It's truly amazing how quickly time flies by! As my fellow Ambassador Kim Harrison previously stated, we just wrapped up assisting in a week-long workshop at the Simula Research Laboratory where we helped 11 girls from the University of Oslo prepare to participate in a science outreach program. Since day two, the girls had tweaked their Assertion-Evidence slides, practiced their talks twice in English and then once in Nowegian and began to make edits for the last presentation day. The progress these 11 young women made within a single week was incredible!By Friday's final presentation day, all of the mentors were so proud of their final product. They all exuded great confidence in their talks, passion about their topics and sense of energy that is sure to captivate their future secondary level students. Did I mention that all of the presentations were completely in Norwegian?!? Kim, Melissa and I may not have understood every single word as the mentors presented that day, but the Assertion Evidence slides kept us on track with the rest of their talk. Melissa even compared listen to the presentations as being out version of the Rosetta Stone, as we slowly picked up on words and phrases throughout the day. Kim's favorite, Spørsmål, concluded just about every presentation as the mentors asked for questions.
Following the presentations on Friday, we all shared a celebratory dinner at a restaurant in the city. It was truly the perfect way to wrap up the week and get to talk to all of the mentors even more before leaving the next morning. The topics of conversation ranged from discussing National Day and the traditional clothing adorned to celebrate Norway, learning even more about their schooling system and the different types of clubs and organizations their involved with and even comparing favorite TV shows, like The Hills and Gossip Girls. We also exchanged small gifts with the mentors, giving them Penn State pennants, as we received a portfolio signed by each of the mentors from the University of Oslo, a block of Brown Cheese (a type of cheese native to Norway) and a cheese slicer. The night ended with lots of hugs as the week finally came to an end and our job as Ambassadors finished in Norway (for now).
The next m
orning, Melissa, Kim and I took off on a series of trains and a plane ride to Paris to spend the day seeing the sights just for fun. We had the chance to climb the many spiral staircases of the Tower of Notre Dame and see the incredible view of the entire city. A crepe stop was also in order as we ventured to see many of the other grand locations of Paris. By mid afternoon, we finally had adventured over to the Eiffel Tower only minutes before a huge thunderstorm blew through the area. (See picture). The long day concluded with us enjoying our fresh cheese and loaves of bread in the hotel listening to the Penn State vs. Minnesota game online. The next day we were up early again, traveling to London for the day by train where we saw so much in such a quick amount of time. Our day began seeing the Changing of the Guard, followed by checking out Big Ben and Parliament and then taking the water taxi to the Tower of London. We even had time to enjoy fish and chips and embrace our British ways over tea. I still cannot believe everything that we were able to do and see within a short weekend before heading back to the US.This experience not only allowed for me to grow as a speaker, but as a professional individual through the cultural experiences, formal dinners and representation of our university. Being in Norway really shed light on my current career goals and has me considering what aspects of my career are important to me, including international experiences. I am eager to hear about the mentors' experiences on their visits to come in the upcoming months and to see where the Engineering Ambassadors will go next!
-Danielle DaSilva
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