SYEP Walkthrough

Event: Second Year Presentation Walkthrough

This event was held on Zoom on March 11 at 6pm. The event was led by the Second Year Experience Chair, Megan Kenner. At this event, I learned how to create the Second Year Experience Project and what I should include in my presentation. Then, Megan showed us an example of her presentation and talked about the components that we should include. These components include a summation of the impact of IA on my college experience, how I chose my project (including any challenges I faced), a description of the project, and what I will learned/have learned from the project. The event concluded with a small Q&A session.

For my Second Year Experience Project I am participating in The Fund for American Studies DC Internship Program this summer. I will live in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of DC, while taking classes at GMU, interning and attending professional development events outside of class and work. For my internship, I will be an Intelligence Analyst Intern at a small software company called Praescient Analytics. This project relates to IA because I will be participating in the International Affairs program track, where I will be specifically engaging with professionals in the field of International Affairs and will also attend career exploration seminars. Further, in my internship I will be able to get hands-on experience in building intelligence products and giving briefings for members of the IC, like the DOJ and DIA.

Interview Workshop Reflection

Event: IA Interviewing Workshop with CCSS

Professional Development

This event was held on February 2, 2021 over zoom with Ryan Wilhelm, an advisor from Career Counseling and Support Services. The main purpose of the event was to serve as a general introductory session for CCSS’s interviewing workshops. The event was in a presentation session, which started by going through key tips on interviewing skills and then ended with Ryan giving examples/strategies for how to answer common interview questions.

This event was extremely helpful and I learned a lot of valuable tips for interviews. One of the tips in the presentation was that it is important to research the company or person who is interviewing you beforehand and talk about which aspects of the company make them stand out to you. I know that this is important for a cover letter, but it was really helpful to know that I should come prepared to an interview with things to say about the company. We also talked about the SAR technique for answering questions, which means problem/scenario, action, result. I personally struggle with wording my thoughts sometimes and oftentimes come out of interviews feeling like I could have provided a better answer or organized my thoughts better, so it was especially helpful to have advice on how I can improve my answers. Lastly, as I already mentioned before, we were given tips for how to answer common interview questions. This was obviously extremely beneficial and will help me a lot when I am preparing my “bank”/general answers to questions prior to the interview.

The timing of this event could not have been more perfect for me because I am actually in the process of interviewing with companies for internships as part of The Fund for American Studies program I will be in this summer. I don’t feel like I have great interviewing skills, so it was really nice to get some tips about interviews and learn more about the services CCSS offers to help me improve. I definitely think I’m going to try to schedule a mock interview before my interviews with the companies begin!

State Dept Chat

Event #1: Coffee Chat with the U.S. Department of State- Experiences of Working in Foreign Service

Professional Development

For this month’s event, I went to a zoom meeting with Lou Fintor, who is a Foreign Service Officer, on September 8th. This was during the time I was in isolation, so I was very excited to attend an event and have (virtual) human interaction. For this event, Mr. Fintor presented on the Department of State overall and internships/career opportunities offered through DOS and then answered questions and talked specifically about his career and experiences.

This event relates heavily to International Affairs, as the event was centered around foreign service and diplomacy. It overlapped a little with the current coursework I am taking, primarily Intelligence for Diplomacy and Intro to Intelligence. As a Security and Intel major and Russian minor, I have an interest in work as an FSO in the future. I”m still leaning more towards intelligence analysis work, whether that be through the CIA or a private company such as Deloitte, but I do hope to have the opportunity to intern for the state department. Particularly, I am interested in the Critical Language Scholarship Program, which I am currently working on the application and hoping to study abroad in Russia.

Before the event, I was more interested in working as an FSO than I am now after hearing about Mr. Fintor’s experiences. While I believe the opportunity to work for my country in helping to maintain national security and international relations/diplomacy, I am not sure I am up for the sacrifice. Mr. Fintor has completely mostly dangerous assignments, almost all in war zones, and described how the job can be a 24/7 commitment. However, he did mention that his assignments were atypical for most foreign service officers in the way that he had many more “dangerous assignments” than what one would typically see.

International COVID-19 Chat

Event #2: International Perspectives on the Coronavirus Pandemic

First off, I’m very glad that I decided to attend this event as one of the required events for the month. It was super neat to chat with and hear the perspectives of other young adults from all over the world.

