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Adopt-A-School Service Spotlight

I watched the recording of the Service Spotlight on the campus club Adopt-A-School. The original zoom was on March 30, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. This club works with a local elementary and middle school to provide students with tutors. This event relates to international affairs and the ideology of connecting with those who are different than you. Helping cultivate and celebrate diversity, forming relationships with people who are different than us or at different stages in their lives. This scholars group has also taught me to do what I can to help those around me or those in need, giving these kids someone to look up to in a tutor would be beneficial for both volunteers and students. I did wonder when the presidents think they will have more details about how the club will run in the fall and how getting involved works. The event just motivated me to reach out to my surrounding community and see how I can help in my free time, and gave me a new potential club to join once we’re back on campus next fall. Watching the recording of this service spotlight and all it entailed was very connected to some personal goals of mine, specifically how it relates to my Second Year project on being a college mentor for kids. I think working with kids is so important, and they need consistent and dependable people to be around.

IA LinkedIn Workshop ft. Jillian Kemper

When: March 23, 2021 at 6 p.m.

Where: Zoom

Since I was unable to attend the event live, I watched the recording of the event presented on using LinkedIn to help start and cultivate your professional network. The event was very informative and motivated me to start a LinkedIn profile right after watching the presentation. This event related to the broad area of my studies, and was focused on taking the experience we have now to connect with others in our desired career paths and building our network. I have been wanting to look into internships for the upcoming school year and this would be a perfect way to find opportunities that interest me while also getting a feel for my future career. I was a little overwhelmed watching the presentation because of all the effort that needed to go into the account but Jillian reassured us that it would take time and to just stay active. The event made me really think about what I am doing to give my future self the most amount of opportunities possible. It made me want to be proactive in building my resume and critically think about my future concerning academics and jobs. This event 100% intersected with my academic and professional goals, since LinkedIn is a great source of finding opportunities for jobs, internships, learning more about your fields of interest, and ways to get involved.

IA Service Spotlight

IA Service Spotlight: College Mentors for Kids (CMFK)

Where: Zoom

When: February 10, 2020 at 6:00 p.m

I went to the service spotlight about the CMFK organization. This organization pairs college students with kids from the surrounding elementary schools to participate in activities together and be there with one another. The categories that the organization focuses on are diversity, higher education, and community service. I really enjoyed learning about the event and am excited to get involved!

Exploring Regional African Cultures

I attended the zoom seminar on exploring regional African cultures today at 4:00 p.m. I was joined by five other participants, including the second-year speaker and Steven! This event was listed in the academic category, which I thought was very appropriate considering all that I learned. The event is related to International Affairs because I got to learn about a different part of the world that combines so many different kinds of people, cultures, and languages. I didn’t have any specific questions during the event, but I was very intrigued to see how the continent is split up into regions and how each region functions. The event definitely opened my eyes to the complexity of the continent. It definitely changed my preconceptions on the continent, I think a lot of people have one image of Africa in their head and although I have traveled to Egypt a few times I still didn’t have the best image of it. Going through the presentation really helped meĀ  gain a clearer image of the continent. The event intersected with my personal beliefs greatly, since I love learning about new places and cultures, this was a very interesting event for me. I believe the only way to become a more well-rounded person is to try to experience as many things as we can, and have an open mind to all different types of people and ideas.

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program – Information Session

Zoom Link

Monday October 5, 2020 – 6:00 pm

I attended the information session on the Critical Language Scholarship Program on zoom. I got to see my RA from last year as well as a fellow IA scholar, Abbie Levine. This event relates to IA because this scholarship allows students to participate in a two month, intensive language course, usually in a native speaking country. There is a main focus on Arabic, but they usually offer up to 15 languages. Participants live in a country where their language is natively spoken, sometimes with a host family, and take on their culture for two months. I was curious as to what the requirements were to qualify for applying for the scholarship and advice on what to include in my application. The event outlined anything I would need to know. I got to hear first-hand accounts of the program, what to include on my application, what they were looking for in terms of recipients, and just hope the whole process functions. It definitely changed my attitude on the program and peaked my interest a bit more. This event mainly intersects with my personal goals, being Lebanese I love connecting with that culture and I would love to become more proficient in my father’s native language. That was I could speak to my grandmother without using a lot of hand signals!