Event 14: Current State of Immigration Policy (Jedi)

This event occurred on Friday, October 23rd and was hosted by OSU’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The event was moderated by Maria Ortero any featured several speakers who spoke about the state of immigration policy under the Trump Administration. For the sake of transparency, I also viewed this event after it occurred. The speakers spoke about topics such as the status of DACA, relief, Jewish refugees in WW2, and much much more. All the speakers did a great job presenting the state of American immigration policy and were clearly very passionate about the issue. After viewing the video, I did some texting rounds to some friends making sure they are registered to vote. The treatment of human being that are trying to immigrate the the US by the Trump administration is downright evil. Plain and simple. Political opinions aside, people just flat out should not treat other people like that no matter what. These days when I think of immigration, I think of sitting in on the immigration court hearing during the IA trip to D.C. my freshman year. Before that day I was still very open in terms of immigration, but to see the despair on those people’s faces haunts me. People who have anti-immigrant and xenophobic tendencies to watch those hearing because you have to be a monster to not feel something about it.

Event 13: Applying to PhD Program with IA+OSU (Professional Development)

This event occurred on October 12th and was hosted by Steven, Samantha Zimmerman, and Sam Stelnicki. I chose this event because with anthropology I will probably need a PhD if I want to make a larger amount of money and eventually teach anthropology at the college level. On of the best ways to get a good amount of money with Anthropology is to publish books and a big old “Dr.” in front of my rather unimposing name would add ethos and drive sales. This is a very money focused little side tangent I just went on but we all know no one goes into anthro for the money… Anyways, in all transparency I watched this as a recorded Zoom video after the fact because my workload has it out for me right now. Sam is currently pursuing a PhD in Econ and does clarify that depending on what you’re researching, the requirements vary greatly. That being said, she emphasized how important engaging in undergraduate research is. What surprised me was how much wiggle room she has about deciding what to do in her program. I thought it would be more “you should have it figured out by now”. That being said, my heart did sink when she spoke about her workload