USF Nursing’s Sandra Cadena Travels to Bucaramanga, Colombia for Fulbright Senior Scholar Project

Sandra J. Cadena, PhD, ARNP, CS, CNE, Assistant Professor and Coordinator, Latin American Student Experiences at the University of South Florida College of Nursing, has traveled to Bucaramanga, Colombia to complete her second Fulbright Scholar project. Dr. Cadena was selected a Fulbright Scholar in 2008, and was assigned to complete two projects and remain in the Fulbright roster for five years. Her first project was in Bogota, Colombia in 2009, where she served as a Senior Scholar placed at the School of Nursing at the Universidad El Bosque.

Dr. Cadena is currently working at the Universidad Autonoma de Bucaramanga (UNAB), where she is focusing on projects including curriculum review in preparation for national accreditation, instruction, lectures, seminars and clinical experiences with all eight semesters of nursing students with a focus on international nursing and nursing English language enhancement. She is also conducting lectures, workshops, and seminars with faculty from the Colleges of Nursing, Medicine and Psychology on the establishment and sustainability of international programs that integrate faculty development for investigations, teaching and scholarly activities.

“Being a Fulbright Scholar is a dream come true and a highlight of my career,” Dr. Cadena said. “I have always admired those academic colleagues selected from thousands of applicants to qualify for the prestige of being a ‘Fulbrighter.’ This opportunity and privilege to travel abroad and work collaboratively with other faculty and health professionals, is a humbling and exciting experience.”

The Fulbright Specialists Program was created in 2000 to complement the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program, to provide short-term academic opportunities (two to six weeks) to prominent U.S. faculty and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at post-secondary, academic institutions around the world. Dr. Cadena is one of the few nursing academicians to ever be awarded a Fulbright Specialist Scholar.

“This honor is a national and international acknowledgement of the value of my expertise and wisdom,” Dr. Cadena said. “The professionals who I am to work with in Colombia openly share their compassion, respect and enthusiasm, as well as their vulnerabilities, as we develop collaborative partnerships in crafting the future. I look forward to sharing my insights but, more importantly, learning from their commitment and dedication to global understanding.”

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange activity, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Over its 60 years of existence, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have taught, studied or conducted research abroad, and thousands of their counterparts from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the United States.

You can follow Dr. Cadena’s journey on her USF World blog at:  http://goingplaces.blog.usf.edu/?tag=colombia-summer-2012