As we prepare to say good-bye to this year’s FLEX, YES and A-SMYLE students with disabilities, here’s a quick review of a few of their many accomplishments this year:

• Voted Student of the Month at the Tennessee School for the Blind
• Went adapted surfing at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, with Life Rolls On
• Rolled to the finish line in a 5K race in Union Grove, Wisconsin
• Participated in Civic Education Week in Washington, DC, and featured in an award winning photograph at the FDR Memorial
• Attended Better Understanding for a Better World (BUBW) youth conferences in Orlando, San Diego and Baltimore
• Played basketball at the Arkansas School for the Deaf and managed a high school volleyball team in Indiana
• Won 1^st place in the Humorous Interpretation category in a speech competition in North Dakota
• Learned American Sign Language (ASL) and perfected their English
• Joined American families and made friends for life in nineteen states and the District of Columbia
• Logged hundreds of hours of community service – at an elementary school, the humane society, an assisted living facility, and a food bank (see photo above), to name a few!

“Learning to compromise and go with the flow of the situation was something I definitely learned in Europe. It’s really not practical wanting to do things your way, because incidences come up that you have no control over, especially when you are traveling with other people,” says Amanda, who also found the friends on her study abroad program helped her to “stay calm because there were three of us to figure out any problems that came up.”

Managing your mental health while studying abroad – whether or not you have a history of anxiety, depression, or other mental health conditions – is something every person must think about when going abroad. These strategies used by other alumni who went abroad might be just what you need to hear.

Strategies for keeping calm, and reaching out:

• Find out about mental health resources abroad before you go, even if you think that you won’t be affected emotionally by going to another country.
• Check out issues related to any medications abroad: availability, legality, coverage of costs, back-up supply, time zone changes, interaction with other medications.
• Set benchmarks to see how you are feeling as time goes on; the first days and weeks can be stressful for some and these can be normal feelings but if you are feeling down or overwhelmed at any point in the program, reach out to others.
• Connect with supportive peers or resources in your time zone; whether you travel with friends or not, bonds can form quickly by spending so much time with other exchange participants, and it can also be a point of stress if you don’t get along.
• Maintain connections with your family, friends, or therapists back home, made easier these days with Skype, chat, and cell phones.
• Plan some down time and rely on familiar coping strategies — from taking time for yoga to reduced academic course loads to journaling your experiences.

Stephanie, whose depression and anxiety spiked when she first got to Malaysia for a summer study abroad program, says “Being able to talk with my family every other day really helped the process. When I told the others I found a way to get Internet access, everyone jumped on it. I was like ‘Okay, cool I’m not the only one here missing my family’.”

Studying or volunteering abroad can open not just new adventures and cultures to you, but lessons that give you new perspectives even after returning home. Appreciating the moment. Accepting new ways of doing things. Finding your personal drive or independence. These are all what exchange alumni living with mental health conditions say are ways they grew while abroad.

“Without my support, friends and family and people close to me, telling me that I could do it and that I was strong enough to go out there, meet people, make these connections, I probably wouldn’t have gone or would have come back early,” says Yanin, who has a history of anxiety and depression, and spent several months in Australia on a global leadership program.

“Sometimes you grow the most out of doing things that you wouldn’t normally do. If you really want to do it, don’t let your fears stop you from doing it. It forced me to get out of my shell a lot. It has changed how I go about my life now.”

What preparations do you need to think about before going abroad? Read more on our tipsheet “Mental Health Considerations for Exchange Participants”.

“I believe serendipity was at work, because the five months I spent in Cape Town certainly altered the direction of my life,” he says.

Rob’s experiences in South Africa directly influence on his career path, and he now works for the National Democratic Institute.

“Professionally, I don’t think I could get a job in Washington working on African issues without having traveled to Africa,” he says. “In a sense, it’s given me credibility that I could never get from reading books or taking classes exclusively in the U.S.”

While in South Africa, he learned about disability issues, democracy and governance, as well as the challenges of poverty that many Africans face every day. His knowledge is instrumental to the work he does now.

Rob suggests that people with disabilities utilize study abroad and other international exchange experiences for professional development. “Professionally, I think it’s important to make sure you get something more out of your exchange,” he says. “It can be tempting to be passive, to just ‘enjoy the experience,’ but I think as part of the preparation work someone does in choosing which program or location they want, it’s good to think about how the exchange experience fits in to what they want to do long term, and what sort of actions they can take or people they can meet in this foreign country that they just could not do from the U.S.”

Join our free webinar on April 25 with presenters with diverse disabilities describing how their experiences studying, volunteering, and working abroad made a positive impact on their career paths.

To learn more about Rob’s experience, see “It’s Not If, But When: Study Abroad Leads to Career”, which can be found in Mobility International USA’s free online publication: A World Awaits You: Go Abroad: Find Your Career Path.

Anne, who is Deaf, developed her fearlessness, along with her confidence, while studying abroad in Verona, Italy. She says that “[going abroad] made me fearless to connect with people.”

While in Verona, Anne took classes in photography, Italian, art history and painting. She also learned Italian Sign Language (LIS) in her free time.

