(Nijmegen Bridge from the St. Nicolaaskapel Balcony)

Dear reader, my name is Carmela, I am 22-years-old and I am Italian. I started the Minor in International Public Health at the HAN (Sports & Exercise Studies) the 3rd September 2018 and I lived in the Netherlands to attend this course and my related project, until the 4th December 2018. I attended this Minor in order to learn more about promotion of health and in particular the Participatory Methods and use these information to write my Bachelor Thesis Research.

I am graduating in Italy in Health Assistance (Assistenza Sanitaria) at University of Studies of Brescia, in Brescia where I was born and I’m actually living; my professional profile is: a professional in prevention, promotion and education of health. I decided to title my experience a “Dream” because I really desired this experience and I worked hard to achieve it. I’m the pioneer in my course of study to do an experience abroad and I’m really proud of myself for it. And of course grateful to Prof. Gwendolijn Boonekamp and the HAN to have given me the opportunity to actually realise it.

To be honest and direct (like a real Dutch!) The Netherland wasn’t in my “study abroad plan”. It happened and it was amazing. The Minor in International Public Health was interesting. It gave me the knowledge about the methodology I came for and also other skill and knowledge related to intercultural environment, international health problems, how to present information, how to work in group and last, but not least, from my Italian point of view, the Dutch lecturing approach.

The project I have started was (and still is) part of the challenge because it’s going beyond the Dutch borders but it is the essence of the Minor: be International and my project mates and I are excited for that. The name of the project is Healthy University and my project mates and I are applying the Structured Interview Matrix (SIM) methodology in order to know the students’ perspective on their well-being and possibly give advices to the HAN Sport en Bewegen (I know I should write “Sports and Exercise” but the original version sounds better!) to improve the health of the students changing some facilities or strengthen on what already exists. We already went into some HAN S&B classes and in January my project-mates will be in Italy and they will help me to do the same with the target students in Brescia.

My thesis will talk about the SIM methodology based on the Healthy University experience and the results the team will find. In general my experience at the HAN as a student was positive, sometime disorienting because of the differences in communication (in my University I don’t have sites like Onderwijsonline or the online schedule) and also the students-lecturers relationship is a bit different from the Italian one but I have only positive words for my lecturers and my classmates. Everyone helped me and I can’t be more thankful.

Fortunately, my life in the dorm (and outside the University in general) was also positive. I met new people and made friends almost every week. It’s really important for an exchange student, or a foreigner in general, to don’t be (and feel) alone and luckily the HAN with the International Office in collaboration with the students associations (as it is ISN for example) creates occasions to help the students to feel comfortable and meet people. Of course, who decides to do an experience like this, knows that he/she has to be able to figure out solutions on his/her own and has to put effort into everything he/she has to do.

Studying abroad for me was a deep, struggling, amazing, chaotic, challenging and satisfying experience and I would never change anything. I will bring the memories of the pretty and perfect Dutch buildings, the experience of sweating riding the bike, the coffee with my classmates at the HAN tables, the professors’ kindness and the litres of hot tea I drunk with my flatmates as memories to use when I want to put a smile on my face.