I was most surprised by how different perspectives and responses to the crisis were among the speakers, yet how similar their views were on the issue (and how similar mine were to theirs). For example, I really resonated with Rainbow when she was talking about how much harder it was to stay focused on school from home. With all of the distractions going on, I have had an extremely hard time getting schoolwork done. Luckily I have been able to turn all of my assignments in on time, but not without a lot of reluctance and “pain” in the process. Further, I thought it was interesting to hear Aubin and Elsa talk about their displeasure with the government’s response at the beginning of the pandemic. I, and I think many Americans, are also displeased with the slow response and denial by our government in the beginning. While this situation isn’t optimal for anyone, I think all people and governments need to continue to rely on expert opinion and making decisions based off of the recommendations of those people who have spent their entire careers in the study of virology and medicine. Moreover, I was surprised that Germany has varying responses by states, just like we have here (to be honest, I didn’t know there were different states/territories). To me, it seemed like Germany’s responses is similar to what we have here, just a little more strict. I think the United States should adopt the same requirement for masks in public spaces, as things begin to open up. Lastly, I was so pleased to hear about the protests in France for essential workers (Although I hope this is being done from homes via social media, etc). I think it’s so important for Americans to use this moment to realize that essential workers, some of whom are being paid unlivable wages, are holding up our country. After this pandemic we need to find a way to make sure these people are paid fairly and seen in a higher light.

My personal response to COVID-19 is one of general fear and concern. Fear and concern over the lives of those who are most vulnerable, those who are on the front lines, and those who are scared about what the future holds. I know its a hard time where many people are struggling and it seems like opening everything up will be a quick fix to economic and societal issues that are the side effect of this pandemic, but I wish more people would pause and realize why we are doing this. In fact, I think it is pretty neat that we are able to stop our whole lives in order to properly handle a virus and drastically reduce death rates and the burden it could have on the health care system.

Law School Event with Layla Khalid

Event #1: Thinking About Law School? Get Your Questions Answered with IA 4th Year Layla Khalid

 

This event occurred on April 2nd, 2020 and I watched via zoom while sitting in my bed cuddling with my dog (almost as nice as still being on campus and going to events in person… almost). This event was probably the most impactful for me out of all of the events I have attended this semester and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought that Layla did a great job explaining the components of law school applications and how to best prepare yourself during your undergraduate experience.

Prior to this event, I was a Public Affairs major on a pre-law track. I had really only ever considered law school as my path following undergrad since I started college (never really thought of myself doing anything different). However, this event, as well as the event with Sam Harris, helped make me realize that law school is no longer my top option- at least for now. While law school admissions seems like a long and stressful process, that actually wasn’t the turn-off. The more I looked into a job as an attorney, the more I realized i.t wasn’t the carer for me. While Layla spoke about how she is going into immigration law and its an area that she cares. great deal about and wants to commit her professional career to, I never felt that way about any particular type of law. I feel like I was forcing the “prestige” of law school onto myself without ever really considering what I really wanted to do and if that career would be good for me. Thus, since the event I have actually changed my major to International Studies (concentration in security and intelligence) and French. While I’m not sure exactly what I would like to do yet, whether that be working for the CIA/FBI or being an FSO, I’m glad to have a wider range of career options that better fit my interests and my desires (I would rather work a more regular 9-5 job and have more leisure time outside of work than most law careers allow). However, this route still allows me to consider law school as an option later in my career.

Skype with Sam Harris

Event #1: A Day in the Life of a Harvard Law Student

Academic, Professional Development

For one of my events this rotation, I attended the video chat with Sam Harris along with another IA member, Olivia Dosker. The event was held in Hagerty on January 16th. This event was especially exciting for me because I am planning on going to law school and I have a lot of questions about the application process and the way that law school works in general. Going into the event, I specifically had questions about LSAT preparation, as I know virtually nothing about it and was unsure about when I need to begin the process of preparing for it. Additionally, I had questions about how Sam’s experience at Harvard differs from the experience of other law schools, as well as the steps that she took which she believes most helped her get into Harvard Law School.

