Service Event

For my final International Affairs event of this semester, I participated in a service event. For this event, I helped set up the Smith-Steeb Sibs and Kids Carnival. The Carnival was held outside of Smith-Steeb Hall on April 6th, 2019 and was hosted by BASS, the Board of Activities in Smith Steeb Hall. As a resident of Smith Steeb, I was really excited for this event and was so glad that I could help out for IA. I met several other IA members about an hour before the carnival started and we helped BASS set up food, tables, and decorations. The weather was beautiful- the sun was shining, and it was really warm. We had music playing and everyone was so excited for the carnival. Although the work we did was not particularly hard, I could tell that the members of BASS were really glad to have the help. It felt good to be able to make their afternoon a little easier and a little less hectic. I also really enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time with some first year IA scholars that I don’t know very well. I also got to spend time with fellow second years that I haven’t seen in a while.

I thought that the carnival itself was super fun! We had food, drinks, candy, snow cones, music, inflatables, and more! I really enjoyed having lunch outside with my friends during the carnival. It was such a great way to celebrate the good weather and the end of the semester. Had I not signed up to volunteer for this service event, I may not have been able to make time in my day to go to the carnival, so I am really glad that I did! I also felt that I was able to appreciate the event more knowing all of the hard work that had gone into it.

This event is important to the International Affairs Scholars Program because it aligns with both the G.O.A.L.S. of Honors & Scholars here at Ohio State and the IA mission. Both H&S and IA emphasize the importance of being active and engaged in community service projects, so I enjoyed being able to live up to those values by volunteering with the board of activities. Every time I participate in a service event, I am reminded of why I love scholars so much. I am so thankful to be part of a community that values service and community involvement so much. I know that I probably would not seek out these service opportunities if I weren’t in IA, but I am certainly glad that IA makes it so easy. It is definitely bittersweet that this is the last reflection that I will write for IA. Over the past 2 years, I have really enjoyed participating in various academic, social, and of course, service events. I am hopeful that I will continue to volunteer my time and energy to events like this throughout my junior year and beyond. All in all, this was a great event.

Climate Change and Environmental Issues (Academic Event)

On Wednesday, March 6th, I attended the Climate Change and Environmental Issues panel in Hagerty Hall. I care about the environment a lot and am very interested in sustainability, so I was really excited to attend this event and learn more about environmentalism on Ohio State’s campus. At this event, there were panelists from three different environmental organizations. They were the Ohio Sierra Club, the Sustainability Institute at Ohio State, and Ohio State Energy Partners, LLC. Each panel was very interesting and I learned a lot about sustainability efforts on campus and in the Columbus area.

Cathy Becker, who presented about the Ohio Sierra Club, talked about what the organization has been up to and what it’s plans for the future are. Cathy told us about some recent events within the club, such as their aerial art project and their state-wide clean energy training. To me, the most exciting thing about the presentation was listening to Cathy talk about “Ready for 100 Columbus,” a vision for the city of Columbus to make the citywide switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. This is a big goal, but I am excited about the opportunity to witness Columbus make the switch in the next 30 years. I really enjoyed learning about all that the Sierra Club is doing to help make this switch possible and I am very interested in becoming a part of this organization and volunteering my time for the cause.

I also really enjoyed learning about the Sustainability Institute at Ohio State, something that I wasn’t familiar with prior to attending this event. Their goal is to build a more sustainable and resilient future for all- including campus and beyond. I enjoyed hearing about Ohio State’s sustainability goals and how I can help. Something particularly interesting that I learned is that the James is the most energy efficient building on campus, which is impressive considering all of the people and all of the technology involved with the building. I also learned about lots of behind-the-scenes sustainability stuff that occurs here on campus that I, and probably most students, are unaware of. It was really nice to hear about all of the good the university is doing for the environment. One goal of the Sustainability Institute is to achieve carbon neutrality on campus, something that is going to be very difficult, but that I think is certainly achievable.

I was really glad that I was able to attend this event for IA. I think sustainability is definitely an international issue that should be discussed more. Ohio State’s campus is a great place to start when it comes to implementing sustainable practices, but I think that it is important to take these values and ideas to the national level, and share them internationally as well. No matter what country you live in, what type of government you have, or how you interact with the rest of the world, climate change and other environmental problems will affect you. Because of this, I believe that climate change is an international issue that will require an international solution. Needless to say, I loved the opportunity to glance at sustainability and climate change through an International Affairs lense and consider the ways that various organizations are making campus, and Columbus, greener and greater.

