As a student-athlete, Mackenzie spends a lot of her time and energy focusing on school and her sport. However, she found a way to integrate her ACE Action Plan into her already busy schedule by taking classes that expanded on her experience in India. “For me, when coming back from ACE, it was really beneficial to think about school and what’s realistic.”
“For me, when coming back from ACE, it was really beneficial to think about school and what’s realistic.”
Mackenzie is majoring in International Relations with a concentration on developing countries and says that her experience in ACE “had a big influence on [her] class choices,” especially in global health. Spending time in India made her more aware of the issues that developing countries face. She can now apply her experiences working with community groups in New Delhi on health outreach to classes like Critical Issues in International Women’s Health. Mackenzie notices now that her experiences are often applicable to public health discussions, allowing her to delve more deeply into topics she experienced directly while in India. While India comes up in class conversations a lot now, Mackenzie recognizes that there is a lot more to learn about India and global health in developing countries. She hopes to keep traveling and learning abroad throughout her time at Stanford and beyond.