Program Reviews

I feel like the therapy part of this trip was a little challenging at times due to a high number of clinicians to a low number of kids. Often, the undergraduate students and graduate students would speak over each other during individual sessions which made it overwhelming when we were 3-1. I feel it would be better if there were more students to create a 2-1 ratio. I also think that how camp will be functioning (I.e., station rotations) should be determined before arriving to camp. On Sunday we spent 2 hours discussing the stations when we could have been planning. I think it would also be beneficial if the undergraduates were required to take clinical processes before attending the camp. That way, they have at least some exposure to collecting data, observing sessions, lesson planning, etc. The excursion part of the trip was great! The cave tubing and zip lining was definitely a highlight.

I think it would have been helpful to have a walk around San Ignacio. I enjoyed the kids and Ms. Patty and Erolyn. They made sure we were safe and taken care of. I also loved getting ice cream every night. I stayed at Hode’s last year and that was great. This year, there were issues with missing money; otherwise great. I wish we were 2 to a room instead of 4. Overall, I had a lot of fun.

This trip has been nothing short of amazing. The opportunities I was given, I will forever be grateful for. The staff (Erolyn and Miss Patti) have been amazing chaperones. I am so grateful for this experience as a whole. I enjoyed getting to bond with my patient at the Tykes camp and learn from the grad students above me with more experience. It was cool to be able to tap into the Belizean culture and learn way more than I could’ve imagined. I appreciate all of the staff who helped make this trip amazing all around.

It was a great experience! I gained a lot of knowledge being an undergraduate. I wish we had one extra day of free time! I also loved meeting the kiddos and the SLP that works for therapy abroad and all the knowledge she gave us. I also loved working with the graduate students to gain clinical experience. I loved having a couple of days being fun days and learning about the culture. We also had amazing food almost every lunch and dinner. I loved the supervisors that went with us everything. They were amazing!

I really liked the tykes camp, but I feel like our freedom was limited when it came too things we wanted to do within the camp and individual sessions. I also enjoyed all the excursions as well. I wish for the evaluations we had more time to prep and get things ready for this. There was not enough time and we basically went in blind with very little experience with evaluations. I also wish the number of adults was less than the kids or 1 to 1 as there was too many adults compared to the amount of kids. We should have more kids next time but overall I had so much fun and it was a great experience!

I had a lot of fun and got to experience a lot. If I had to change anything it would be the ratio of students to clinicians. Three to one was a lot at times and I feel hard for the kid to focus. The area isn’t the cleanest, but if you are with a group you feel safe for the most part. The housing also wasn’t the cleaners as we had a hole in our window and the water pressure in the shower wasn’t great. Food was wonderful everywhere we went and everybody was very polite in the area we were I. I would highly recommend!

I had a great time, I think the externs mixed with us UNI students got a little confusing at times but proved to show we can work together with others on the fly. Sometimes the communication given to the externs was different than what we were expecting. When I got paired up with my extern she thought I was fully ready to lesson plan and data track for a session, when I knew nothing about that. I ended up getting good experience doing it, but I had to brief my extern on my capabilities. Overall, I thought the camp was very fun and successful. I think the grad students did a good job of taking charge and this was definitely a good practice for them before their internships.

This program was fun but Therapy Abroad could have been a lot more helpful with flight issues due to them booking a 5am flight. Considering the airports flying out of, choosing flights that don’t cause students to miss flights and then not doing anything to help figure things out could definitely be better. The program itself could have been planned better. We didn’t have much help ahead of time knowing what students we would be working with or our schedule. Things could have been sent earlier and would have made the stress a lot less.

My experience with Therapy Abroad was amazing! From being in clinic to going on excursions, there was always something to do and something to learn. Belize is a country full of diversity and culture, and coming here is a great way to experience life outside of the U.S. I loved the support I received from my supervisors and felt like Belize became a home away from home. Everyone was super welcoming and was always there to answer questions. Not to mention this was a great way to make new friends from all over the country!

This trip was such an amazing and rewarding experience with therapy abroad. It was so much fun to explore with new people, experience different cultures, and learn more about the field that I love. I would absolutely recommend this program to anyone who wants to help kids around the world, gain clinical experience, and adventure in a new country! If I had to, I could not pick a favorite part of this trip because every aspect was so amazing and I am definitely considering doing it again in the future!