Damon Flores
IA Scholars
15 April 2019

Service Reflection

On April 15th, I volunteered as a campus tour guide, through the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, for 5th graders from Columbus city schools. This event was special for me because I have volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club of Columbus throughout the school year which has better prepared me to interact with children. More specifically, I have learned to better understand children from different and less privledged backgrounds than my own. Thus I believe this helped me better connect with the students from my tour group. Furthermore, I can assume that I impacted these kids aswell by providing an example of a college student and discussing the campus life. I did this in order to make college seem more feasible to them and to urge them to pursue higher education through good grades and hard work. I definitely think this was important because not all of these students have family with college experience so this information was extremely valuable. This relates to me in that, although my parents went to college, they didn’t live in college dorms and thus couldn’t relay the full college experience. This related to international affairs in that I better learned background experience from residents of the Columbus area. I learned how to better interact with people and being mindefulf of those from different backgrounds. I will definitely participate in this experience next year and continue my volunteering mentor role in the Boys and Girls Club of Columbus.

Damon Flores
IA Scholars
Academic Reflection
On February 24, I attended a documentary showing of “I Am Not Your Negro” presented by Sam Harris in the Smith-Steeb lounge. She decided to air the film in acknowledgement of black history month and in connection with the Oscars which occurred the same day. Although, I don’t remember how the documentary relates to the Oscars, I do remember Sam had a good reason at the time. Furthermore, the documentary itself was somewhat complex and difficult to understand. I was able to understand most of the film through in depth explanation by Sam throughout the film which helped. Keeping this in mind, I am unable to give in depth analysis of the documentary but rather note aspects I was made aware of watching the past historical footage. The documentary was an excellent way to recognize and celebrate past civil rights leaders for Black History Month including Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. Both these influential historical figures were featured in the film through actual archival footage and pictures which included audio. Also interesting was the narration by Samuel L Jackson which really managed to incorporate a tone of appreciation and pride of what was accomplished by the civil right leaders until their assassinations/deaths. I was definitely grateful to experience this ode to civil right leaders in America in honor of Black History Month and feel that the film revealed a deeper meaning and perspective to the dedication of the month itself. I feel that this was a good educational way to send off the month of February. Unfortunately we were not able to finish the whole documentary due to a issue in the hall which Sam had to attend, which further limits my ability to describe my experience. I do plan on finishing the film at a later date. I benefitted from discussing the film with Sam and Nico over donuts by gaining a better prospective of the film.

Damon Flores
IA Scholars
7 February 2019

Non-IA Reflection

On January 11th , I attended a viewing of the film Liyana at the Gateway Film Center along with Daniel, Zaria, and Mary Ellen. This movie accurately described the cultural complexities of Swaziland and provided a first person perspective of the daily lives of Swaziland orphans. This could apply to my non-IA experience due to the film’s in depth reveal of certain perspectives of the cultural melting pot that is Swaziland. Furthermore, I believe this film really opened my eyes to the lasting detrimental effects that colonialism had on both the struggling economy and society’s culture. The film repeated revealed the third-world living conditions of the orphanage caused by widespread poverty and economy. The living conditions weren’t emphasized, but I repeatedly drew connections to Swaziland’s struggling economy. Although these details weren’t emphasized, I believed they helped illustrate the people’s choice to live this way in order to retain their culture. This way of life would otherwise fade away with the amenities of better accessibility to the outside global community. The orphans also imagined and told a African tale of a girl Liyana who faced obstacles but continued through perseverance which was an illustration of the orphans’ own situation.

