Posted 11:28 a.m. Monday, June 8, 2015
A UW-L student traveled to Arusha, Tanzania to do disability-related research in the summer of 2014. She recently boarded a plane again to help at-risk children in Japan.
[caption id="attachment_41518" align="alignright" width="700"]
UW-L senior Anna Monson, right, and another volunteer teacher pictured with some students at Patandi Special Needs School in Tanzania where Monson worked in summer 2014.[/caption]
UW-L senior Anna Monson pictured with her host brother, Shedrack, in Tanzania in 2014.[/caption]
Monson expresses her gratitude for the ability to travel with the help of the research grant. Without it, she couldn’t have done something like this as a college student.
“Dr. Stephen Lewis worked with me the most on my research. He doesn’t teach here anymore, but he was by far the most helpful,” she says. “I could tell that he was a very busy person, but he was so excited for me to travel and always made time for me.”
With an entire summer of traveling abroad completed, Monson couldn’t help but want more. After being notified of a summer 2015 internship opportunity involving traveling to Japan by her Therapeutic Recreation professors, she applied.
“I immediately thought the internship would be a great opportunity,” she says.
Monson was then offered the internship, which will allow her to work with at-risk children ages 8-12 for three months, May 27-Aug. 25. The internship involves working with the Military Welfare and Recreation (MWR) and Fitness and Nutrition departments in Japan to help plan a nine-week camp called “Fit 4 Life.” She will serve as a camp counselor.
Monson is motivated to do this type of work because she likes to get out of her comfort zone and explore different realities in order to grow personally and professionally.
Throughout Monson’s travels, she has been promoting health through recreation. “Honestly, my goal as both a therapeutic recreation major and occupational therapy student is to promote physical, mental and social health to people of all abilities. I do work with kids but I also work with teenagers, adults and elderly folks,” she says.
Along with her experiences abroad, Monson also attended LeaderShape Institute, a six-day intensive program with a mission statement of “leading with integrity while working towards a vision grounded on their deepest values,” according to the LeaderShape website.
“Everyone comes out of LeaderShape a completely different person, so empowered and ready to change the world. It gave me a lot of motivation. It is such a great experience,” Monson says. “The values, leading with integrity, and the many different things I learned in LeaderShape are all things that I hope to use in my future schooling and career,” she says.
When asked what Monson hopes to gain from her internship in Japan, she couldn’t answer the question.
“I never know exactly what I hope to gain when I travel. It is always a complete surprise,” she says. “I was given these opportunities for a reason, and I don’t want to go into them with any expectations. I just know that by stepping outside of my comfort zone, something great is always going to happen.”
UW-L senior Anna Monson, right, and another volunteer teacher pictured with some students at Patandi Special Needs School in Tanzania where Monson worked in summer 2014.[/caption]
Student travels out of her comfort zone, finds passion working with children with different abilities
By UW-L student writer Heidi Gempeler When UW-La Crosse senior Anna Monson first came to college, she was completely undecided on what she wanted to do. Now, only three years later, she has found her passion for traveling abroad as a therapeutic recreation major to work alongside children with different abilities. Monson took her first trip abroad to Arusha, Tanzania to do disability-related research in the summer of 2014 with a $3,500 UW-L Undergraduate Research and Creativity grant. She boarded a plane again Friday, May 29, to help at-risk children in Japan. “I work so well with kids with disabilities because I am able to relate to them in different ways, and I learn so much from them based on our similarities and differences,” she says. “‘Disability’ in itself is not a negative thing. It is just a different way of doing things based on someone’s ability. There is so much to learn by talking with someone who has different abilities than you, someone who speaks a different first language than you, someone of a different culture or born in a different generation.” For her trip to Tanzania, Monson wrote a research grant in the spring 2014 “Recreation of People with Disabilities in Arusha, Tanzania.” While abroad, she studied how recreation is used to promote health for individuals with disabilities in Arusha. “It was interesting to research because there is a lack of formal health care seen in a country like Tanzania, but recreation customs are very strong,” she says. “It is a very powerful tool to promote health for people with disabilities.” [caption id="attachment_41520" align="alignleft" width="350"] UW-L senior Anna Monson pictured with her host brother, Shedrack, in Tanzania in 2014.[/caption]
Monson expresses her gratitude for the ability to travel with the help of the research grant. Without it, she couldn’t have done something like this as a college student.
“Dr. Stephen Lewis worked with me the most on my research. He doesn’t teach here anymore, but he was by far the most helpful,” she says. “I could tell that he was a very busy person, but he was so excited for me to travel and always made time for me.”
With an entire summer of traveling abroad completed, Monson couldn’t help but want more. After being notified of a summer 2015 internship opportunity involving traveling to Japan by her Therapeutic Recreation professors, she applied.
“I immediately thought the internship would be a great opportunity,” she says.
Monson was then offered the internship, which will allow her to work with at-risk children ages 8-12 for three months, May 27-Aug. 25. The internship involves working with the Military Welfare and Recreation (MWR) and Fitness and Nutrition departments in Japan to help plan a nine-week camp called “Fit 4 Life.” She will serve as a camp counselor.
Monson is motivated to do this type of work because she likes to get out of her comfort zone and explore different realities in order to grow personally and professionally.
Throughout Monson’s travels, she has been promoting health through recreation. “Honestly, my goal as both a therapeutic recreation major and occupational therapy student is to promote physical, mental and social health to people of all abilities. I do work with kids but I also work with teenagers, adults and elderly folks,” she says.
Along with her experiences abroad, Monson also attended LeaderShape Institute, a six-day intensive program with a mission statement of “leading with integrity while working towards a vision grounded on their deepest values,” according to the LeaderShape website.
“Everyone comes out of LeaderShape a completely different person, so empowered and ready to change the world. It gave me a lot of motivation. It is such a great experience,” Monson says. “The values, leading with integrity, and the many different things I learned in LeaderShape are all things that I hope to use in my future schooling and career,” she says.
When asked what Monson hopes to gain from her internship in Japan, she couldn’t answer the question.
“I never know exactly what I hope to gain when I travel. It is always a complete surprise,” she says. “I was given these opportunities for a reason, and I don’t want to go into them with any expectations. I just know that by stepping outside of my comfort zone, something great is always going to happen.”