Elizabeth hails from Santa Ana, CA, a community she proudly represented at ABTS 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal as a Student Ambassador. While there, she learned about Intercultural Fluency, and practiced these skills by working with an international team of students on the ABTS challenge. In the challenge, she and her teammates developed an activity to get students engaged in STEM2D fields. Here’s what she had to say about BTE and her time at ABTS:

My Favorite BTE memory is…

My favorite BTE memory is going to ABTS and getting to meet twenty different students from around the world. Meeting everyone was an incredible experience that I will never forget. Travelling to ABTS was also an incredible experience, because while waiting for our flight we met a BTE site there.

To me, BTE has meant…

BTE has meant having more experience in the medical field and expanding my ideas of what I want to do in the future. BTE has helped me create friendships with other BTE students. Not only has BTE managed to take me places, it has helped me find myself and led me to a path I want to take in the future.

The most important thing I will take away from BTE is…

BTE has given me help with interviews, public speaking, and other things. I will always take these skills with me and use them in the future for interviews, jobs, and other formal processes. Professional skills are something I can use in the future, so having workshops that taught these is the thing I appreciated most about BTE.

I wanted to come to ABTS because…

Over the course of the year, ABTS had been on my mind. I wanted to attend ABTS because I wanted to meet more students that are a part of the BTE program. A second reason was be to get out of my comfort zone. I wanted to connect with other students who held the same interests as me. What I hoped to gain from these sessions was more experience with new people and their point of view.

Thanks to my time in BTE and at ABTS, in the future I will…

BTE and ABTS in the future will help me socialize with others that are not from the same background as me. Getting to know everyone here has really pushed me to explore the world outside of my comfort zone and meet new people. Overall, BTE and ABTS are life changing experiences that I will never forget.

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We are proud to award Elizabeth a digital badge in Intercultural Fluency at ABTS 2018. She showed improvement in skills allowing one to work with people from other cultures. These are:

1. Show Curiosity
2. Recognize and challenge one’s own cultural biases
3. Appreciate Diverse Perspectives
4. Demonstrate Self Awareness