By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – From her first semester in the Washington State University Tri-Cities nursing program, Kenzie McNeel knew she wanted to do something special with her senior clinical rotation experience.

Shortly after transferring from another university in Washington state, she learned of the opportunity to complete her senior clinical experience in remote villages in Peru via a faculty-led program over the summer. There, she would work with other nursing and pharmacy students across the WSU university system to provide care to individuals that may otherwise not have access to medical resources.

The WSU College of Nursing partners with a nonprofit organization known as the “People of Peru Project” each summer for the opportunity, which is run by Paul Opp, from Washington state.

“I have been planning for it since that first semester,” McNeel said. “I knew it would provide experiences that would help prepare me for a future career as a nurse, but it would also allow me to provide much needed services to remote communities that, without volunteers, otherwise may not see that care. ”

Applying skills from the classroom to the real-world

McNeel was one of three students from ���سԹ� to attend the faculty-led trip, with the others being Nikita Fisenko and Sarah Miller, who joined several nursing students from WSU Spokane.

The soon-to-be nurses learned on the fly, providing immediate medical care to patients, medical education, observed how medical care was performed at a residence housing HIV patients, completed medical tests and performed community assessments where they identified resources available for individuals in that community and what could be added.

As a team, they bonded with each other as students and future nurses. McNeel said she enjoyed getting to know students from throughout the WSU system that she had only interacted with through remote classes via video conferencing.

The students also learned a lot about how to survive under difficult circumstances.

Adaptability, McNeel said, was one of the greatest things she personally learned. Often times, the students were in a tented shelter without walls or windows, had to carry in all of their supplies and had to cope with only having certain amount of medications, tools and time to help all of their patients for the day. The group could see an average of 100-150 patients in a single day.

“Often times, we didn’t know what we were going to be doing that day, or even much about the community we were going to, but we had to use our skills to the best of our ability to provide the best medical care possible,” she said. “These communities didn’t have the luxuries of medical access like we do here in the United States.”

Experiencing the culture and living of Peru

In addition to applying their medical skills to help individuals in the remote communities, the students also had the opportunity to learn more about the culture, ways of life and complete sight seeing excursions while in Peru.

The students toured local nursing schools, a local hospital, a special needs school and a deaf school. They went on nature walks through the jungle where they saw spiders the size of their faces, swam in the Amazon River, stopped in a monkey sanctuary and visited Machu Picchu. And they had the opportunity to chat with locals about their experiences in their community and handed out toys to the local children.

“I honestly never thought I would have this experience growing up, and especially as a nursing student,” she said.  “It was truly incredible.”

Using what she learned abroad for future as a nurse

Heading into the future, McNeel hopes to go into labor and delivery where she looks forward to bringing new life into the world.

And while she and her fellow nursing students did not get to witness any births while in Peru, they supplied prenatal and breastfeeding education. McNeel said she will also continue to use the foundational skills she learned and cultivated during her time in South America.

“Here, things go more according to plan and we have the tools to really support patients, but I have the confidence now to know that I can face those complications head on,” she said.

She said she also hopes to one day return to Peru to continue helping with the project, even on a short-term basis.

“While we were there, there was a nurse volunteering that did the program through WSU Spokane – she was there for 6 weeks,” she said. “I want to do that, as well … I definitely recommend this experience to other students who are pursuing a career in nursing. It was an amazing experience.”

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – It was engineering that brought student Anthony Michel to Washington State University Tri-Cities and it was the study abroad opportunities that brought a cultural enrichment.

Michel, a Tri-Cities native, had studied the Japanese language and culture for several years before coming to WSU after transferring from Columbia Basin College for the engineering program. Attending ���سԹ� meant he could plan his rigorous class schedule around a semester trip to Japan where he would interact with locals, improve his Japanese fluency, as well as experience new opportunities typically only offered in eastern Asia.

“Before going to Japan, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my interest in Japanese, but after going there, I want to go back,” he said. “It was an amazing experience. I could potentially become a mechanical engineer and also apply my skills in Japan.”

School in Japan

While studying in Japan, Michel took more than 10 credits including courses in linguistics, Japanese, aikido, which is a form of martial arts, as well as a few others.