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Non-IA Event)

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the 2019 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah with a student organization that I am involved in, the OSU Film and Video Society. While I was there, I saw a lot of great movies and documentaries but the one that stood out the most was a documentary called Anthropocene: The Human Epoch. Anthropocene was the first film that I saw at Sundance and I was lucky enough to be present for a question and answer session with the directors. I learned so much from them and from their film.

 

Anthropocene is a documentary that was directed by Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky and was released in 2018. This documentary is the final part of a trilogy, including Manufactured Landscapes, and Watermark. This trilogy pf documentaries explores the impact that humans have had on the planet and Anthropocene, specifically, explores the idea that the Holocene Epoch has given way to the Anthropocene Epoch, an era of critical and long-lasting manmade changes in the Earth’s composition.

 

The filmmakers traveled all over the world to investigate and document the human impact on the Earth, visiting countries like Germany, Russia, China, Italy, and America. The documentary discusses deforestation, mining, polluting, terraforming, industrialization, and more human activities that have a negative impact on our planet. I felt a multitude of emotions while watching this film, specifically guilt and sadness. Our industrial and technological advancements are helping the human race, but they are destroying the Earth. One of the most eye-opening parts of this documentary was hearing people speak about their jobs (jobs that heavily involved causing harm to the planet) and seeing how much they believed in what they were doing and how proud they were to be destroying our planet. They’re not evil people. In fact, they’re perfectly ordinary people who are simply doing their jobs. However, their jobs are contributing to one of the greatest problems the world has ever seen.

 

One part of the film took place in Italy at a plant where heavy machinery was used to extract marble from the Earth. The scene of these giant metal machines tearing apart something so beautiful was particularly hard to watch. As an Italian minor, I feel a strong connection to Italy and have always put it on a pedestal, so this scene was very eye-opening and made me realize some things about Italy that I had never thought about before.

 

This film relates to International Affairs in a few ways, but notably it explores a global problem that we, as a planet, must work together to fix. Yes, there are countries that excel in sustainability and eco-friendliness, but every country needs to change their attitudes and actions if anything is going to get done. This issue is particularly challenging for that reason. Environmental actions on one side of the globe effect the other side of the globe. Our actions are not isolated and therefore we must work together to fix them in order to save the planet- and ourselves.

African Night – Academic Event

On Saturday, November 17th, I attended African Night at the Ohio Union for my academic event for the semester with some friends. African Night was a fun and unique event that was put on by the African Youth League at Ohio State. This event brought together student organizations and individual performers from all over campus to celebrate African cultures through art forms such as music, dance, fashion, spoken word, and more. My roommate, friend, and fellow IA Scholar, Ellena, performed at this event with her student organization ,the Ethiopian and Eritrean Student Organization, so the main reason that I went was to see her, but I am so glad that I attended! I was able to see so much more than just her performance and I feel that I learned a lot more about various cultures of different African countries. This event was definitely a valuable and unforgettable experience.

My favorite part of the International Affairs Scholars Program is getting to experience and learn about different cultures from all over the world. African Night was a perfect opportunity to learn about cultures that I am not familiar with. The event began with a flag ceremony, where student organizations representing different African countries presented their respective flags and mostly wore cultural attire. I loved this; it was so fun to see all of the different flags and all of the vibrant colors as well as the pride that these students had for their heritage. After the flag ceremony, there were many different performances by different groups representing different countries and cultures. Also, several individuals performed spoken word, which was one of my favorite parts. The last part before intermission was the fashion show. I absolutely love fashion, so this was the part that I was most excited about. I loved seeing all of the different African-inspired outfits, both traditional and contemporary.

This event related to the International Affairs Scholars Program in several ways. Primarily, I was exposed to various international cultures that I may not have had the opportunity to learn about otherwise. Furthermore, the event celebrated all of the different identities that African people have. In my International Affairs survey class last year, identity was a topic that came up repeatedly and tied the themes of the class and of the program together. Needless to say, it was really interesting to learn about how African and African American students identify and how they express their identities. Academically speaking, I gained a better sense of the presence and cultures of different countries on the African continent. I learned a lot about traditional music, dance, and attire. Personally, I had an amazing time at the event hanging out with my friends, supporting my roommate, and watching performances. I am so grateful that the International Affairs Scholars program promotes these types of campus events and that I get to experience new foreign cultures without even leaving campus. I am so glad that I went and I will definitely attend this event again next year!

