PDG Joe Phillips accompanied Franklin, Kentucky's own Rachael Reetzke today (Sept 2, 09). Rachael has been selected an Ambassadorial Scholar. She plans on pursuing her studies in Autism. She spent part of the last year in China visiting three major cities. She did the tourist thing in Beijing then spent a few days in Xian where she saw the Terra Cotta Warriors. She got to visit a high point in the Great Wall and actually participated in harvesting silk. The bulk of Rachael's work was in Chengdu where she studied at the South West University of Economics and Science. She studied the Chinese Language in the International Studies Institute and also was able to spend time looking at the Chinese management of Autism. She says Autism is still not a common word in the normal Chinese person's vocabulary. In the center that she visited they seemed to be behind in their understanding of the problem. (Racheal is a student at WKU and works at the Kelly Austism Center. ) The therapy she observed involved a lot of group activities. However when she told a grad student what her interests were they did not know what the work autism meant.Rachael got to see a lot of the cultural heritage of China in a trip that will influence her for the rest of her life. She obviously was a great representative of our country and was a superlative Ambassadorial Scholar. Unfortunately her Power Point failed her and she hopes to have those slides sent to our membership via email. I personally did not think their absence was a major distraction and we appreciated so much Rachael's composure and excellent report.