But it was when she went out and tried to communicate with others that she discovered her fearlessness and built her confidence. “The biggest impact studying abroad was learning how to communicate and interact with people on my own without help, especially during my travels without an interpreter,” she says. The experience wasn’t always easy, so she had to push beyond her comfort zone to make connections and friends.

Ultimately, she became a better communicator as a result, and when she returned to the United States, she realized she wanted to pursue a career in social media. “My confidence was in a great place when I came back and still is,” she says.

“It takes guts [to go abroad],” she says. “If you don’t have them, you will get them once you land in a foreign country.”

Guts. Fearlessness. Confidence. These are all qualities that can make a difference in our lives, leading to friendships, careers and personal success.

Developing these qualities is a great reason to go abroad for international exchange. Learn more about how going abroad can make a profound impact on the lives of people with disabilities in our article “Going Abroad for Professional Advancement.”

To learn more about Anne’s story, see “Learning to Communicate and Connect Abroad,” which is part of our free online publication A World Awaits You: Go Abroad: Find Your Career Path

Daniel Erchick, who was born with one arm, realized that he wanted to work in the field of public health when he volunteered first in Ghana and later in Sierra Leone.

Jessica Chesbro, who has a mobility disability, found out about the Foreign Service while living in a small village in the Philippines as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Emma Verrill, who uses a wheelchair, decided she wanted to be a teacher after teaching English in Rennes, France.

Learn about how their international experiences changed their careers—and their lives—in Mobility International USA’s free online publication A World Awaits You: Go Abroad, Find Your Career Path.

Inside this issue of A World Awaits You, you’ll find:

• Information on the professional development benefits of going abroad for people with disabilities
• Stories of people with disabilities who developed their professional skills abroad
• Personal tips on how people with disabilities can maximize their international opportunities
• Tips for how U.S. disability organizations can prepare people with disabilities for international exchange
• A list of international hotspots for developing professional skills
• Tips for funding international exchange
• And much more!

Be part of the revolution! Your donation supports our upcoming women with disabilities projects, including the Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability (WILD) program, seed grants for WILD alumna to lead inclusive community projects, and a photo exhibition book featuring portraits of 50 WILD women. Learn more about MIUSA’s women’s programs and how you can support them.

(All photos by Darcy Kiefel)

His school had fewer than four hundred students and he’d never had a blind student before. To complicate matters further, Somaia Mahmoud, who came from Egypt as part of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, was still adjusting to living and learning in an English immersion environment. “Not only did we have a blind student but we had one that definitely had a language barrier,” Sowers says.

But Eustace, Texas, a town of approximately 800 people southeast of Dallas, describes itself as a “small town with a big town heart,” and Mahmoud quickly won over the hearts of her new teachers, peers, and principal.

“We felt like it was just a win-win situation,” Sowers says. “I think she loved us and we loved her. It was a great experience for all of us. Our students just accepted her with open arms, were eager to volunteer to assist her in any way and our teachers just embraced her.”

Beth Costlow, the Special Education Department Head at Eustace High School, agrees. She, too, was apprehensive at first, but that changed when Mahmoud arrived in Eustace. “We found out very quickly that our concerns just came from not knowing,” Costlow says.

“Every child is different and each one of us has something that makes us different from somebody else,” she says. “If that is what is termed a disability, then okay, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Somaia was such a bright, bubbly, happy child. We laughed a lot, we learned a lot, and she would get so tickled over just silly things that we would say, and she was a blessing.”

Mahmoud attended an all-girls school for the blind in Egypt, and she’d never experienced co-educational classes or a mainstream school before she arrived in Texas, but she quickly adjusted to her new surroundings. She took a bus to and from school and her fellow students assisted her between classes until she was familiar with the layout of the building. Mahmoud, who uses a white cane, was then able to travel independently between her classes. She also became actively involved in many activities. She loved pep rallies and learned to play golf.

Mahmoud’s support network at Eustace High School and at home played a large part in her successful experience. “[The teachers] were more than helpful,” Costlow says. “Each and every one of them stepped up and did whatever they could to make it easier for her to learn and enjoy her stay here.”

Her textbooks were converted into Braille and she also used screen-reading software and note-taking accommodations. “We had a pretty good plan in place when she arrived [in Eustace] and then we tweaked it and adapted it as we needed to,” Costlow says. In addition, Mahmoud’s host mother in Eustace was also blind, so she had many opportunities to learn about independent living and accommodations for people who are blind in the United States.

Ultimately, Mahmoud’s experience was a win-win situation for both her and the school, as Sowers says. Her exchange in Eustace had “great benefits for [Mahmoud], which we felt good about, but at the same time, we benefited from the relationship as well, from the experience,” he says.

Both Costlow and Sowers say the school is open to having other exchange students with disabilities in the future. Just as Mahmoud’s year at Eustace was a learning experience for her, it was also showed administrators and teachers that Eustace High School could be fully inclusive of students with disabilities.

“We realize we have the means, this small little school, we have the people, we have the tools,” Sowers says. And they have the big town heart, too.

