In the Summer of 2023, Middlesex Community College and Lowell Public Schools (LPS) sent 10 educators to Cambodia for MCC’s fourth Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad.
The mission of the trip was to amplify Cambodian American voices, histories and cultures within classes at MCC and LPS, while promoting enhanced cultural awareness, mutual understanding and connections, and empathy and shared healing in the community.
“The trip fits perfectly with MCC’s mission of serving the community, which is quite diverse,” said Dr. Lara Kradinova, MCC English Faculty Member and Grant Director. “It provided more exposure to traveling and different viewpoints, and was an opportunity to interact with people from a different country, as well as different socioeconomic and linguistic backgrounds.”
During the trip, members visited educational and health nonprofits in Cambodia with a focus on access to education, health, arts and culture within varying communities. In addition to meeting the U.S. Ambassador in Phnom Penh, members went to organizations concerned with LGBTQ+ rights and human rights, cultural places to see shadow puppets and Buddhist temples, and public and private schools from primary age to universities in metropolitan and rural areas.
Post-trip, members are now looking to create curriculum units to help students better understand Cambodian culture, arts and well-being. MCC Nursing faculty member Debra Bradley is starting to introduce more culture into healthcare practices. In one instance, she is having students complete a pre-simulation document during their lab time to look up medical care and issues. The goal is to include practices in regards to Khmer culture.
“We incorporate culture in every single lecture we do, but I want to talk more about that and use examples from Cambodia,” Bradley said. “We also want to see a diverse population of people in nursing and want them to be successful. The trip made me reassess how I approach a student who has been educated from any other country than the U.S. and focus on learning about their education, culture and learning needs in addition to our patients’.”
MCC Nursing faculty member Sarah Pedone is also looking to have her students think more about the immigrant experience in the U.S. In one unit, she is building on the idea of the art of nursing. Pedone plans to have her students interview an immigrant and ask them questions based on what she saw during the trip. Questions include access to clean water, food and healthcare, and how it impacts their health and habits now and in the past.
“I want to bring a lot of cultural aspects to taking care of patients,” Pedone said. “Having better insight into what the patients may have experienced gives students more cultural perspective and helps them approach care with an open mind.”
Kradinova and many other members who attended the trip found the experience “life-changing.”
“We were exposed to so many new ways of thinking and doing, and we’re still practicing it in our classes,” she said. “It was amazing seeing and experiencing a new culture for the whole month.”