“All of them but one met only once a week,” he said. “Comparatively speaking, the

college that I was going to requires credits are kind of light so you can also immerse yourself into the culture. It worked well because I got to practice my Japanese while learning more about the country, itself.”

Because he was attending a school specializing in foreign language, he took courses with students from the United States, France, China and Korea. For many, the only common language among each of the students was Japanese, which meant they put their practice of the language to good use.

“It was really cool because you can’t communicate in English because most of the other people spoke other languages,” he said. “I definitely improved my Japanese while I was there.”

Michel also got to make friends with a variety of Japanese students, most of which who shared dorms with himself and his course peers.

“Most of the Japanese students there were learning English,” he said. “I was able to make some pretty good friends.”

Worldly cultural experiences

While living in the dorms and visiting other cities in Japan, Michel learned about the Japanese style of living, which often times is smaller in scale.

“Over there, everything is very compact because they are limited in many cities on space,” he said. “My dorm room was very small and the hotel rooms, especially, were really small.”

And in addition to his courses, Michel got to visit a variety of interesting places. During his first week, he and his classmates traveled from Nagasaki to Onsen, where they experienced the Obama Onsen hot spring resort, which is famous for its lengthy hot spring that participants put their feet in.

He also ventured to Sasebo, which is about 1.5 hours north by car from Nagasaki. There, he visited a military base, which offers a variety of American foods, an amusement park and a variety of Dutch-themed buildings. He also visited Fukuoka, which resides on the northern shore of Japan’s Kyushu Island, among others.

“As students of the program, we got to experience a variety of different spots meant

to expose new students to the country,” he said. “It was pretty great.”

Value of studying abroad

Looking back on his experience, he said he would definitely recommend the opportunity to study abroad to other students.

“It’s a great opportunity to experience a culture besides your own,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to expand your mindset on the world, especially your expectations and view as an American.”

RICHLAND, Wash. –  Nikita Fisenko was 10 years old when he came to the United States with his family from Uzbekistan.

“At the age of 7, in a family of seven kids, my father passed away of cancer,” he said. “It was really hard. My father was our only support.”

Because his grandmother lived in the United States, the family was able to apply for residency. After a several-year grueling application process and after selling everything they owned, Fisenko and his family found their new home in eastern Washington. At the time, Fisenko had four English phrases to his memory.

“Yes, no, thank you and hot tea,” he said. “It was cold when we came and asked for Chai and learned that in English, it was hot tea.”

Fisenko spent several years playing catch-up with his English and studying hard to learn school subjects in a language not his own, but one thing always served as an encouragement: one-day he would use his own experiences in overcoming hardships to help others. Little did he know that his ideal career would be in the medical field and that Washington State University Tri-Cities would help take him places that would allow him to help those less fortunate.

“I’m using my education and experiences at ���سԹ� to help others through my future career as a nurse,” he said. “It’s exciting to know that I can have that personal impact.”

Realizing his medical passion

Fisenko studied diligently in Spanish because he thought that one-day he could use the language in a career as a Christian missionary, which had always been a passion of his. He used his experience in high school working in the fruit fields and factories to chat in Spanish with his fellow employees that, in combination with his Spanish courses, allowed him to become nearly fluent in the language.

He also excelled in mathematics – it was the one subject that didn’t require a mastery of the English language.

As his schooling rolled on, however, Fisenko developed an interest in the medical field, which led him to enroll in the Tri-Tech Skills Center’s pre-nursing program. He wanted to see if the medical route would be right for him. It turned out to be a perfect fit, as it would still allow him to use his fluency in Spanish to help others.

“I’m a people person, and nursing allows you to work with people to help them overcome their medical ailments and really have an impact,” he said. “With my background in Spanish, I could also use that to reduce barriers for others who originally like me, don’t speak English.”

He chose ���سԹ� to prepare him for his future career as a nurse because it would allow him to live at home and help his family with expenses, but also receive a first-class education.

“���سԹ� ended up being the perfect fit for where I’m at in my life, what I want to accomplish and the people I hope to help,” he said.

Around the world in the medical field

At ���سԹ�, Fisenko takes his studies very seriously. The 4.0 student said he aims to learn everything he can so that he can be the best nurse he can be.

“I want to be a nurse that actually changes things – I want to make a difference,” he said. “So I can’t just memorize the material for the sake of doing well on tests. I have to really know the material because I’m going to apply it to my career as a nurse where I can have a real impact on people.”

