Researching Advanced Reactors: A Fulbright Experience in Switzerland
When Kristina Yancey received a Fulbright fellowship to conduct research in Switzerland, she tapped into a creative new way to share updates with friends, family, and an online audience. Through her video blog, or vlog, Kristina records brief recaps about her research at the Paul Scherrer Institute, where she works with a team that specializes in modeling advanced reactors. In a pre-departure vlog post, Kristina explained that she would be “looking at one of the designs and making sure that their program can accurately model that reactor.” When she returns to the United States, Kristina plans to start a Master’s program in Nuclear Engineering and continue to work in nuclear research.
Kristina, who has limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, also had some unexpected challenges while in Switzerland. One of her recent vlog posts recounts an incident in which she had to repair her broken motorized wheelchair, which she affectionately calls “Godzilla.” After several attempts to fix Godzilla on her own, she decided to search for someone with more expertise. “After calling a bunch of places, I found a company that can repair it, so they came and picked up the wheelchair and brought me a replacement wheelchair to use while they fix it.” Play Kristina's video below (transcript follows). To learn more about her experience as a Fulbright Scholar in Switzerland, visit her YouTube Channel to access her vlog.
Transcript for “Vlog: Switzerland, Week 36”
[Film shows young woman at a desk in her bedroom]
Kristina: Hi guys! Sorry this video is a little bit late. I had a mini-crisis with Godzilla this week. This time it had nothing to do with the battery. It was the right wheel that stopped working. It happened on the way to lunch, so one of the people I work with pushed me to the table and someone else pushed me back to the office. We took it apart to try to figure it out, then realized it was beyond our expertise to fix it.
After calling around a bunch of places, I found a company that can repair it. They came and picked up the wheelchair and brought me a replacement wheelchair to use while they fix it, which is really useful. They called me the next day to tell me how much it would cost to fix it. I took a day to think about it. Until the last moment, I wanted to just leave Godzilla here and not worry about it. But after talking to my parents and others, I realized it was better just to fix it so I don’t have a crisis when I get back.
The man at the company told me it would take about three weeks to get fixed, because they have to order a new motor for the right wheel from England, which would take two weeks just to get here. In the meantime, I’ll use the replacement wheelchair and they’re not going to charge me for that. The replacement wheelchair is about half as fast as Godzilla, and it’s more dainty. It doesn’t go over as big of bumps as Godzilla, but the main thing is that it works. Compared to what I went through in November, this Godzilla crisis is going a lot smoother!
That’s the big news. The only other thing I can think of is last night we had a house party. I was in charge of making the food, because we were making jambalaya. I was the one who suggested it because I spent many summers in Louisiana during my childhood. It turned out well so I was very pleased!
Other than that, I’ve been working. We finished a chapter in German class about furniture and apartments, so that was useful.
I’m entering the crunch time at work where I need to finish everything I’ve been doing and write a paper about it. We’ll see how it goes, and I’ll talk to you guys later. I hope you’re doing well! Bye!
