Author: Logan Blackshire | Major: Biology | Semester: Summer 2025
Exploring the Atlantic Coast
Hello, my name is Logan Blackshire, and I am in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. I am currently majoring in Biology and minoring in Medical Humanities. For my study abroad experience, I was a part of the Hogs Abroad Faculty-Led: Healthcare and Social Services in Ireland summer session. We travelled around to Limerick, Galway, and Dublin over the course of about three weeks. They were all wonderful cities that offered uniquely amazing opportunities.
Initially, I hadn’t given much thought to studying abroad until about a year ago. One of my friends I am in the majority of my classes with suggested doing a brief summer session with him, and I was immediately interested. After evaluating the options out there provided by Hogs Abroad and outside organizations, we had narrowed our choices down to the Faculty-Led program to Sweden and the Faculty-Led program to Ireland. Both of these options raised our attention as we are both pre-health majors and wanted to learn about how different systems worked outside of America. Visiting Ireland had always been on my bucket list, so it was an easy choice for me, and it did not take much convincing to get my friend on board.
The focus of our study abroad program was to learn about the healthcare and social service systems in place in Ireland and compare them to those here in the United States. We got the opportunity to visit a youth mental health facility, a dementia care facility, a special needs facility, Ireland’s public health department, and more. Possibly the most impactful visit for me was the youth mental health facility. Offering primary care mental health services, Jigsaw truly shocked me with their approach to treating issues regarding mental health. Something I was unfamiliar with coming from the U.S. was the lack of a diagnosis and prescribing of medication given to their patients. One of the main priorities of Jigsaw is addressing the environments a patient is in through talk therapy and how those environments have played a role in the issues and symptoms that the patient is experiencing. Rather than asking, “What’s wrong with you?” they pose the question, “What happened to you?” In the United States, it is very common when dealing with mental health issues to go to the doctor, receive a diagnosis after a few sessions, and even be prescribed medication for that diagnosis. It was very interesting to see this new perspective on mental health issues, and I was pleased to hear of the positive results they had been witnessing through this form of care.
On a broader note, I learned a lot about myself during this trip as well. One valuable takeaway I got was to embrace challenges and experiences as they come your way. Whether we were packing five people into a room at a bed and breakfast in Galway or taking scenic bus rides to see the mountains and castles of Connemara, the whole trip was an adventure. Allowing myself to give in to being outside of my comfort zone through meeting new people, asking tough questions, and trying things I normally wouldn’t do back home helped me grow immensely.
Overall, studying abroad was one of the best experiences of my entire life. Getting to immerse myself in a culture unfamiliar to my own while learning significant information about the kind of systems I want to work in one day was a true blessing and reward. I am so grateful for my amazing teachers, the Hogs Abroad program, and my friends, old and new, for helping to provide me with memories that will last a lifetime.