The countdown begins and so do the butterflies!
Hallo!
Ich heiße Alexandria! Ich bin nervös aber sehr aufgeregt für unsere reise! I am 29 years old and am a Human Services Bachelor’s student at Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth, Florida. I am also President of our school’s Psychology & Human Services club, a group that focuses on community outreach for social justice causes and advocates for student mental health resources on campus. Leaving my 2 cats (TinyCat & Caviar) and fish will be difficult but worth it to take this 10-day trip to Italy, Switzerland, and Germany! The opportunity to travel abroad was presented to me in a random email from my school, offering me a chance to visit Europe and build my collegiate profile in the process. The destination was chosen by the institution, but it is one that I have always wanted to go to. My father passed away 6 years ago and during this adventure I will get to experience the same Venice canals he raved about. Additionally, I am German so being able to connect with my roots and indulge in vivacious culture is so exciting to me.
Something I would like you to know about me is that I am a reformed & felon and domestic violence survivor who strives every day to make a positive impact in society as well as for those incarcerated. I started http://www.FormidableFelons.com as a way for us to share our success stories as well as act as a resource for transitioning. I have helped a few people get jobs with benefits and health care immediately after release. The information and skills I will learn by interacting with people in these countries can be applied to the comprehensive transitional apartment complex I hope to build in the future for felons- FormFel. America is a diverse country, with an equally diverse incarcerated population, so to provide relevant transitional care to my clients I will need to understand the obstacles faced by people from different areas of the world. Additionally, I admire Switzerland’s approach to crime sentencing, using rehabilitative methods rather than isolation. Going overseas will allow me to obtain information about their prisons and be able to apply a similar technique at the transitional complex. Without traveling and making the attempt to experience someone else’s perspective and what hardships they endure, my mindset would stay limited. As Mark Twain once wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness”. We all have biases, and truly experiencing other cultures is a concrete way to address them. This trip will help me build some of the experience necessary to fulfill my ethical duties in becoming a licensed mental health counselor and owner at FormFel.
If you want to follow my journey! Please follow via the FEA website or down below:
IG: Formidable_Felon
YouTube: Formidable Felon