(Photos: Addison Callahan)
On March 23, the Office of Global Education hosted the second annual Global Engagement Colloquium in conjunction with Travel Learning, Service Learning, Student Activities, and Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions Global Health Committee. The colloquium was designed to allow students to reflect and share on their abroad experience, while also educating peers and community members about their travels. Each year, this event is made up of a collection of students all with unique and engaging abroad experiences.
For the 2017 colloquium, Dr. Amy Bell started the night off with opening remarks to set the tone for the evening. Following Dr. Bell’s remarks were 12 Regis student presentations. Presentations were organized into three categories: Academics in an Immersive Context, Discovering Inspiration Abroad and Shifting Perspectives on Place, Perception, Pace, and Privilege. The evening was concluded with a poem presentation delivered by Junior Elsa Meyners, who shared about her semester in Thailand.
In each category, students spoke to their study experiences, sharing both the heartfelt, transformational moments, as well as the humours memories they’d created. Presentations covered a wide variety of topics and each made an impressionable mark on colloquium guests. Students reflected on their travels all over the world, from the Czech Republic to Ghana, Cambodia to Cuba, France to Japan. Regis students have taken the globe by storm and their presentations reflected the immense individual growth and heightened awareness of global respect and unity.
Student presentations were judged and one global scholar was selected as the recipient for the $100 Matteo Ricci Award for Best Global Colloquium Engagement Presentation. Selecting a winner for the award was no easy task, given the incredibly depth of student presentations. After much deliberation, Senior Brittany Truong was named the 2017 Matteo Ricci Award Recipient for her presentation titled From the Genetics Lab to the Rainforest!
Brittany has worked intensively in the bio labs at Regis, observing and quantifying genetic traits in Costa Rican monkeys. To be hands on in the research process, she traveled to Costa Rica to collect fecal samples which she was able to bring back and analyze in the lab. According to the judges - Stephanie Colunga-Montoya, Matthew Daly, Bobbi Ewelt, Jason Taylor, Kellan Souraf, and Michael Ennis - Brittany delivered a “well-polished presentation that touched on how her experience solidified her vocational goals and impacted her world views.”
An Honorable Mention was also given to Nicholas Broncucia for his reflective and inspirational presentation, Encounter as Revolutionary Travel: Experiencing Cuba and the Cuban People.
Learn more about the featured student Brittany Truong on the Humans of Regis page!
Marley Weaver-Gabel Editor-In-Chief
