After graduating from Bryn Mawr in 2009, Gillian Freedman attended Boston College, where she majored in International Studies. When she finished college in 2013, she knew that she wanted to join the Peace Corps. After a long application process, she headed to Peru in 2014 to work for two years as a community health promotion specialist. Throughout the experience she remained in contact with her former Spanish teacher, Jenniffer Gray, and was able to return to Bryn Mawr as a guest speaker. When Gray found herself in need of a semester substitute just as Freedman was finishing her Peace Corps work, the timing was perfect. Although Freedman does not plan to teach long-term – she hopes to remain in the public health field – she is delighted to have the opportunity to work with Bryn Mawr students as a faculty member.

My interest in the Peace Corps grew from the other international experiences I've had. As a child I lived in France for a time, and then I went back to study abroad in Paris in 2012. I knew from these experiences that I love living in another culture, and I was also interested in the opportunity to improve my Spanish fluency, and to work within another country’s health system in order to understand its strengths and challenges.

While in Peru, I worked in a community of just under 2,000 people as a community health promotion specialist. My role was to increase community engagement around the topic of health, specifically adolescent health (teen pregnancy prevention and leadership skills), as well as prenatal and early childhood health (nutrition, prevention of stunted growth, early childhood stimulation, hygiene and illness prevention in pregnant women and children under three years of age.) In the next year or so I plan to start graduate school to earn an M.S. in nursing, and long-term I plan to pursue public health nursing as a career. My time in the Peace Corps solidified for me the huge role that nurses play in health care systems domestically and abroad, and in the field of public health.
 
One of the most interesting things for me while in Peru was experiencing firsthand the process of cultural exchange. Learning not only how another culture sees things, but also to put myself in their shoes and understand why they see things this way, allowed me to approach challenges with a greater sense of how to meld my viewpoints and theirs. I also learned how amazing the world is, in the sense that there are people all over the world who will take in strangers and make them a part of their family and community without a second thought.

Bryn Mawr Bio


Number of Years at Bryn Mawr: 4

Favorite Bryn Mawr traditions: Convocation and daisies

Most inspiring teachers: Jenniffer Gray, Chris Eccles and Bill Waters
The timing of this semester worked out perfectly for me to return to Bryn Mawr as a Spanish teacher. It is fun to be part of the faculty at Bryn Mawr and see all the work and creativity that goes into teaching Bryn Mawr students. My favorite part of teaching so far is seeing students get so excited by something that they learn that they want to go deeper and learn more on their own, or are inspired to share more information with the class. The biggest challenge so far has definitely been the unpredictability. You can plan 110 percent for a class, but you never know what questions might come up, or where the class might end up, and you have to be prepared mentally for that too. In fact, I think that one of the biggest misconceptions about teaching is that it is easy. The reality is that it is an extremely challenging job, and I constantly have to reimagine and restructure my plans based on what I see that works, or doesn’t work.

Coming from Bryn Mawr, I felt very prepared to handle the workload in college. I was comfortable going to meet with professors for help because of my great experience with supportive teachers at Bryn Mawr. I also think that Bryn Mawr taught me to dive in to new experiences and adventures by acknowledging my nervousness or fear but not letting those feelings stop me from taking on a challenge and excelling. The type of education that Bryn Mawr offers is unique. I think that having the example of so many other strong, intelligent, athletic, talented female students was really important for me, and since leaving Bryn Mawr I have truly realized how many opportunities Bryn Mawr offers to its students.  It is an enormous privilege as girls and women to not only be able to attend school and receive an extremely high-quality education, but to do so at a place like Bryn Mawr, where everyone is constantly working to make the experience more challenging, more supportive, and more relevant to the world in which we live.
My senior year, I took Mr. Waters’ creative writing course. I remember that when I got up to present a collection of poems I had written for a final portfolio project, I said to the class, “I just wrote seven poems…” Mr. Waters stopped me and said, “You didn’t just write seven poems. You WROTE seven poems! Never say ‘just’ and think that what you created wasn’t enough.” This has always stuck with me, especially when I am feeling nervous or having doubts about something I am doing.
Located in Baltimore, Maryland, The Bryn Mawr School is a private all-girls pre-kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school with a coed preschool for ages 2 months through 5 years. Bryn Mawr provides students with exceptional educational opportunities on a beautiful 26-acre campus within the city limits. Inquisitive girls, excellent teaching, strong student-teacher relationships and a clear mission sustain our vibrant school community where girls always come first.