IA Reflection #6

AIDS Memorial Quilt Conference

            For my second service event of the semester, I attended the AIDS Memorial Quilt Conference, and served as one of the quilt monitors. The event was on April 12th and went from 12-8pm. This event relates to international affairs because the whole point of the event was to highlight how large of a problem HIV/AIDS is internationally, even today.

The Students for Diversity in Education hosted the event, with a multitude of speakers who came in to talk about how HIV/AIDS is affecting our communities. To those who hosted the event, a huge part of the importance came from a whole generation of those who lost their lives to HIV/AIDS during the 1980s epidemic. Although we lost them, their dreams and voices continue to inspire those today. To promote a safer environment, SDES also provided both free STI testing, as well as free condoms.

This event helped me gain personal insight to the HIV/AIDS situation. For my actual volunteering, I was monitoring one of the AIDS memorial quilts. These quilts were built to commemorate those who have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS. The quilts were huge, full of color, and emotional. Many of those who lost their lives were fairly young, and one of the saddest parts was seeing that many of them died so close to when treatment started to become available. Certain quilts represented different regions, and the one I was monitoring featured those who were from Columbus. One thing that SDES is trying to accomplish is making everyone aware of the specifics of HIV/AIDS. Many people are unaware or are still misinformed of how HIV is transmitted, or still carry many misconceptions surrounding the stigmas of HIV/AIDS. Something else that I was unaware of is the day of silence. The day of silence, which is a national event, is a student led event where middle and high school students take a vow of silence in the name of those who are bullied and discriminated against in the LGBTQ+ community. SDES has a break the silence event where those who attended could talk about why they “break the silence” in their own lives. This was the first time in over 20 years that OSU was able to host the event, making it an important event for many on campus.

Over the course of my educational career, I have encountered the topic of HIV/AIDS multiple other times. It tended to pop up in history classes, as there was a large HIV outbreak in the 1980s. I have also taken a couple classes here at OSU that have covered HIV and how it can develop in late adolescents. One question I have for those who spoke out at the event is, how can we keep others informed on HIV/AIDS and make an impact in our own lives? In summation, the AIDS Memorial Quilt Conference was a very difference experience I had not previously had. I was able to learn something about HIV/AIDS and also had an enjoyable time while doing so.

IA Reflection #5

Volunteering at The Franklin Park Conservatory

            For one of my service events this semester, I volunteered at the Franklin Park Conservatory. This service happened over the course of the semester, weekly. This service event relates to international affairs because there are many different plants from many different countries that are housed here. The conservatory will also seasonally bring in different exhibits such as bonsai trees or exotic butterflies.

Originally purchased in 1952, the plot of land that the Franklin Park Conservatory sits on was originally used to host the Franklin County Fair until 1884. The lot them became abandoned until 1895, when the conservatory was officially opened. Sadly, many of the records from the early days of the conservatory were lost in a Columbus City Hall fire, so much of the history has been taken from newspapers or personal accounts. In 1974, the conservatory was placed onto the National Register of Historic Places, and then blossomed from there.

Personally, I gained a lot from this experience. For the duration of my time at OSU, I had always been interested in volunteering in some way. However, I felt like my schedule would not allow for it.  Once I found out that I would get a chance to volunteer at the conservatory, I was thrilled, as I had never been there previously. While spending time there, I worked next to the horticulture staff as we watered and maintained the biomes that the conservatory offers. There were four biomes total; the desert, rain forest, Himalayan mountains, and pacific water island. Each biome required a different water level and temperature. All the horticulture staff was extremely knowledgeable and welcoming, making the experience just overall more enjoyable. Something personal that I gained during this time was a better knowledge and understanding of plants. Learning about plants and what they need to flourish inspired me to start buying and taking care of different plant species, and thankfully the Franklin Park Conservatory has different plant sales. Recently, I have acquired both a small carnivorous plant as well as two baby African violets. Both these plants I have gained personal knowledge from that I would not have otherwise obtained.

On a more professional level, I feel that I have gained a larger volunteer opportunity. At the conservatory, I will continue to be on the volunteer list, and therefore can continue to volunteer even after this semester. As well as this, now that I have volunteered with one non-profit around Columbus, I have my foot in the door to potentially volunteer with a different one. The Franklin Park Conservatory is a place that highly values their volunteers, with the coordinator continuously thanking us for the effort that we put in. Hopefully, wherever I decide to volunteer next will have that same mentality and appreciate volunteers to the magnitude that the conservatory does. Overall, I enjoyed my volunteer opportunity with the conservatory and hope to continue in the fall as well as pursue other volunteer opportunities elsewhere.

IA Reflection #4

ICS Graduate Forum

            One event that I attended this semester was the ICS Graduate Forum, which was on March 7th from 5:30-8:30 in Page Hall. Here, graduate students did a “dry run” of a presentation they had been working on and eventually intended to present at a national or international conference.

