You're Going to Cambodia?

Amanda has been invited to be an International Supervisor for an NGO in Cambodia called Speech Therapy Cambodia (STC).  She will be on leave from Emerson College for the months of July, August, and September 2025 to complete this work.

Cambodia is a country that does not yet have the profession of SLP.  STC was founded in 2014.  Their groundbreaking mission is to train Cambodian health care specialists in effective diagnostic and therapeutic techniques for dysphagia with the end result of education and certification of Cambodian dysphagia specialists.  They are partnered with the Cambodian University of Puthisastra and are successfully taking candidates through the country’s first post-graduate certificate course, “Foundations of Adult Dysphagia Management,” assisted by the Medical and Nursing Councils of Cambodia and by the Cambodian Ministry of Health.  They are well supported by a generous grant from the Rotary International Foundation to provide one-on-one practicum clinical supervision for the last 9 months of their certificate program.  Amanda will be the International Supervisor for the final third of that practicum, signing the clinicians off as independent in completing swallowing evaluations and treatment within acute care and rehab settings.  

With regard to Amanda's time away from work, it took a few months to cross the Ts and dot the Is, but Emerson College has approved Amanda's time away.  The work that is being done by STC is directly in line with Emerson's mission to advance scholarship, bring innovation, promote civic engagement, and foster respect for human diversity.  STC has tirelessly worked to ensure that the materials are culturally appropriate and available in English and Khmer.  Wherever possible, they are hiring, working with, and/or promoting Cambodian nationals to maximize their impact within the community.  Their collaboration with Western clinicians is necessary at this time due to a lack of trained local clinicians, which hopefully is an issue that will be diminished with time and experience gained by previous trainees of the program.  It’s easy to see how Emerson’s values around critical thinking to advance social justice and global responsibility in our world will be well met during her time away from the college.

Absolutely!  We've thoughtfully set up our lives to make these sorts of trips happen.  Many of you followed along with our early forays into week-long trips to the DR with GO ministries.  We'll never forget one time in the van with John, asking him one of the most important questions of our lives:

"Some people can donate more time.  Others can donate more money.  What else can be done to better support the work that is being done?"

His answer? "Learn Spanish."

It was such an easy answer.  Of course, what he meant was "be culturally responsive."  We hadn't even considered, at the time, that our general cultural and linguistic fluency was a contributor to the work being done.  Even if we never applied that knowledge to GO's specific work, it would be valuable to our whole world for us to work toward bilingualism.  This prompted Casa de Warren to embark on a 1 month journey to Antigua, Guatemala, our first taste of true Worldschooling, where we all three took Spanish classes in the mornings and explored the Guatemalan culture in the afternoons and weekends.  This was followed by six weeks in the DR, interning as a family with Go Ministries, and countless roadtrips around the US and Canada since then.  

All of which is to say, when Amanda had the opportunity for 3 months in Cambodia, OF COURSE the whole family is coming with!  This is built into the fabric of who we are as a family and what we want to accomplish in our limited time in this big, amazing world.