Igniting the Fire
There are many famous leaders and innovators that have changed and made a substantial difference on the world. One man come specifically to my mind, and that man is Martin Luther King Jr. who was able to lead an entire nation in a movement that inspired millions. He was able to spark a movement that lead to the end of racial segregation for African Americans. We often forget that although leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. lead incredible change, they couldn’t have done it with all the people that helped make that change a reality. My global learning experiences have taught me that it just takes one individual to start the fire, but it takes a village to impact positive change. In public health, things are accomplished best in teams, rather than individually. In my future career, I will be thoughtful in rallying others behind my cause to make change.
During my time abroad in the Czech Republic, I had the opportunity to take a Modern European History course. I learned a brief overview of the history of central Europe: Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. Czech history was heavily focused on throughout this course, especially between the time period of World War II and the Communism era in Czechoslovakia. Learning about World War II and Communism from this perspective is completely different from learning about it in the United States, because you learn first-hand the hardships the Czech people had to go through. One historical event that we discussed had a significant impact on my abroad experience: the Prague Spring of 1968. The Prague Spring of 1968 was the day that the Soviet Union invaded Prague to ensure that they had full control over Czechoslovakia. As seen in Artifact 1, I gave a presentation on a young college student, by the name of Jan Palach, who made an impact that has lasted decades. Jan Palach wrote multiple letters to several public figures demanding for abolition of censorship, cancelation of the soviet newspaper, and for the Czechs and Slovaks to riot. He did this to prevent the Soviet Union from invading Prague, and taking over the Czechoslovakia (the Czech Republic at the time). When that came to no avail, Jan Palach used self-immolation in Wenceslas Square during Prague Spring on January 16, 1698. Self-immolation is the act of offering oneself as a sacrifice, in his case, burning alive. Through this act, Jan Palach not only inspired students to revolt against the Soviet Union and communism, but also inspired people across Europe to stand up to the Soviet Union. Many towns in the Czech Republic have streets and squares named after Jan Palach, and there are places in other European countries named after him, including a Student Hall in Venice, Italy. Jan Palach became a symbol for students that they can standup for a cause and make a real impact on the world. Although Jan Palach started a revolution against communism in Prague, it was the population that stood behind his radical revolution that made change possible.
It was hard to not notice the homeless population during my time in Prague. Homeless men, women, and children seemed to be at every corner. I didn’t begin to understand the homeless population in Prague until we discussed Romanians in my Gender Studies course. During this course, I learned that the Romanians are the biggest minority in the Czech Republic and most of Europe, making up most of the homeless population. The high rate of homelessness in this minority group is due to the lack of resources available to help them assimilate into society. Most Romanians don’t graduate past grade school, because they don’t speak the language and have no way of learning it in their family. Artifact 2 is a presentation I made for this course that describes the struggles and history of the Romanian people. I encountered Romanian people daily, especially walking near transit stations and outside of grocery stores. One time, I was walking out of the grocery store and a Romanian man started screaming at me in a language that wasn’t English or Czech. I didn’t know what to do, so I froze for a couple minutes and while he screamed. I eventually pretended I was deaf and ran away towards my apartment. My fear of this Romanian man represents the fear that most tourists and Czechs feel toward the Romanian population. This fear was caused by a lack of knowledge and understanding of this minority group before I was assigned a project on them for my Gender Studies course. There are several members of the younger generation of Roma women in the Czech Republic have established civic groups to fight for more rights and to mend the lack of knowledge and understanding of their minority group. These influential Roma women have started the precedent for change in the Roma population, but change would not be possible without the support of other Roma people in these established civic groups.
For three out of my four years at the University of South Carolina, I have been involved with an organization called Dance Marathon. Dance Marathon is a student run organization that fully funds the Child Life Program at the local children’s hospital, PRISMA. The Child Life Program provides resources for children and their families, and helps provide tools that make their stay at the hospital better. I started out as a hero in this organization my first year, and transitioned into a position on morale. Morale is the part of staff that has the sole role of bringing morale up during main event, which is a 14-hour long dance-a-thon. This year, we set a high goal to raise a total of $119 million dollars by the end of main event. In order to reach that goal, we all had to work together and pull our individual weight. Each member on morale had to raise a minimum of $750, and every member on staff had to raise a minimum of $1000. To reach my goal, I chose to dye my hair pink for donations as seen in Artifact 3. I surpassed my goal, raising $1000 in less than 24 hours during our big fundraising push. I would not have been able to raise that much money without the support from family and friends. As an organization, we did not reach $119 million dollars, but we surpassed $1 million dollars and reached a new fundraising record. This goal was set in motion by our president, but it wouldn’t have been possible without teamwork from everyone on staff, morale, and participants. Dance marathon is similar to Jan and the Romanians. Although it took great leaders and ideas to make significant change on the world, it would not have been possible with every person that rallied behind their cause. Dance marathon’s fundraising goal to change children’s lives at the local hospital could have not been done without every student who came together on campus that rallied and fundraised behind the cause.
