Portugal: Celeste Soto (Classroom Space and Academics and Discoveries and Reflections)

Classroom Space & Academics

I am so glad this was the course I decided on for my study abroad experience. Studying sedentary behavior has been a rewarding experience, and I have developed a genuine love and passion for this subject that I wish to learn more about in the future. It was interesting to learn about how prolonged sitting and inactivity can impact our health and well-being. Moreover, learning about sedentary behavior has also made me more aware of the importance of physical activity and the need to incorporate more movement into our daily lives. The one guest speaker, Tiago, saying, “Move, move more, move better” has also stuck with me. This idea of sitting less and moving more Tiago promoted inspired me to promote more awareness and encourage others to change their behavior. Moreover, the way he pushes others through his training is by only working with them if they can work well without him. This is because he wants them to be able to find their own motivation to keep moving. One of our last guest speakers who talked about the evolution of sports made me appreciate how things have changed. He made me excited to continue exploring this field and make a positive impact on society’s sedentary behavior. This is because while his focus was on sports, I learned how women were not able to do sports the way they have now. So being able to have the opportunity to join this journey of being active through sports has been amazing.

Discoveries & Reflections

In the U.S. I notice individuals, like me, being more sedentary outdoors than in Portugal. In Portugal, I’ve noticed a lot of group or community activities to promote physical activity in parks. This is really important because interventions with an emphasis on social group activities are very successful when making individuals more active. Moreover, there are more individuals using bikes or overall transportation than back home! However, this could also be due to the difference in the built-in environment or access to recreational facilities. Portugal has safer outdoor spaces to be active while the U.S. has more pedestrian-friendly environments for runners or walkers. I will use scooters as a form of transportation to go to class because it feels safe to do so. Moreover, as someone who lives in Chicago I’ve never scooter because bike/scooter lanes were not everywhere like Portugal had! Therefore, it was so amazing to see so many people comfortably use these modes of transportation to get to places safely. This made going to class so much faster and more fun. It was so safe I was able to ride with a friend in one scooter. So, there was a lot of bonding and therefore motivation to keep using them. I will do anything to go scooter over there in Portugal right now. It really surprised our class, and we would build on discussions when learning about barriers and social factors in physical activity.

 

Celeste Soto

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

Major: Health Promotion Health Equity

Program: UW Movement as Medicine