A FAMU education increasingly extends beyond the boundaries of a classroom or campus and, for some students, beyond the borders of the United States.
Through partnerships with universities and institutions around the world, as well as programs that bring international perspectives into the classroom, FAMU students are gaining opportunities to work across cultures, encounter different approaches to their fields and develop a deeper understanding of an interconnected world.
For Tia Burgess, that education began to take on a new dimension when she stepped off a plane in Seville, Spain.
It was her first trip outside the United States and an introduction to a health care system that differed from the one she had studied at FAMU. It also gave her a glimpse of how her training in physical therapy could be applied beyond the communities she had known.
“I wanted to be able to give back to other people in communities that weren't as fortunate as in the United States and get to know different cultures outside of the United States,” said Burgess, a doctoral student in physical therapy.
Burgess was one of 12 FAMU students selected to participate in a two-week Health Sciences Study Abroad Clinical Program in Seville. The students represented the School of Allied Health Sciences, School of Nursing and College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
The program combined clinical experience with cultural immersion. Students participated in clinical rotations, specialty tracks and an emergency medical technician boot camp while observing how health care is delivered in Spain.
“The Health Sciences Study Abroad Clinical Program in Seville is an exceptional example of experiential learning that prepares students for today’s global health care environment,” said Augustus Mitchell, assistant provost for Academic Affairs and Graduate Recruitment.
For Burgess, the differences were not merely academic.
During the trip, she fell down a staircase and injured her ankle. Her treatment introduced her to medical technology and rehabilitation methods that she had not encountered in the United States.
“The modalities in that country had the greatest impact on me because they have different machines that we cannot use in the United States,” she said. “By using one of their machines, they were able to help heal the ligament I tore.”
The experience also required students to adjust quickly to circumstances that had little to do with medicine.
Imir Hall, coordinator for Programs of Strategic Emphasis and a chaperone for the trip, said the program was deliberately structured to immerse students in the culture rather than simply place them in clinical settings.
“Our goal was to have a fully immersive experience for the students,” Hall said.
Students had to navigate unfamiliar surroundings, communicate with people who spoke another language and become comfortable with routines that differed from those at home.
For Burgess, the language barrier was one of the earliest tests. With only two weeks in Spain, she said there was little time to hesitate.
“You had no choice,” she said. “We were only there for two weeks. You probably had three days to get it together or you were just going to be lost the rest of the time.”
Those moments of discomfort became part of the education.
Beyond the clinical setting, students encountered Spanish culture in their daily lives. Burgess lived with a host family and shared the home with three students from France, giving her an opportunity to form friendships across national and cultural lines.
The experience underscored a lesson that can be difficult to teach in a lecture hall: Understanding another culture often requires stepping outside one's own assumptions.
For Hall, watching students apply their FAMU training in an unfamiliar environment was one of the most rewarding parts of the trip.
“Seeing students apply the skills they learned at FAMU in another country was inspiring,” he said.
The value of the experience, he said, was not limited to what students learned about Spain or its health care system. It was also about developing the confidence to adapt when familiar rules, routines and expectations no longer apply.
For Burgess, that lesson has stayed with her.
Her experience in Seville broadened her ambitions from serving patients at home to considering how her training might be used to help communities elsewhere in the world.
“This experience has influenced me to give back worldwide,” she said. “I want to take what I've learned in the United States and use it to help people in other parts of the world.”
That, ultimately, may be the larger purpose of an international education: not simply to send students somewhere else, but to change the way they see where they came from — and what they can do once they return.
For Burgess, the advice to other students is simple.
“Just do it,” she said. “You never know what you don't know because you never gave it a try.”
In Seville, she found new friends and a different approach to health care. More important, she returned with a broader sense of what her education could mean.
“Not only did I create memories in Spain, but I also made lifelong friends with students from different disciplines,” she said. “It's an experience I'll always be grateful for.”