While this event doesn’t directly relate to any coursework I am taking, as a student on a pre-law track I felt it was a very worthwhile event to attend. The event really helped clear up any anticipation or doubts I had about going to law school. While Sam did make law school sound incredibly exhausting (considering she has to attend receptions help by different firms almost nightly) and how the material in 1L can be very dense and monotonous, I feel like she gave great advice about how to prepare yourself for the application process and tips on how to get by with a busy and difficult schedule. Of all of the advice that Sam gave, the most helpful was that she talked about how important it is to get involved in a club or organization during your 1L year that you are passionate about since the material is so dense and it can be a hard adjustment otherwise.

13th Documentary Viewing

Event #2: Let’s Taco Bout Racial Inequality in the U.S.

Campus

For my second event this month, I attended a viewing of the documentary 13th on Thursday, November 21st in the Smith-Steeb Glass Classroom. At this event they served Qdoba and played the documentary and afterwards there was time to debrief the documentary with other people. Prior to this event, I was curious to know more about the perspective the documentary has in conveying the issue of mass incarceration in our country. As a criminal justice minor and someone who hopes to be an attorney for the Innocence Project (an organization that helps to achieve exoneration for people who have been wrongfully convicted) I am incredibly interested in the subject and I am always eager to learn more about the issue. I think by continuing to expand my knowledge about the reality of the criminal justice system, in that i.t is essentially an extension of slavery and built upon racism, I will be able to further develop ways in which I personally can help the crisis in the future. Furthermore, this event connects to International Affairs because corrupt criminal justice practices are not just an issue in the United States and countries in which these systems exist are in desperate need of help from nations who are leading the way in criminal justice systems (such as Sweden or the Netherlands, for example).

This film impacted me in a lot of ways- all related to my emotions. Having recently read one of the top novels about mass incarceration in our country, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”, I was interested to compare the perspectives of the documentary. While both talked about similar issues, 13th dove more deeply into the way in which Nixon launched the drug war and continued to get American support for the issue. Prior to the documentary and reading the book, I genuinely had little knowledge of the history of the criminal justice system and the way in which various presidential administrations perpetuated the issue. I, like most people, believed that the justice system was just that, just, and that people who deserved to be prosecuted were. However, I now know that couldn’t be further from the truth and I have vowed to continuing to educate others on this. In particular, I was appalled to hear about Bush’s “Willie Horton Ad”, where he created the image of black men as sinister, animalistic “super predators” that are a massive threat to the safety of our community. And people bought into i.t! And still do today!

CRIS Mural Project Volunteering

Event #1: CRIS Mural Project

Service Event

For my first event this month, I attended a service event on Sunday, October 27th at a local Columbus elementary school. At this event, I helped paint a mural outside of the school’s library with other IA members, students who volunteered with CRIS (Community Refugee and Immigration Services) and parents/teachers/students who attend the school. The mural extended on several different walls and included a variety of different things, but my favorite was one part that had a huge tree painted on the wall and then the students wrote positive messages on paper leaves and put them on the tree. Then, other students could come and take down a leaf whenever they needed extra encouragement. Truly so precious!

This event relates to International Affairs because the school in which the mural was painted in has a large population of immigrant and refugee children. These kids have gone through so many obstacles and heartbreak in their young lives to even be able to come to our country and start a new life here and i.t is so important to be able to support them in making their transition to Ohio and the United States easier and make them feel more welcomed/comfortable in any way possible. That is why I personally think that the paper leaves is such an important aspect of the mural because it’s a great way for kids, who may feel out of place/alone/scared, to receive positive and heartfelt messages from their classmates. On the same note, before coming to this event, I had no idea how the mural could really be that important of a CRIS service project. However, after seeing all of the kids’ faces and understanding the power of the messages that the various. artworks were conveying, I understood the depth of the service project in bettering the lives of these kids. It was really cool for me to see these kids so excited about having a new part of the school dedicated to them and for them to be able to have a part in making it, because I know a lot of these kids are used to having their voices quieted and are often pushed to the side (or outright hated on by xenophobic people).

Lastly,  this event helped to intersect with some of my personal and professional goals. Currently, I volunteer at the Legal Aid Society of Columbus on the Pro Bono Community Engagement Team. Through volunteering at the LASC, I have expanded my knowledge of the discrimination and marginalization that people of lower socioeconomic status face on a daily basis, often serving as a severe barrier to reaching their full potential. As such, I have become more interested in poverty studies and policy research surrounding class and SES-based policies and I hope to get involved with organizations that will allow me to conduct this type of policy research in the future. This all comes back to this event because a large portion of the students at this particular elementary school come from low SES families. To make matters worse, the district actually has a large disparity in wealth, so this particular school actually has students some of the wealthiest families in Columbus and some of the poorest families in Columbus. Thus, I felt very passionately about finding a way to serve the students of lower SES, who are objectively at a disadvantage as compared to their peers of high SES. While this service project was great, these students need continued support throughout their lives, and I’m excited to continue to work towards developing policies that help to do so.

