Madyson Glesky, Children’s Experiences of War and Trauma Summer 2023
Studying abroad with the “Children’s Experiences of War and Trauma” program influenced my own academic, career, and personal goals by altering my previous focus of potential career paths related to psychology and providing me with a differing perspective on those I have and will meet and interact with in their experiences of childhood trauma.
Specifically, within both my majors of Psychology and Law, Criminal Justice, and Society, I had previously been considering only clinical or forensic psychology as future paths, even more so in a developmental psychology sense or just working with children in general. However, after taking these courses for this program, which included a Psychology and Neuroscience section, both specialized toward War & Children, I am now equally as interested in the more scientific sides of psychology as it pertains to childhood trauma and research that has developed to help determine correlation between early adverse experiences and later development of psychopathology. Since that was the main focus of the neuroscience section, where certain brain areas have been determined as more activated during adverse experiences, I am more interested in diving into this field and being a part of the research that further finds out more about these connections within the environment and developing brain. Even more so, this program has solidified my interest in working with children in the psychology field as we not only learned about how early adverse experiences affects them throughout their development, but visited centers in Pittsburgh and London based on trauma and early childhood, along with volunteering with the Jewish Family and Community Services in their refugee program for kids of all ages. As this program covered a myriad of topics that had to do with early childhood trauma, including the experiences of war and becoming a refugee at such a young age, I am now more inspired to involve myself in this continuing work whether still in a clinical or forensic context or a more scientific one involving research, diagnosis, interventions, and treatment.
Furthermore, my personal goals and development have grown due to my involvement with this program in that I have now gained a new perspective of what others have gone through and just how much adverse experiences can affect them, especially when they experience it at a very young age. While most people comment about how resilient young children are in their experiences and how flexible their brains still are in adaptation to what they experience, there are still very permanent ways that early adversity can affect the brain’s ability to create and connect proper neural pathways in relation to certain brain areas, especially as it pertains to the brain’s “sensitive periods” of development. When there are no appropriate and swift interventions during these times, children are affected throughout their whole lives into adulthood, which affects their psychological growth further affecting their physical health and developing illnesses as well. Knowing this now, I understand childhood trauma more deeply and can apply this information to people I meet and get to know, not only in the psychological field but in my personal life. In curating and developing upon my own personal goals of being more ready for a psychological career and having more understanding and empathy for those I encounter, this experience definitely aided in that.
The “Children’s Experiences of War and Trauma” study abroad program helped my academic and career development as well as personal growth in expanding my focus on potential career paths and enhancing my knowledge on people and the array of experiences they can have that further change and alter them.
P.S. The above photo is from the Matilda Theiss Center in the South Side of Pittsburgh, which is a trauma center for children before they are school-aged. The igloo is called the Cool Zone and is used as a separate location for when children become emotional and need to cool off for a moment. This was donated and endorsed by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
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