What does it mean to be "Glocal"?

Patrick Nitch is interning at Siloam in the Behavioral Health department. He is a wonderful addition to our team and we love knowing his journey to Siloam and how God orchestrated his coming to us! We're glad he found his "Nitch" here...

Below is Patrick's story in his own words:

I was first introduced to Nepal while on a news article assignment for the Vanderbilt International Magazine in January 2010. In the article, Emergency Response, I outlined how a Vanderbilt student came to design Nepal’s first coordinated emergency ambulance response system. What was particularly salient for me was his description of Nepal as “the perfect blend of Himalayan and Indian culture.” There was something about life in Nepal, and I was going to find out what it was.

One afternoon, while working as a graduate student at the Vanderbilt International Office (VIO), the director asked me if I knew anyone interested in applying to the Vanderbilt English Language Center (ELC) as an education specialist. I immediately thought of my time as a volunteer English language teacher in South Florida, and blurted, “I am!” Of course, she knew I was kidding—I was in a full-time master’s program in clinical mental health counseling and could only work part-time. I went home that night and could not stop thinking about the position at the ELC. I had felt alive as a volunteer teacher. It felt right. It felt like me. The opportunity was too great to pass. After some deliberation, I decided I could finish my master’s program part-time, while taking on a full-time role at the ELC. The next morning, I marched to VIO and told the director that I would make it work. The VIO director recommended me, and I started the next week.

It did not take long to realize that teaching English to non-native speakers is not all that different from counseling; it all begins with building relationships. I saw that students respond better and learn quicker when there is a sense of trust and safety in the classroom. Shy students would breakdown and unload all the missed conversations they had held inside.

Vanderbilt hosts a group of Humphrey fellows every academic year and connects them with the Vanderbilt community through a program they call “friendship family.” It was by chance that my director and I were placed with the one fellow from Nepal. As a project manager for a major youth career development center in Kathmandu, Ramhari was familiar with the state of education in Nepal and insisted that there was a need for English language teachers to educate and train. With my heart already in Nepal, it was not difficult to be convinced.

I started to research teaching positions in Nepal. I began planning for a life in Nepal. I imagined how my life would be different in Nepal. I envisioned the peace I would feel, the wisdom I would gain, and the cultural immersion through which I would reform, and perhaps transform.

While working at the ELC I had the opportunity to collaborate with Belmont Church’s world outreach pastor, Stuart Stokes. Stuart had recently begun a teen program at Belmont Church, called “Glocal” with the mission to connect local families with the local international population, and driven by the mantra, “think globally and act locally.” While I certainly had the first part of Glocal’s mission covered, I began to recognize that my efforts were disproportionately externally focused. Why Nepal? Was I going to Nepal to help the Nepali people, or was I going there to be moved by the monstrosity of the Himalayas?

The answer was clear. My intentions were perhaps more selfish than I would have wanted to admit. At the beginning of the 2011 fall semester I was introduced to the mission of Siloam. I was sharing my interest in Nepal with a colleague who had volunteered as a Spanish interpreter at Siloam and was aware of the large immigrant and refugee population served through Siloam. I called Siloam the next morning and set up a meeting with the Behavioral Health Consultant, Laurie Tone, who would soon become my supervisor, mentor, and general awesome guide through the field of refugee mental health and primary care behavioral health consulting.

Siloam provides an inspiring tangible example of what the term “glocal” really means.  Siloam is an international refuge, a magnet that brings together communities from all corners of the Earth, including under-served and underrepresented local Nashvillians. Without stepping outside of Nashville city limits, I have visited the poorest villages in Nepal, and its neighbors Bhutan and Myanmar. I have walked the erupting streets of Iran, Iraq, and Egypt. I have witnessed the plight of Somalia. More importantly, however, I have been part of a team, a family, of caring individuals who welcome our worldly neighbors and embody the American values of tolerance and justice. And each patient who walks through Siloam’s doors adds to our global family. Indeed, such a family can be more powerful and moving than even the greatest mountains on Earth. I suppose I found my Nepal after all.