Leadership When Things Go Wrong

By:

Emily Cortez

Published:

Countries

Demographics

Majors

Regions

Emily Cortez

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> Hej! <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> Illinois Wesleyan University <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2024 <i>Destination city & country:</i> Copenhagen, Denmark <i>Program provider:</i> DIS Study Abroad in Scandinavia <i>Major/minor:</i> Psychology with a Specialization in Pediatric Therapy <i>Demographics:</i> Hispanic/Latinx <i>Future career aspirations:</i> My goal is to become a pediatric therapist. I am currently an assistant teacher at the YWCA for after school programs (Kindergarten-5th grade). I have a passion for developmental and learning psychology and, therefore, hope to specialize in therapy for children with abnormalities. I want to consistently work towards improving the accessibility of American psychological healthcare and debunk stigmas surrounding mental illness and different learning disabilities. <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> 1. Expand my personal, academic, professional, and cultural knowledge while working towards achieving my goal of seeing global applications of psychology first-hand and being exposed to the historical context of modern practices. 2. Work with my host family to learn more about ethnic cuisine, traditions, and everyday life. 3. Apply what I learn while studying abroad to improve the methods of clinical therapy that are standardized in American psychological healthcare.

Leadership while traveling is extremely important, especially when making mutual plans to travel. Pro tip: ALWAYS assign someone to get all the details together and make an itinerary. While in Copenhagen I planned two trips: one to Berlin and one to Italy.

I didn’t end up going to Berlin. Let me tell you why.

Planning a mutual trip seemed easy enough. I assumed that someone had read the details of the ticket and didn’t really question any of it – nor did I take the initiative to make an itinerary like I normally would.

Boy was that a mistake.

Day of the trip we are under the impression that the bus leaves at 2:30pm and we are waiting for the bus since 12:30pm. The time hits around 2:15pm and I realize something is wrong. She checks the status for the bus and it says that it’s canceled, however she didn’t receive any email or notification of a canceled trip. I send the details to my host family and ask for help especially since nothing is in English. To our surprise the bus had left at 6am and my friend had read the depature time as the arrival time and missed the bus. Even worse, because it was labeled as a no-show we weren’t eligible for a refund for any part of the trip. We had paid for round trip tickets and a three day hotel stay and lost it all

In an event like this it’s not worth getting upset. Instead, it’s worth seeing what you can learn from. I decided to go home and relook at all of the italy details and form an itinerary and make sure all of the details were double checked and put together. This ultimately leads to a smoother and more organized trip. I think leadership helps especially when dealing with situations that go wrong. Copenhagen as a city definitely values leadership or someone who is able to take initiative. Especially in academics or the workforce it’s common to have someone step up and take initiative of a situation.

To cheer myself up I ended up going to Reffen, the copenhagen street food market, and tried Indian food for the first time. I had butter chicken that was a burst of flavor. It was extremely comforting to taste and warmed up the bad day.