In The Last Days Of The City – Community Event

On Monday, September 17th, I attended the Wexner’s screening of In The Last Days of the City, followed by a discussion with the filmmaker, Tamer El Said. As a lover of both film and international cultures, this event was something that I simply could not miss and I was so grateful for the opportunity to attend. In The Last Days of the City follows Khalid, the protagonist, and his relationship with his friends, his mother, his lover, and, perhaps most importantly, Cairo. In the movie, Khalid is filming a documentary, though the topic of this documentary is unclear both to the viewer and to Khalid himself. This movie was filmed mostly during 2010, before the Egyptian Revolution occurred. However, the film was edited and completed after the revolution and this major event certainly influenced the way in which the film was edited and presented. In my opinion, this is what is truly captivating about In The Last Days of the City; the signs of revolution are all there- on the radio, in the streets, in conversations with friends, but it had not happened yet. In other words, the hindsight is what really makes this film extraordinary.

I was quite young when the Egyptian Revolution occurred and I have only vague memories of hearing about it. To this day, I still know very little about this country. That being said, this event was really eye-opening for me in terms of learning more about the culture and political climate of Egypt, specifically Cairo, during this period of time. Furthermore, it reminded me of the true goal of International Affairs Scholars- to be globally aware and engaged. It is so important to be aware of different places all over the world- not just the places that we live or the places that we have personal connections to. I probably would not have chosen to watch this type of movie about Cairo if it weren’t for this event, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and feel that I learned a lot from it. The film itself was visually stunning. The director, Tamer, used several unique and beautiful editing techniques in order to convey a complex array of emotions during a crucial period in recent Egyptian history. An example of this lies in the sound design. In this film, there are frequent scenes where we hear passages of dialogue, but we see the characters having just spoken. This technique emphasizes the idea that emotions are better conveyed physically rather than verbally. Also, this event was a great opportunity for me to combine two of my campus organizations. I am a member of both the International Affairs scholars program as well as the OSU Film and Video Society, so I was able to attend this screening as part of IA and I was also able to discuss the film at my OSUFVS meeting. Overall, I feel that this event definitely helped me gain a greater understanding of international cultures and events and I would definitely recommend this movie to anybody interested in beautiful films or international affairs.

Community Commitment – Service Reflection

On Saturday, August 25th, I had the privilege to team up with over 1,000 fellow students to participate in an awesome day of service called Community Commitment. This is a campus event that is open to all students with a desire to serve Columbus and, according to the Office of Student Life, Community Commitment is “one of the largest single-day community service events held on a college campus.” At this event, students volunteered at various organizations around Columbus, such as the Columbus Zoo, food pantries, as well as numerous non-profits. I also participated in the Community Commitment event in January of 2018, so I was excited to participate again this semester. It just felt so amazing to be a part of something so big and something so good.

When I arrived at the event, I received a free t-shirt and donuts and stood in line to be given a service destination. After receiving a wristband to designate my location, I took a seat in the ballroom. A few minutes later, the event officially began and there was an opening presentation to get us excited and prepared for our day of service. The energy in the room was incredible; we were all so excited to be there. During Community Commitment, I had the opportunity to serve at a Goodwill in Hilliard along with a few fellow International Affairs Scholars. My group of volunteers aided in the organization and presentation of the store and I was personally tasked with relocating clothing items that were from previous seasons. The work that I was doing was simple and straightforward, but it was an immense help to the Goodwill employees. When we completed our work, one of the employees told us that it would have taken them days to complete the work that we had finished in just a few hours. I found myself thinking about this for days afterward; I had never realized just how much one afternoon of volunteering my time could mean to someone. It was truly eye-opening and inspiring.

Community Commitment was a great way to kick off the school year. Even though it was difficult to get out of bed early on a Saturday, the experience was well worth it. I was able to begin my second year with a sense of accomplishment and a drive to get more involved in my campus and my community. As a result of this experience, I have been inspired to try to serve others whenever and wherever I can. One of the goals of Scholars students at OSU is to commit to serving the community. Also, the mission of the International Affairs Scholars includes being active and engaged in serving our community. Community Commitment definitely helped me achieve both of these goals; not only did I enjoy the opportunity to serve the Columbus community for the day, but I realized the importance of taking the time to serve others. After attending this event, I am eager to participate in more service opportunities and give back to my amazing community.

Who is Jordan?

Jordan grew up in Plain City, Ohio, which is exactly what it sounds like. She is excited to be at The Ohio State University and eager to learn all that she can while she is here. She is a student at the Fisher College of Business and is also passionate about learning new languages. On weekends, you could find Jordan at a concert, a movie theater, or a park. She loves music, film, and going on adventures. Jordan lives by Rachel Wolchin’s words, “If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.”