Through my experiences abroad, I learned about influential people that helped start change. However, change could not have been possible without support from other people. Martin Luther King Jr. made a powerful statement in his I Have a Dream speech, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed-we hold these truth to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”. This dream has slowly become a reality through the efforts of the nation working as a team to gain equality for all men and women, and that fire was ignited by Martin Luther King Jr. This aspect of working as a team to make positive change in the world also applies to a career in public health or any health field. Public health needs people to come up with new innovations and techniques in healthcare, but the most important aspect is teamwork. I will use this new knowledge as a future public health professional to make a difference and establish real change.
During my time abroad in the Czech Republic, I had the opportunity to take a Modern European History course. I learned a brief overview of the history of central Europe: Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. Czech history was heavily focused on throughout this course, especially between the time period of World War II and the Communism era in Czechoslovakia. Learning about World War II and Communism from this perspective is completely different from learning about it in the United States, because you learn first-hand the hardships the Czech people had to go through. One historical event that we discussed had a significant impact on my abroad experience: the Prague Spring of 1968. The Prague Spring of 1968 was the day that the Soviet Union invaded Prague to ensure that they had full control over Czechoslovakia. As seen in Artifact 1, I gave a presentation on a young college student, by the name of Jan Palach, who made an impact that has lasted decades. Jan Palach wrote multiple letters to several public figures demanding for abolition of censorship, cancelation of the soviet newspaper, and for the Czechs and Slovaks to riot. He did this to prevent the Soviet Union from invading Prague, and taking over the Czechoslovakia (the Czech Republic at the time). When that came to no avail, Jan Palach used self-immolation in Wenceslas Square during Prague Spring on January 16, 1698. Self-immolation is the act of offering oneself as a sacrifice, in his case, burning alive. Through this act, Jan Palach not only inspired students to revolt against the Soviet Union and communism, but also inspired people across Europe to stand up to the Soviet Union. Many towns in the Czech Republic have streets and squares named after Jan Palach, and there are places in other European countries named after him, including a Student Hall in Venice, Italy. Jan Palach became a symbol for students that they can standup for a cause and make a real impact on the world. Although Jan Palach started a revolution against communism in Prague, it was the population that stood behind his radical revolution that made change possible.
It was hard to not notice the homeless population during my time in Prague. Homeless men, women, and children seemed to be at every corner. I didn’t begin to understand the homeless population in Prague until we discussed Romanians in my Gender Studies course. During this course, I learned that the Romanians are the biggest minority in the Czech Republic and most of Europe, making up most of the homeless population. The high rate of homelessness in this minority group is due to the lack of resources available to help them assimilate into society. Most Romanians don’t graduate past grade school, because they don’t speak the language and have no way of learning it in their family. Artifact 2 is a presentation I made for this course that describes the struggles and history of the Romanian people. I encountered Romanian people daily, especially walking near transit stations and outside of grocery stores. One time, I was walking out of the grocery store and a Romanian man started screaming at me in a language that wasn’t English or Czech. I didn’t know what to do, so I froze for a couple minutes and while he screamed. I eventually pretended I was deaf and ran away towards my apartment. My fear of this Romanian man represents the fear that most tourists and Czechs feel toward the Romanian population. This fear was caused by a lack of knowledge and understanding of this minority group before I was assigned a project on them for my Gender Studies course. There are several members of the younger generation of Roma women in the Czech Republic have established civic groups to fight for more rights and to mend the lack of knowledge and understanding of their minority group. These influential Roma women have started the precedent for change in the Roma population, but change would not be possible without the support of other Roma people in these established civic groups.
For three out of my four years at the University of South Carolina, I have been involved with an organization called Dance Marathon. Dance Marathon is a student run organization that fully funds the Child Life Program at the local children’s hospital, PRISMA. The Child Life Program provides resources for children and their families, and helps provide tools that make their stay at the hospital better. I started out as a hero in this organization my first year, and transitioned into a position on morale. Morale is the part of staff that has the sole role of bringing morale up during main event, which is a 14-hour long dance-a-thon. This year, we set a high goal to raise a total of $119 million dollars by the end of main event. In order to reach that goal, we all had to work together and pull our individual weight. Each member on morale had to raise a minimum of $750, and every member on staff had to raise a minimum of $1000. To reach my goal, I chose to dye my hair pink for donations as seen in Artifact 3. I surpassed my goal, raising $1000 in less than 24 hours during our big fundraising push. I would not have been able to raise that much money without the support from family and friends. As an organization, we did not reach $119 million dollars, but we surpassed $1 million dollars and reached a new fundraising record. This goal was set in motion by our president, but it wouldn’t have been possible without teamwork from everyone on staff, morale, and participants. Dance marathon is similar to Jan and the Romanians. Although it took great leaders and ideas to make significant change on the world, it would not have been possible with every person that rallied behind their cause. Dance marathon’s fundraising goal to change children’s lives at the local hospital could have not been done without every student who came together on campus that rallied and fundraised behind the cause.
Through my experiences abroad, I learned about influential people that helped start change. However, change could not have been possible without support from other people. Martin Luther King Jr. made a powerful statement in his I Have a Dream speech, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed-we hold these truth to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”. This dream has slowly become a reality through the efforts of the nation working as a team to gain equality for all men and women, and that fire was ignited by Martin Luther King Jr. This aspect of working as a team to make positive change in the world also applies to a career in public health or any health field. Public health needs people to come up with new innovations and techniques in healthcare, but the most important aspect is teamwork. I will use this new knowledge as a future public health professional to make a difference and establish real change.