The Vira Heinz Scholarship gives women who have never been outside the country the opportunity to study abroad for an abbreviated time.

These women do pick a country that they would like to study in and devise an academic plan to follow while in that country.

As another part of the program, the women are tasked with observing the cities they are staying in and picking a particular social issue to present when they return.

The presentations are called “The Truth Behind the Cities” and just recently took place Wednesday, Nov. 8.

For senior Psychology major Marla Holland, the truth behind her city of Sydney, Australia was the racing of greyhounds.

“Greyhound racing really just stuck out to me during my time there and its relevant here in the U.S.,” said Holland.

Greyhound racing in Australia and the United States is part of the gambling industry and draws similarities to horse racing.

For Holland, the idea was to bring attention to this issue and to see how people felt about animal cruelty.

“The biggest part for me was the people that had not heard of this and didn’t know that this goes on,” said Holland, “and trying to see how they feel about animal cruelty and animal welfare.”

Holland believes that promoting animal welfare is one of the first steps in trying to help improve the lives of greyhound dogs.

“Now that I’ve done so much research on greyhounds, it’s definitely a dog that I would look into adopting, and I want to keep raising awareness to the rights of animals,” said Holland.

For junior Biology and Pre-Med major Anna Bartman, in her city of Maynooth, Ireland, chose to present on the opioid epidemic.

“The research that I’m currently involved with at UPMC made me curious to see what it was like in other parts of the world,” said Bartman.

The drug epidemic has been in the news quite frequently in the United States and is drawing more attention in other parts of the world as well.

“It was actually really scary seeing all that goes on around the world. You don’t expect to be impacted, and you don’t think that its ever going to affect you, but this epidemic is all over the world,” said Bartman.

Another point of emphasis for Bartman’s presentation was comparing healthcare in the United States versus healthcare in Ireland.

“Healthcare is very accessible over there but from what I learned, if they don’t have room at the ER then you are refused,” said Bartman.

Bartman plans to continue working with the research in the future and wants to help play a part in ending the opioid epidemic.

“I want to continue working with this research in hopes that if I do go to medical school and become a doctor, to maybe help with this issue and to find answers as to why people are turning to opioid use so much,” said Bartman.