On the Front Lines: Performing Afghanistan

Event– Sahar Speaks:  Voices of Women from Afghanistan

Campus Event

This event was a play at the Wexner Center for the Arts on October 7th. The entire event included the play I attended, a “Chai Khana Social Hour” and a screening of photos and videos on the topic of Afghan refugees across the globe. I was only able to attend the first portion of the event, the play entitled “Sahar Speaks: Voices of Women from Afghanistan”. The play was performed by one 2 actrices, one of which is one of my brother’s good friends so i.t was really exciting to be able to see her perform! Sahar Speaks: Voices of Women from Afghanistan depicts the lives of two young Afghan girls, whose father has died in the war, as they recount their daily experiences in a war-torn country. Living in extreme poverty, the girls have to go to the street to beg and sell anything they can, while having to face both the reality of war destroying their home and having to deal with sexual predators.

This event relates to International Affairs in that i.t depicts a serious and pressing issue in a foreign country and also opens the eyes of people living in more developed countries (like the United States) to the severity of poverty and human rights violations that people, specifically women, experience in war torn and underdeveloped nations. Furthermore, hearing about the impact of war on the innocent people who live in the countries that the war is being fought is important for Americans to understand before making any decisions about their own support of the war. Prior to this event, I had never really learned much about the impacts of the war in Afghanistan on the innocent civilians. Our society tends to describe the war in Afghanistan as being against terrorist groups and “the bad people” who “hate Americans and want to hurt them”, while creating an image that all people in countries like Afghanistan are the enemy. While I obviously knew this wasn’t true prior to watching this play, I definitely gained a huge insight into how these normal civilians have been negatively impacted by war and how many innocent people have to suffer on a daily basis.

Careers in Washington: Getting from OSU to DC

Event: Careers in Washington: Getting from OSU to DC

Professional Development Event

This event was held on September 16th at Page Hall and featured two OSU alums, Mikayla and Abby, who now have jobs in Washington DC. Mikayla and Abby both participated in the Washington Academic Internship Program (WAIP) when they were completing their undergraduate degrees and the program I attended focused a lot on the ways in which their involvement with the WAIP program allowed them to land jobs in DC. This event was in the style of a panel discussion, where two current undergraduate students in the Public Affairs and Political Science majors asked the women questions about their experiences with WAIP, advice about graduate/professional schools, and about their jobs and lives in DC.

This event was extremely relevant to my current coursework, considering I am a Public Affairs major. As a student in the Glenn College, I have heard a lot about WAIP and have a strong interest in applying for the program either my junior or senior year. With that in mind, I really enjoyed getting to hear a little more about the programs and getting to hear about the ways in which the program could help me with my future career goals. One of the panelist, Abby, is a political journalist in DC. I really enjoyed hearing her talk about her undergraduate experience (as a poli sci and journalism double major) and how her internship with NBC Washington during the WAIP program helped her to get an internship with TIME magazine and now a job. Prior to the event, I knew I was looking for an additional major to add, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do exactly. I think I want to go to law school, but I also want to have a back up for if I decide I don’t want to do that anymore and I’m not incredibly interested in any jobs I could get with just a Public Affairs degree. After hearing Abby talk about her experiences with the same dilemma, as well as her internship and now job as a political journalist, I was really interested in adding a journalism major. In the month since the event, I have looked over the curriculum and talked with my advisor and I decided that I am going to add the journalism major. Therefore, this event was incredibly beneficial for me and I felt like I had finally figured out my life and what I want to do.

Moreover, I throughly enjoyed that the event showcased two powerful women who are recent graduates of OSU and are having successful careers in Washington. I think politics is too often ruled by men and I think that a lot of events like this are usually featuring men who have had success in the professional world, so to hear from women who went through a similar career path that I’m currently on and had a lot of success, I felt really empowered to keep being involved with politics. Overall, the event had a huge impact on me and helped me figure out the basics of what I want to do degree wise and as a backup career option.