it would have to be all related to truly immersing myself in their culture and the locale during my free time. To initially narrow that broad statement down, I will make sure to taste all the local cuisine and participate in any events that I may see around town. What I felt like I was missing out on in previous oversea travels was that sense of true immersion and understanding of my environment. Even though there may be a language barrier, that often doesn’t prevent you from engrossing yourself in a new place. Food is often one of the first and best ways to open yourself up to new cultures and traditions, and through it I intend to engrain myself within the city of Rio de Janeiro. This is more personal in nature, yet it should help me discover new ways to introduce what I am attempting to experience to others at the office. This goal should allow me to gather dining recommendations to colleagues, and act as a way into experiencing a more local side of Rio should they choose to go.
(Feijoada, a national dish in Brazil consisting of a black bean stew with a variety of meats served on rice)
Another facet of the general topic of immersing myself will be to push myself to just try new things in general, with regard to safety of course. In full transparency, I am commonly an anxious traveler, and as a result will sometimes be hesitant to dive headfirst into different adventures which could potentially limit my time abroad. Yet after my first year in college I have pushed myself to be more outgoing and open, and I aim to take this new thought process into Rio. I will explore more, attempt to speak Portuguese (albeit just simple phrases I have learned) more, and just overall try things I may never considered doing prior. This is another personal goal that once again has a direct tie in to my overall project, as it will allow me to find more experiences for others when not working in the office which can translate to the qualitative research I conduct.
The last aspect I want to focus on is focus itself. I intend to make sure that I limit distractions such as my devices to make the most out of the time I have there. This is the most personal out of all the goals, but once again (for a third time in a row!), directly relates to what I aim to accomplish overall while in Rio, researching how community engagement impacts employees. This goal also ties into the next phase of this blog, skills I want to improve on given this “newfound” focus.
The greatest component of this whole internship, program, and time abroad is to improve my research skills through working on this project, yet making sure that ties into a community. I would like to develop my ability to conduct research as a whole alongside working in a professional environment, both of which will be more or less firsts for me. I have never truly conducted research in a college level setting nor held a position such as this, but I will be prepared, committed, and hard-working to ensure I produce high quality work while still enjoying my time and creating an impact. Through working on interviews and surveys and interning under others I will develop both of these skills in a professional setting, which I envision will be vital foundations for countless future endeavors.
I will leave this blog off with a quote from a franchise whose park I very recently came from, “Adventure is out there!”, originally spoken by Ellie from the movie UP (2009). It is ‘up’ to you to decide what you make of your adventure, and how you’ll experience it.
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