Fisenko said he had always wanted to travel to a country where Spanish was the primary language so that he could further develop his skills in the language that would allow him to help others. He decided to take as many courses as he could his first couple of years at WSU so that before he certified into the nursing program, he could do a semester study abroad program in a Spanish-speaking country.

After speaking with a WSU study abroad advisor and after extensive research, he decided on a medical-based program in Costa Rica, where he would study medical Spanish and health sciences. He completed the program this fall.

During his program in Costa Rica, he made sure to interact extensively with the local population and traveled to neighboring countries. He traveled to Panama, Guatemala and Nicaragua, in addition to spending his weekends traveling the Costa Rican countryside.

The experience, he said, was life-changing.

“The biggest thing I would say in going to study abroad was that it shaped my mindset and my perspective,” he said. “Understanding other cultures and people, it can open so many more doors to your future. Through this experience, I developed my communication skills and I was able to better understand other people’s perspectives and ways of doing things.”

Future in the medical field

Fisenko is now working his way through his first year in the WSU nursing program, which he said is preparing him for the rigor of being a nurse.

“The nursing program at WSU is a challenging program, but it is a challenge that pushes you forward,” he said.

Fisenko said he hopes to use his experiences, ranging from his difficulties in migrating to the United States, to learning English and Spanish, to the challenging nursing program at WSU, to his experiences abroad, to one-day help individuals at Kadlec Regional Medical Center as a future nurse. Kadlec, he said, has been his dream employer for years.

“God-willing, I will be there helping, advising and speaking Spanish to help those with medical issues,” he said. “I want to really make a difference. God has blessed me and shaped me into who I am, so I want to use that to bless others.”

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

Paul Skilton is the first professor from Washington State University Tri-Cities to participate in a teaching abroad experience with a prestigious business school in Brig, Switzerland.

WSU with the in Switzerland to offer a dual degree program in hospitality business where students receive a degree from both César Ritz and WSU upon completion of the program. Through the years, professors from WSU have rotated to teach at the Swiss institution each semester. Since the hospitality business management program is fairly new to ���سԹ�, the opportunity was not available for Tri-Cities professors until this year. The hospitality business management program began at ���سԹ� in 2015.

César Ritz is a renowned school in the hospitality business management sector, ranking 24^th in the world for hospitality and hotel management schools in 2016-16 by and falling closely behind WSU, who ranked 21^st in the world the same year by the publication.

“César Ritz prepares students who want to go into the hotel industry and all the fields that encompass that industry, from hospitality to restaurant and food service,” Skilton said. “Students from all over the world come to this school to study. The WSU Carson College of Business sends one faculty member each semester. I’m going this fall and Dr. Donna Paul will go in the spring.”

Skilton said the experience benefits both students abroad and students from WSU, in addition to allowing WSU professors to establish international connections with students and faculty from all over the world. WSU students, he said, may choose to study abroad for a semester at the Swiss school, broadening their scope of the hospitality industry and giving them that international experience that is crucial to their credentials in the field. The experience also opens doors for students overseas to come and study on campus at WSU, in addition to their experience on campus in Switzerland.

“The idea is that students will get a look at international contexts, contacts and points of view within the hospitality business world,” Skilton said. “If you are going to go into the hospitality business sector, you should be able to understand people who are different from you so that you can accommodate them accordingly. That international experience is very important.”

This semester, Skilton will teach a course focusing on management of innovation and change, as well as a principles of management course. He said he is most excited about learning as much from the faculty and students at the school as he is able to teach them.

“The faculty at César Ritz have a very different mindset,” Skilton said. “WSU is a research-based school whereas the faculty at César Ritz mostly consist of hotel professionals. It’s also a European college, so it’s going to be very different. I’m excited to learn about how they structure their programs and I hope they’ll teach me as much as I am able to teach them.”

Skilton leaves for Switzerland this month and will begin teaching at César Ritz in early October. He will return to ���سԹ� in time for the spring semester this academic year.

The partnership program is one of WSU Carson College of Business’ longest-standing global partnerships and is in line with WSU’s .

For more information about the program and how WSU students can spend a semester abroad at with Cesar Ritz, visit .