About Me

My name is Genna Brizendine, and I’m a freshman currently on track to graduate with a B.S. and a B.A. in International Development Studies. Since my earliest memories from childhood, when I preoccupied myself with ensuring everyone on the playground had a playmate, nothing has incensed me more than exclusion, either of individuals or of larger groups. I plan to dedicate my future to ensuring no person or people ever suffers exclusion from basic human rights and privileges. By majoring in International Development Studies, I plan to and have been learning the international, economic, and political forces that cultivate institutionalized inequality, and look forward to applying this knowledge to bridging both humanitarian and political interests in order to eradicate it. 

 

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.   For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artifacts

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The attached document is one of the first reading responses that I ever wrote for my Introduction to International Development Studies class. As this class functions as my first real academic introduction to what I plan to specialize in within my International Studies degree, this paper would be significant to me simply for that reason alone. However, it also covers material that brought me new understanding not only about the field in which I’m so interested, but the state of the world we live in. The reading to which this paper responds is about the deep, long-lasting impact that colonialism/imperialism, as well as the later attempts to address the issues caused by these things in the form of the Development Project, had on the developing world. In composing this piece, I had to understand the provided excerpt, and in so doing I had to shift the way in which I viewed the significance of legacy. The text explained so many things about which I’d wondered for so long, and granted me not only an explanation but also an altered perspective.

However, the significance of this reading response isn’t only in the material it covered. This was also one of the first assignments I’d received with little to no guidelines on how to approach it. As a class, we were told merely that our response had to analyze, rather than summarize, the piece about which we were to write. As someone who greatly appreciates detailed parameters for anything I have to undertake, I was incredibly stressed out by this for quite some time. Finally, however, I decided to trust my gut not only about what comprises an analysis, but also about what I supposed my professor intended that we analyze (the reading was quite dense, and covered a lot of material). To my great surprise, I received one of the highest scores in the class on this assignment; this, of course, has dramatically increased my confidence in both my intuition and my overall writing ability as it pertains to producing valid and relevant content, even without the detailed instructions I had always thought I so needed. From this assignment I learned not only about the unfortunate foundations of a topic about which I’ve been deeply interested for so long, but also that I can trust myself when it comes to ambiguity in instruction. For each of these reasons alone I would have thought this reading response worthy of being an artifact, but it’s because of the combination of the two that I’m confident I chose correctly.

 

About Me

[Your “About Me” is an introduction and should provide insight into who you are as a person and a learner.  This should include a picture of you that is appropriate in a professional/academic context. This information should be continually updated.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio.  Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

G.O.A.L.S.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.

Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc .
Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]