This event impacted me by opening my eyes to a new culture and their own ways of life. I was also revealed the diverse melting pot that is Swaziland which was better illustrated by the director who was present for the screening. The director was from Swaziland and further added to the first-person description of Swaziland’s culturally diverse society. This event related to the topic of international affairs by revealing the cultural aspects of a African community in Swaziland and developing my perspective and acceptance of other cultures. Furthermore, I feel I personally gained a better more in depth understanding of a foreign culture and its customs. I actually feel like I gained a better perspective from the director, than the film in that he actually grew up in Swaziland and had experienced this culture first hand. He was able to recount his experiences and better explain the complexities of this specific culture. He explained his relationship with the orphans of the film and his real life filming of their storytelling and connections to their real life situations. I believe the main point of the film, to me, was to draw cultural connections between the audience and a that of a foreign cultural in order to reveal that although from different parts of the world, have similar beliefs and aspirations.

Damon Flores
IA Scholars
3 December 2018

Academic Reflection

On November 5th, I attended a showing of the film The White Helmets presented by Sam Stelnicki at Smith-Steeb. This event definitely impacted my view of the atrocities and human rights violations occurring in the ongoing Syrian Civil War, and the resiliency of this volunteer group to prevent the further loss of life in Syria. The film illustrated direct actuality film of the current situation on the ground in which Syria’s citizens constantly fear the sound of jet engines or helicopters overhead. The film compelled the audience a sense of empathy for those innocent civilians who live in fear of the autocratic ruthless dictator backed by Russia. The use of first-person accounts of the violence and giving background descriptions of the protagonist really emotionally connected the whole group. By illustrating life from the point of view of everyday Syrians, the film did present a different perspective to the controversial migration of Syrians to Europe. Although I don’t agree with the entirety of this view, I believe it was beneficial to hear from another more direct perspective. I now better understand that these Syrians are forced to migrate due to the relentless offensive by Russia. The current humanitarian crisis of the Syrians Civil war and the response by The White Helmets has a variety of global implications regarding the topic of international affairs. The most significant being Russia’s own presence in the volatile Middle Eastern and its reckless military support of a weak totalitarian ally of Bashar Assad. The mere presence of Russia has been the cause countless military atrocities against the Syrian people which required the creation of the White Helmets. Not only does this effect Syria, but Russia’s involvement has had many global implications causing the US to step up its own support of Iraq. This relates to International Affairs because this crisis has created a US-Russian proxy war fighting for influence between the two main powerhouses. Diplomatic tension between the US and Russia reached a high level heightened by the US support of Syrian Democratic forces rebels. In terms of peace relations, the tension in support of democracy had been brewing underneath the surface in Syria for decades, and as stated was brought to light during Arab Spring. However the Obama chose not to help support the pro-democratic rebels while Russia militarily supported dictator Bashar-Assad stay in power and simultaneously gained a foothold in the region. Rather than face the guerrilla warfare as seen in Ireland or against the US in Iraq, Russia basically drove out the rebellious Syrian population. This outcome, not mentioned my Mrs.Murphy has unfortunately proven very successful to the elimination of “tension” since their isn’t anyone left. I feel that I gained a better understanding of Middle Eastern diplomatic International Affairs and the unfortunate lack there of. I also better related the topic of Peace Studies to a current real life example in the chaos of the Syrian Civil War. After watching this film, I gained a better understanding of the implications of the current situation in Syria and the reasonable responses from the Syrian people which vary from humanitarian aid of White Helmets to the migration to Europe.

Damon Flores
IA Scholars
1 November 2018

Non-IA Reflection

Earlier this week on October 30th , I attended a presentation by the CARE program, who work to ease the transition of the cultural shock sometimes experienced by international students. This presentation hosted at Smith-Steeb hall was definitely an eye-opening experience on how I interpreted and reacted to experiencing new culture. After a quick anthropology cultural video, I was shocked to realize how quick I was to assume and generalize new cultural customs, largely based on my own experiences. I reacted solely on my past knowledge of common cultures without realizing the deeper meaning behind certain actions. In this case I assumed the video represented the customs of the Middle East largely based on their clothing without noticing the more complex cultural significance of certain actions. The presenter, who had a very interesting global background, revealed how international students sometimes experience this cultural generalization when transitioning to campus. One significant example is how male students of the Sikh religion are usually generalized with the large Muslim community who practice Islam. Having realized my own bias, I learned throughout the presentation to be more conscious of the wide variety of cultural practices, and not be so quick to label until I have all the facts. I personally can understand this phenomenon coming from a hispanic background in which people generalize the Latino culture without realizing that there are a variety of difference throughout the Latin America customs. For example, I have family from Mexico and Colombia which have completely opposite cultural customs including differences in regional jargon language, food, and slight variety of the Catholic religion. In fact, I have family members who find offense when people mistaken our country of origin due to pride in our specific prior homeland of Colombia.

