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United States Colleges and Universities
Help for Student Victims of Hurricanes
- Introduction
- Positive long-term outcomes from your experience
1. Introduction
Your
experience of the last semester has been filled with
challenges
that you have had to overcome. Whatever your situation
was or is-staying in the affected area to help rebuild,
going to a new school, going to a completely different
part of the country or abroad-your life has changed dramatically.
As a result of this experience, you have developed important
skills you can use in the future. These skills are part
of the positive long-term benefits your experience has
brought about. Read about some of these benefits below.
2. Positive long-term
outcomes from your experience
Some of the positive long
term outcomes from your experience as
a displaced student include:
- Ability to see situations and
issues from more than one perspective: your experience
being through Katrina
and spending
time elsewhere has exposed to you to different types
of people and ways of life. This gives you the ability
to look at things
from different perspectives.
- Ability to empathize: sense how
something appears and feels to someone else
- Ability to be flexible: when
you relocated, you had to take those opportunities
that
were available to you and make the best of the situation.
This has helped you develop the ability to be flexible
which will serve you well throughout your years.
- Ability to act quickly in times
of crisis: when Katrina
hit, there was no time to waste in making decisions.
Once you successfully navigate through a crisis, that
experience
will stay with you and help you in the future.
- Appreciation for the little things
- Not
taking anything for granted
- Recognition
of how fortunate you are: whatever
may have changed in your life due to Katrina, you can
rebuild and move forward
with your future.
- Planning for the future, having
a contingency plan: your
future has been touched by the events of the last
few months; your course of
study
or
career choice may have been influenced, you may
have made a home in new place and won't return
to the old, etc. Whatever the influence on your future,
one
thing that that Katrina showed everyone is the
need to have a contingency plan and be prepared for
anything
that comes your way.
- Ability to cope in vastly different
settings: many students have had to adjust to another
place. While this has not been easy, going through
this adjustment has been an important life experience
for many. Read about one student's experience below:
(Motter, C. Survival
instinct- Being displaced by recent hurricanes put
many in unfamiliar surroundings Business First
of Louisville, 11/28/2005)
Living in Washington, D.C., and interning on Capitol Hill while attending
American University was something I never expected to be doing this semester.
Now, I am taking courses at AU and living on campus with two students from
Sweden, which is a culture shock in itself.
Living and working in D.C. is a great lesson in politics and life. I've
already toured the West Wing of the White House and attended the John Robert's
nomination hearing and Senate confirmation vote. Being thrown into a new
place -- with little preparation -- has led me to try new things and step
outside my comfort zone in order to adjust to this new lifestyle. Nevertheless,
I look forward to returning to Tulane with my friends who currently are
scattered across the country at various colleges.
The New Orleans I return to will not be same city I left last May, but
it is my second home. From the jazz to the crawfish to the infamous beads,
New Orleans has that unique charm and undeniable Southern hospitality that
one comes to love and miss. But in January, when my dad and I drive back
to Tulane, memories of my freshman year won't be filling my head alone.
Thoughts of riding the Metro to work, touring museums with people from
other countries, and surviving in an unfamiliar, big city will stay with
me forever.
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While you have many challenges to address
as a result of Katrina, it is important to take a
moment to reflect on and appreciate the
many positive long-term outcomes
that this experience has provided you with. These are positives that you can apply to many situations in your future. Continue to the next section to read about one possibility your new skills make you an excellent candidate for: Study Abroad!
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