Clemson junior Emily Burchfield knows the value of international experiences in education. She had her first international trip right after high school, and that one adventure inspired her in ways that had an influence on her future and on Clemson University.
After graduating from Seneca High School, Burchfield had an opportunity to travel to Ghana with ophthalmologist Bob Brown. The trip was an eye opening experience, in more ways than one. Burchfield, who was only 17 at the time, worked as a scrub nurse during eye surgeries for people who had no access to medical care.
“That trip was enough to shock me into action,” she said.
Burchfield said seeing the way people live in third-world countries motivated her to want to do something about world-wide poverty. When she came to Clemson as a freshman, she looked for a student organization that addressed poverty issues, but was unable to find one. So she started one herself – the Clemson ONE Campaign.
ONE is a national campaign to eliminate poverty. ONE rallies Americans to fight extreme poverty and global AIDS. The goal of ONE is to raise awareness of poverty and to urge the U.S. government to allocate 1 percent of the national budget to providing health care, clean water, food and education, which will help eliminate poverty around the world. Burchfield led the effort to have Clemson University become one of the first “campuses of ONE” in the nation.
Clemson’s ONE organization has hosted events to raise awareness and money for poverty, such as the fair-trade Ten Thousand Villages Gifts Festival, which returns to campus Nov. 13 and 14 in the Hendrix Student Center, and a ONEArt exhibit, which raised more than $1,000 last spring.
Burchfield said her main goal with ONE is bring awareness of poverty to campus.
“I want to encourage people to think and be aware of what is going on around the world. It is important for a college campus to address the issues of the third world,” she said.
Since her trip to Ghana, Burchfield has made two more trips abroad, both to India to work on a housing project with students from the ICHEC Brussels Management School in Belgium. She was presented the opportunity through the Calhoun Honors College, and the first time she went, she one of the first three American students to participate in the project with the Belgian students. So not only was she in a new country, but she was also living and working with students from a different culture, both of which were learning experiences for her.
“Those trips changed me so fundamentally, I don’t think I even realize how much I’ve changed,” she said. “Now I automatically think with a different perspective. I’ve seen different things, and that has become a part of me.”
Burchfield said her trips to Ghana and India have played a major role in making decisions for her future. With a major in economics and a minor in French, she hopes to use her Clemson education to benefit others around the world. Though she’s not sure where yet, she knows she will end up some place outside of the United States.
“I just want to live somewhere where I know I’m helping people,” Burchfield said.
She believes her experiences abroad have enhanced her college education and will continue to do so on her next journey. Burchfield will spend a year-and-a-half studying in Europe in the Netherlands and Belgium.
“Going overseas teaches you so much more than you learn in a classroom,” she said. “I felt like I wouldn’t truly understand what’s going on the world unless I saw it for myself.”
Burchfield is active in encouraging other students to broaden their horizons through her involvement with planning events such as International Education Week (IEW), Nov. 12-16. IEW is a partnership between the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education to recognize the benefits of international education and exchange.
Visit Clemson’s IEW events, to learn more.
Published November 2007