We recently connected with Grace Wittmann and have shared our conversation below.

Grace, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Summer 2022, I had to take a risk. A risk to work and make money to help myself financially during the school year, or take an internship to gain experience in the field I hope to work in one day. I originally decided to take the financial security and applied for a job back home. A few weeks after I applied, the Wisconsin AHEC CHIP Program was brought to my attention. After a few days of thinking, I decided to take the risk and withdraw my application for the job and applied for the internship. Shortly after I applied, I heard back from AHEC and they told me they had an internship placement for me. This so far has been the best decision I have made for myself, I learned so much, gained many friends, made life-long connections, and now have the podcast I am here talking to you all about today!

Grace, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The summer after my junior year at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse where I study public and community health education, I began an internship with Wisconsin AHEC in their CHIP program. I was placed with Halos of the St. Croix Valley and my mentor Steph. Towards the end of the summer, I reached out to a fellow Intern Allie who was placed with The Butterfly Path to see if we could come together as two non-profits and collaborate. Allie talked with her mentor Anna and they were in! We all then found a time and place to meet, Steph, Allie, Anna, myself and Niccy who placed Allie and myself with our internship placements. The 5 of us then sat down and came up with the idea of the podcast! We released our very first episode September 1, 2022 and are still producing episodes today! Today we are recording episodes for our season 2- lived experiences, where we sit down and talk with people about their personal experiences and what they’ve gone through. This season is very important to us, we want our listeners to know they are not alone, and their are people out there who have had some of the same “foreign feelings” they have and what they have done to get through it!

Have you ever had to pivot?

I chose to attend the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse to pursue a degree in biology in hopes of going to medical school. After a semester and a half, I had to change that plan. I was doing really well on my biology path, until I hit that 4th semester. I knew that I could continue on this path, but it was going to take so much out of me and I had to figure out if that path was worth it or not. I decided I needed to pivot and choose a new major, I chose a major that was better for my mental health, which is why I am now a public and community health education major. That was a very hard choice for me to make being that I chose this school specifically to pursue biology, but I need to re-evaluate and choose a path that was better for me long term.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Thus far in my education studying public and community health education, a summer internship program, and some job shadowing, I think the most helpful thing for success in this field is empathy. Having empathy for these individuals and family’s you are trying to help will help you do your job so much better. Wanting to help people, the need for empathy is crucial!  

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thatforeignfeeling.squarespace.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatforeignfeeling/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086648705671
• Other: This is the non-profit our podcast is linked with: https://thebutterflypath.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwyt-ZBhCNARIsAKH1174amKfwwmabHqqcWLiP9MsiMytk2HUldAqaaOB_mqJk7dx67p1vx9EaAnOZEALw_wcB