Brazil Exploration Seminar has family connection
The nursing Exploration Seminar led by Dr. Linda Scott connects with her family's longstanding work in Brazil's missionary field.
Scott will take five nursing and one pre-med student to Brazil for 11 days of travel and in-depth study of the country's healthcare system. They will stay for several days at Camp Moriah, a retreat center near the Lutheran church established by Scott's aunt and uncle, the Rev. Ray and Ruth Holter of Duluth, Minn.
While staying there, the students will work alongside the camp's physician, Dr. Sidney Schlossmacher, who will lead the students to personal examinations of facilities and conditions of rural health clinics and nearby hospitals. This is Scott's third trip with students to Brazil, and she finds the many personal connections she has made makes a difference with what the students are able to see and experience firsthand.
"The facilities at Camp Moriah are very new and comfortable," says Scott. "It's located on a beautiful hillside. And Dr. Schlossmacher gets us into healthcare facilities we probably couldn't visit on our own."
Scott says health care in Brazil is more directed toward physicians than nurses, which is why the seminar is open to both Concordia nursing and pre-med students. While staying at the retreat center, the students will be treated to a churrasco (barbecue) that is a popular tradition in southern Brazil. They will also take an excursion to Iguaçu Falls, known as the eighth wonder of the world, and enjoy a beach outing on the Atlantic Ocean.
In all, 73 students will participate in Exploration Seminars during spring semester break from Feb. 23 to March 2.
Two of the largest seminars are a Global Studies course in Egypt led by Dr. James Aageson, and a Religion 100 class in Istanbul with Dr. Shawn Carruth and Hilda Koster, of the religion department. In Istanbul, 12 students are anticipating an audience with the Orthodox Patriarch, arranged by Carruth.
Other seminars are astronomy in Hawaii; visits to fashion galleries in New York City; cultural and musical surveys of Vienna and Prague; and a "voyage" to French Guiana to discover French and European diversity in South America.
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