Learn more about Mobility International USA’s technical assistance and how your family, school, or community can host high school students with and without disabilities studying in the U.S.

Nowadays, people with and without disabilities can choose to be together on the same inclusive programs in part due to advocacy by disability organizations. These organizations have moved from being program providers to being technical advisors.

At Mobility International USA (MIUSA), we have played both roles since 1981, when the organization was founded. That year, MIUSA published a “World of Options” series of handbooks that told people with disabilities “to have adventures that perhaps everyone told you ‘weren’t possible,’” including mainstream international exchange.

Today, MIUSA continues its role as technical advisor through our National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE). The NCDE has been funded since 1995 by U.S. Department of State to increase participation of people with disabilities in inclusive international exchange programs.

In the past decades, people with disabilities applied through the usual routes, and been accepted as Peace Corps volunteers, Fulbright grantees, and AFS high school exchange students. Through these and other international experiences, they are showing that international programs – designed with the broad range of diverse participants in mind – can be successful in including people with and without disabilities.

Our staff at the NCDE provides encouragement and practical advice for any overseas exchange programs (such as local university study abroad offices) to become more accessible and inclusive. By increasing awareness and sharing strategies, we work to make sure that these programs do not turn away people with disabilities because of lack of information on what to do.

We provide suggestions on how to find or fund a sign language interpreter for a Deaf professional coming to the United States on an exchange visitor program, or how to arrange accessible materials for a blind student traveling for language study in India. The best practices begin at the systemic level where the benefits are more far reaching.

We also work to empower people with disabilities to take the chance to go abroad and how they can plan and negotiate for what they need to participate.

We are the confident voice that says people with disabilities have moved into the mainstream, and through our work, we are moving steadily towards making international programs and the world more accessible and inclusive for everyone.

We were floating on the Dead Sea at sunset, covered in mud and sea salt.

Some of us held others up, for those of us couldn’t float on our own. Some of us described the sunset over the water, for those of us who couldn’t see on our own.

Our wheelchairs and white canes were on the muddy shore, because we didn’t need them for now. All of us were accessible to each other in that moment.

Regardless of our disabilities, the women of Mobility International USA’s 2012 U.S./Jordan Young Women with Disabilities Leadership Exchange Program entered the Dead Sea together and left the Dead Sea together. The program included nine young women leaders with disabilities as well as two MIUSA staff, including myself.

All of the women represented a different area of expertise: Youth empowerment. Law and policy. Employment. Deaf education. International development. Independent living. Higher education. Gender-focused disability inclusion.

We brought our knowledge together to work with Jordanians with disabilities, particularly women and girls. We visited schools, non-profits and disability and women’s organizations throughout Amman, Jordan. We also had the honor of meeting Prince Ra’ad of Jordan, an internationally recognized advocate for the rights of people with disabilities.

As with all MIUSA programs, we faced our share of challenges traveling together, from accessibility issues to cultural differences, but just as we did as we were floating on the Dead Sea, we supported each other and worked together, forming valuable connections working to positively impact the lives of women and girls with disabilities in both Jordan and the U.S.

MIUSA’s Jordan program was a 14-day intensive leadership exchange, organized and facilitated by MIUSA in partnership with the Jordanian DPO: I Am A Human Organization for the Rights of People with Disabilities, Jordan. It was the second part of a reciprocal exchange; in September, 2011, MIUSA hosted a delegation of nine Jordanian women in Eugene, Oregon. The program was sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of Citizen Exchanges of the U.S. Department of State.

Teresa, who is Deaf, will be volunteering in Ghana through Cross-Cultural Solutions. She plans to work at an orphanage and volunteering with the disability community there. We checked in with Teresa to find out about her preparations for the trip, which will be coming up in just a few weeks, and also to learn what excites her most about her upcoming experience.

Teresa is looking forward to volunteering abroad and she is particularly interested in teaching American Sign Language (ASL) to Ghanaians who would like to learn. In return, she wants to learn more about Ghana and the diverse cultures and languages there. Cross-Cultural Solutions has arranged an ASL interpreter to be available to Teresa during her three weeks in Ghana so that she can communicate with others, including her fellow volunteers.

With a full schedule of volunteering with deaf students, adults with disabilities, and children at orphanages, Teresa expects that she’ll have very little free time, but when she does, she plans on taking advantage of cultural excursions and activities through the program, such as visiting the markets, learning traditional drumming and dance, and hiking waterfalls and mountains. She is particularly excited to try popular African dishes such as jollof rice, fufu, and peanut soup.

When Teresa returns home from Ghana, she will present about her experiences as part of her Wofford Fellowship. She is already practicing her presentation skills and connecting with groups, clubs, and community organizations to prepare. Since being awarded her fellowship, Teresa has presented at a United Nations-sponsored event about the rights of children and youth with disabilities, and she recently became involved with the National Youth Leadership Network, an organization led by youth with disabilities.

We wish her luck during her volunteer experience in Ghana, and look forward to finding out more about her time abroad when she returns!