NSU Horizons Spring 2014

rotation programs for its health care professions “take students out of the classroom and outside of their comfort zones,” said Brad Williams, Ph.D., vice president of student affairs and dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies. A study by the Council for International Educa- tion Exchange found that employers valued study abroad in hiring university graduates, but NSU’s personalized approach gives the university’s stu- dents a more well-rounded edge. “One thing we do is help the students be able to translate their study-abroad experiences into terms employers can understand. This is where the ben- efit is,” said Alejandra Parra, Ph.D., associate director of the Office of International Affairs at NSU. “There is work to be done to prepare a student to go abroad; we work with them while they are there, but the follow-up from the trip is also of the utmost importance.” Many of these international experi- ences are led by a faculty member, which was the case for Lerch’s pharmacy semes- ter in Slovakia. “The faculty member will plan and coordinate and organize as part of the course,” said Parra. The International Studies Office gets involved in helping with logistics, support, and risk management. Lerch says having the familiarity of her mentor, Ana Maria Castejon, Ph.D., who led the trip to Comenius Univer- sity in Bratislava, added to the experi- ence. Castejon, associate professor in the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, previously had worked with Comenius University, the largest uni- versity in Slovakia. “Understanding the practice of pharmacy from a global perspective is not a traditional curricular outcome in most U.S. pharmacy programs,” said Castejon, who is currently the principal investigator of an ongoing multidisciplinary research study involving a nutritional supplement and autism. “But a joint effort between NSU and Comenius University resulted in a course that covered different topics ranging from pharmacognosy to how pharmacy professionals practice outside of the United States. What we found was that the study abroad program not only fostered learning, but promoted global citi- zenship,” said Castejon. “One day, we left the pharmacy class and went to the medical university and we heard a lecture about autism. To sit in on that and get that kind of infor- mation was incredible,” Lerch said. In addition to labs and classes, the students toured hospitals and community pharmacies in Slovakia. “We were paired with pharmacists from the community. It gave us the chance to see how their system worked and how it differed from ours,” said the second-year pharmacy student about the semester-long study abroad, where she spent 21 days with 30 other students and 2 faculty members. Students from NSU regional campuses in Palm Beach and Ponce, Puerto Rico, joined the Davie campus students, allowing Lerch the opportunity to study with other NSU pharmacy students that she said she would otherwise have not met. MEDICAL OUTREACH At the College of Osteopathic Medicine, inter- national medical outreach programs provide health care to underserved international communities. In addition, the experiences offer students the chance to use their clinical skills in settings that may have medical and public health challenges different from their own.