The presentation then transitioned to how cross-cultural interaction could influence our professional careers in international affairs. The presenter, Sean McClare, described his own personal experience as the manager of the international German-owned Kempinski Hotel in Beijing, China. Being fluent in Chinese, he emphasized the need for bilingualism, which was crucial in both getting his job and easing the communication barriers with his coworkers. His background related to international affairs in that as manager of a luxury five-star hotel, he was in charge of coordinating the conferences between the main global heads of states and the Chinese administration. I was shocked by the extremely sexist cultural norms that he experienced from the princes of Saudi Arabia and their treatment of women based on Shari Law. However, he emphasized the need to respect all cultural norms especially in the professional world where business is at risk. Offense to cultural norms in his line of work would cost large sums of money to his hotel and risk political fallout from the Chinese administration. The presenter, Sean, was also responsible for easing the tension caused by difference in cultural norms between the Chinese, Muslim and African heads of state who apparently like to test each other often. This relates to the respect and awareness we have discussed throughout the semester, and really puts it into perspective through real world relation.

Damon Flores
IA Scholars
30 September 2018
Service Reflection 1
My first experience as a Buckeye and member of the International Affairs community occurred August 25 with my participation in The Ohio State Community Commitment. This experience served as a welcoming transition to the level of community involvement that I was going to accept as a new member of the city of Columbus community. As a group of International Affairs Scholars led by Natalie, a second year, we met at the Ohio Union and were assigned to provide our services to Columbus’ Cat Welfare Association. After getting to know each other during the bus ride, everyone was ready to work together as a group in any way the Cat Center needed. At the Cat Welfare Association, we were split up and some members folded clean cat towels while I was assigned to a group to help with the location’s landscaping. The main benefit of this experience was, although not being a cat person, being able to hangout and entertain stray and neglected cats all day. This event really opened my eyes to the mainly ignored problem of the large population of the stray cats in the Columbus city and the lack of allotted funds to support their maintenance and specific treatments. I mention treatments because some of those past abused cats were in poor physical condition either due to cancer, missing body parts, or disease which required expensive and sometimes unavailable surgery or treatment. I believe that my participation in this event also allowed me a greater concern for Columbus’ stray and neglected pets. Also the Cat Welfare Association is a nonprofit 501c3, which relies on donations and event proceeds as a main revenue to support the operations and wages of the workers, and I’m assuming is the main reason for understaff issues. This issue influenced my greater level of commitment to non-profit Columbus organizations whose lack of funds and staff shortages prevent their fullest capabilities to fulfill their specific community goals. I believe this event related to the Scholars program and more specifically the International Affairs community through the same pledged service commitment to social work that overall benefits the Columbus community which can apply to similar cities around the world. I believe I’ve personally benefited from my participation in The Ohio State Community Commitment through the emphasized focus to become a active member of our Columbus community and to every now and then give back to the less fortunate through service. This event actually directly relates to my current service learning course which urges us to become the positive influence that we want to see in the Columbus community. Through this influence and my positive experience during the Community Commitment, I have begun volunteering as a mentor in the Boys and Girls Club of Columbus. I am personally rewarded through the major impact that I have had on these school kids by helping them with their homework, both reading and teaching them to read, and teaching them the actually complicated sport of football. I have and will continue to enjoy the positive influence that I’ve had on the Columbus community through service.

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