I want to formally thank you for an extremely uplifting workshop this past Wednesday entitled, Sexual Violence as a Global Pandemic, for my Community Health Nursing class. Your skill in delivery and public speaking serves your Foundation well. You not only heightened the class’s awareness of this global pandemic but you promoted a critical characteristic that all of us have but rarely use to our potential: humanitarianism. That aspect of your delivery rang loud and clear.
Your motivational approach truly caught the interest of all the students. The critical/emergent yet not new nature of sexual atrocities against women and children as a war tactic is a topic that all need to hear about to ensure that the voices of these thousands of women we have only read about in Rwanda and the DRC are heard. Your discussion about ‘voice’ in women was profound and timely and struck a chord in all my students.
Your workshop is one that needs time to process due to the enormous emotional overlay of the topic. I do believe that the students grasped the learning objectives for the class. It was my hope that they begin to view nursing from a global lens and to care for patients that are not American born with value, respect and understanding. I thank you for that.
One of my students came up to me at the end of class to share that she goes "home" to Jamaica annually with friends to complete construction on a small building that will serve as an educational haven for children. She shared how uplifting her volunteerism is for her. And, just today, one of my other students sent me a journal entry describing how powerful your workshop was for her.
Again, thank you for your time, your energy, your vision of a ‘better world.” Just on Wednesday, you touched another 30 individuals and energized them to view the world with a wider and critical lens.
I look forward to working with you again in the future. You provided a wonderfully powerful workshop.
Sincerely yours,
Monica Diamond-Caravella
Clinical Adjunct Instructor
Farmingdale State College