This event relates to International Affairs because of the content presented. All the presenters I saw presented on China and difference aspects of the culture. In both scenarios, I found myself learning material I did not know about, let alone thought had about before.

From this event, I feel that I gained knowledge personally and academically. The first student that presented gave her presentation on “Writing Authority and Writing Justification: Prefaces of Genealogies in Wentang Village, Huizhou Culture, China”. Wei, the graduate student, started off her presentation talking about how geo-politics have links in genealogy, and she found that there were six major genealogies. To be clear, genealogy is the studies of families and the tracing of their lineage/history. Wei then proceeded to discuss the mythification and demystification of the narrative of origin of these genealogies. Mythification started with the Sage-King Shun and the Yellow Emperor, who are said to be the founding fathers of the Chinese people. There were detailed descriptions of the achievements and exploits of prominent and virtuous ancestors up until a certain point in Chinese history. In the late Ming dynasty, there was a move to demystification, which signified the importance of clarification. In this way, there was reconcile between tradition and modernity in the discourse of social progress and national strength. Confucian “residue” was incorporated into the dominant culture in the discourse of patriotism and nationalism. This brought about the consolidation of a national foundation against foreign powers. Ultimately, relationship to one another (the genealogy) became more important than myths. As Wei put it, China had a revival of lineage traditions.

The next graduate student gave her presentation on, “Ways of Understanding The Chronicle of Southwest Yi and Its Context (1368-1729)”. In other words, Wenyuan, the grad student, presented on old Chinese texts and how we can interpret them. Starting off, there are many different vernaculars to Chinese, which many scholars had problems interpreting. When working with these manuscripts or prints, as Wenyuan was, one must look at other e-manuscripts. The reason for this is because throughout the different vernaculars and manuscripts, scholars can see the same symbol used to represent multiple meanings and can therefore use these to understand the work better. Another aspect of understanding these manuscripts is using vernacular theorizing, which involves cyber-ethnography. Ethnography is the systematic study of people and cultures, so when “cyber-ethnography” is used, it simply means to use online databases and resources to aid vernacular theorizing. Another aspect of the vernacular that Wenyuan discussed is the preservation of sounds. This preservation derivates back to songs, as people would use one or two characters to preserve, and then change others. This way, people would know how to sing multiple songs even though they had only learned one. Overall, the forum was very informative, and I am glad I had the opportunity to attend!

IA Reflection #3

Once Upon A Time in Anatolia

            The Non-IA event that I attended this month was a movie screening at Thompson Library. I was on February 26th at 6:30pm and was hosted by the MESC.

This event related to International Affairs in that it was an international movie. With the dialogue in Turkish, it was a really cool opportunity to see a movie I would not have seen otherwise. Personally, I gained the insight of a foreign film and how it can differ from those here in the US in terms of story line, production, and cast.

The movie starts out as the caravan of three cars across the Anatolian steppes. As the dialogue kicks in, we realize that the small group of men are police officers, a doctor, a prosecutor, grave diggers, army forces, and two suspects. The last two mentioned are suspects of an ongoing murder case. Kenan is one of the suspects and has plead guilty to the murder. Most of the movie is him leading the caravan around, trying to remember where him and his brother buried the body. Many places the men stop look similar to the others, resulting in an unsure Kenan. As the men progress from town to town, they talk about a lot of different things, including family, ethics, death, but most importantly, philosophy. As well as this, the very common theme of children paying for the mistakes of adults is brought up. Many other events happen while on the road. The prosecutor tells the doctor a story about a woman who predicted her own death shortly after having her child. They are interrupted when they again need to try a different location. Since the men have been traveling all night, they decide to stop in a small village to eat. Here, the mayor begs the prosecutor to help the village receive funding for a proper morgue since there are bodies that need to be disposed of. Suddenly, the power goes out, and the mayor’s strikingly beautiful daughter hands tea out.

Now, back to the mysterious story of how the woman predicted her death. The doctor asks if an autopsy was performed, to which the prosecutor says no, she died of natural causes. The doctor is skeptical. Moving on, Kenan reveals a secret. The son of the man he murdered is actually his son, and he becomes very emotional. As daylight breaks, Kenan brings the caravan to the correct location, and the body is discovered. They bring it back to the city, where the man’s wife and son are waiting. They confirm the identity of the deceased, and head out, while the doctor performs the autopsy. The movie ends as the woman and her son walk off into the distance.

While this movie seems basic, the director of the movie had some underlying themes present. Throughout the movie, darkness, power, and nature all play a large roll. In the beginning, the men are traveling through darkness, then the power goes out. Throughout the whole movie, the men are essentially moving through nature, looking for landmarks that may have resonated with Kenan. Overall, I found this event to be really interesting. Everyone should take some time to watch foreign movies, as you may learn about something new!

IA Reflection #2

Dinner and All Things Deutschland

            The second event that I attended this semester was called Dinner and All Things Deutschland. It was at the German house and started at 7pm on January 31.

This event relates to international affairs because it involved a presentation about the brief history of Germany. We learned about the interaction between Germany and other European countries as well as the interaction between Germany and the U.S.

Through this event, I gained a lot of personal knowledge regarding the history of Germany. Kate, the presenter, started at the “beginning” of what was know as the German kingdom, where there were essentially 300 small kingdoms with their own king and peoples. Eventually, the Roman empire tried and failed at conquering this area, leaving the German people as simply, German. Moving forward in its history, Germany continued to be racked by ceaseless wars between these small kingdoms. Religious divide became a big conflict between kingdoms, fueling the Thirty Years War. Germany would not see a war so destructive again until World War II.

Fast forward to around 1848, when pressures for the unification of Germany heightened. Many wanted this unification because it would bring one currency, one set of laws, and get rid of petty German states. During the revolutions of 1848, this unification seemed feasible, but when the German crown was offered to King Wilhelm IV of Prussia, he rejected it. He saw a unified Germany as a threat to his power. Unification did not come until almost two decades later in 1871. Otto von Bismarck, a Prussian aristocrat, used diplomatic maneuvers as well as military campaigns to unite Germany without the help of Austria (a rival with Prussia of preeminence in Germany). Bismarck brought together Prussia and the remaining German states, calling it “small Germany”. As World War I started up, Germany wanted to enlarge by turning Belgium and Poland into vassal states with colonies in Africa. To accomplish this, Germany used a two-front war strategy in France and Belgium (west) and Russia (east), but this ultimately failed. The defeat of Germany in 1918 meant the end of the German Empire along with a sloo of reparations against them. These included a restricted military, financial debts, and loss of territory. This set the stage for WWII. The Weimar Republic was then formed, which was a parliamentary democracy where the government was responsible to the people. Many people held the Weimar Republic responsible for the WWI defeat, creating disdain from the German people. Enter Adolf Hitler. Taking advantage of the worries and resentments that many Germans felt, on top of the fact that the German government declared a national emergency with the Great Depression looming, gave Hitler the opportunity to become Chancellor. Of course, we all know what happens next, and Germany is working even today to accept what has happened so that it will never happen again.

Germany today is a beautiful country know for architecture, academia, and culture. I enjoyed learning about Germany a lot and enjoyed the pretzels and hot chocolate that we received. Previously, I have not had any classes where German history (exclusively) has been discussed, and Kate was so passionate on the topic that it made listening to her presentation fun.

IA Reflection #1

IA Current Events Conversation

            For this semester, one of the events I attended was the Current Events Conversation with Sam Stelnicki. It was on January 17th at Smith-Steeb Hall.

This event relates to international affairs because the topics we were discussing were important events from other countries. These events had happened very recently, making them important for us to talk about. Some of the events also may affect us, The United States, and therefore we the people should stay informed.

Academically, I gained a lot of knowledge I previously did not have. I use Twitter as a main source for the news, but even still found myself unknowledgeable about many of the topics discussed. First, we discussed the Yellow Jacket protests happening in France. These protests are happening because of the president, Macron’s, pro-business attitude. This has led to a proposed tax increases on gas, making most of the working-class in France angry. The protests are mostly organized through social media, happen about every weekend, and have resulted in property damage. On March 15th, Macron will make a decision based on opinion, but there is still some debate about this. Second, we discussed the climate change agreement happening in Poland. This agreement is about how the government will measure, report on, and verify CO2 emissions. This in turn will hopefully aid efforts to cut down on these emissions and make it harder for businesses to find wiggle room. The COP24 has put together a framework for setting the 2015 Paris Agreement into motion.

Next, we discussed the Brexit issue that is currently happening. On January 15th, the agreement that was proposed for Brexit was overwhelmingly shot down by Parliament, leaving everyone wondering what will happen next. These agreements affect the trade routes from the EU to the United Kingdom, making the real question, how should customs be set up at the borders? The world will be watching in the months to come. The next topic we discussed is especially prevalent to the US, as it was about the US troops in Syria. On December 24th, the White House gave orders for the Pentagon to pull troops out of Syria immediately. It seems that only Trump wanted this, as he was confident that there is no longer a threat from ISIS there. However, on January 16th, there was a bombing in Syria by ISIS that killed US troops. Although this happened, the plan to stay withdrew from Syria remains active. Following this, we also talked about the Indonesian Tsunami (no system warned them, and the country is preparing for a disease outbreak), Human Trafficking (there were 25,000 cases reported in 2016), Gay Rights in Chechnya (mass detainment since being gay is “denied” here), and Macedonia’s new name.

After attending the event, I had some questions regarding the material. One question I had that I did ask, was, what was the proposed Brexit agreement that was shot down? Another question I had was, what will happen if the ISIS situation in Syria continues to be violent? Will Trump re-order troops to go there?

Overall I like the current event conversations because I am able to get an overview of what is happening in the world.

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.]

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.]