Posts

I attended a recorded event titled IA Interviewing Workshop with CCSS. This event took place on February 2^nd, 2021 via Zoom and centered on helping IA scholars find success in interviews.

The most beneficial thing that I learned from this presentation was that I should really be doing more intensive research about the organization with which I am interviewing before the interview. When I have done interviews in the past I think that I have tended to focus more on what I’m going to say about myself instead of what I’m going to say about myself and how that benefits the organization’s mission. Doing research beforehand on the specific missions and goals of the organization and integrating that knowledge into my interviews would help me present myself as a much more engaged candidate, and I will definitely do this before my next interview.

Additionally, I think that the idea of creating a “bank” of my skills, passions, and fit is an excellent tool for interviewing. I hate the feeling of being in an interview and not having an answer to a question I didn’t expect, and creating a well-rounded bank with stories to corroborate what I am saying will help me be prepared for anything I might be asked.

After attending this seminar, I feel much more prepared for future job interviews. I know that my international affairs career trajectory will require lots of interviews for scholarships, internships, and jobs, and I am looking forward to using what I learned in this event to help myself navigate those interviews.

This month, I viewed a recording of a Current Events Night hosted through Zoom by Samantha Zimmerman. The event was held on Gebruary 8^th, and the event served to recap current events that had been taking place across the world.

The event that was the most interesting to me was the Myanmar Coup. This event was interesting to me for several reasons: firstly, I am a Chinese major, and I find that there is huge value in staying on top of learning about movements in Asia, as these might help contextualize China’s actions moving forward. Additionally, I thought it was very interesting to see another example of the current move towards authoritarianism in many countries around the world. In my history course, we have been exploring this global trend, and I think that this event helps highlight the situation in Myanmar as one of the countries affected by authoritarianism.

I also found the Vale Dam Compensation story really interesting. In my English class, I wrote a research paper exploring the detrimental effects that large corporations have on the environment, and I did a lot of research on oil companies in South America as a part of this. While I was happy to learn that the oil company responsible for the crisis was making amends, I think that this is a great representation of the real, traumatic damage large-scale oil corporations are having on communities.

While the current events taking place right now in America like the beginning of the new presidency and the distribution of vaccines make up a lot of what I see on the news today, as an IA major and scholar, it is so important to me that I maintain a global perspective throughout this semester. These current event nights have helped me stay informed and aware about what’s going on around the world, making me an all-around better International Affairs Scholar.

I watched a recording of a Zoom meeting which took place on November 9, 2020. This meeting was a STEP event called Live, Laugh, Languages with IA 3rd and 4th Years. Panelists studying Arabic, Korean, Russian, Chinese, and Linguistics in general came together to provide information on language learning opportunities, and as I am a Chinese major, I found this session invaluable.

One of the panelists, Kaleb Baldwin, is a student studying Chinese through OSU. I was actually in one of his classes this semester! He talked about the fact that OSU’s Chinese program is largely conversation-based, noting that this teaching strategy is very effective for language learning. Next semester I am continuing my studies in an oral Chinese class, and I enjoyed hearing him testify to the effectiveness of the class. He noted that OSU’s Chinese class is continually reinforcing vocabulary to help students retain what they learn.

Panelists talked about opportunities like CLS, which I applied to this year, as well as Fulbright and other ways to seek language immersion. One resource that I am interested in persuing are books written in both English and Chinese, that way I can read in my target language while double-checking that my comprehension of the text is accurate. I also heard several times that seeking out one-on-one connections with professors in office hours in extremely helpful to students. One panelist also recommended ANKI, a spaced reptition learning system which I have heard of before and will definitely now download.

Overall, this talk was very helpful to both reinforce my ideas of how I should be studying Chinese but also to help provide me with new resources that I hadn’t previously considered. Additionally, hearing from panelists who spoke many different languages gave me hope for my own polylinguistic goals, and I am excited to start putting these resources to use in my studies.

I watched a recording of a Zoom meeting which took place on November 5, 2020. This meeting was titled Exploring Regional African Cultures, and it was an academic event hosted by 2^nd year student Fatoumata Bah. We learned about different cultures within West, North, East, and South Africa. In this blog post, I will be specifically talking about West and East Africa.

The speaker talked to us about some notable things happening in West Africa, specifically ECOWAS, a treaty which would create a common West African currency; the Mali coup, and the fact that Nigeria makes up 50% of the population of West Africa. Additionally, I learned about Sierra Leone, a country founded by freed slaves. 18 ethnic groups make up Sierra Leone, including the Temne, Mende, and Krio. Sierra Leone is predominantly Muslim. One thing I learned that was specifically interesting to me was the secret male and female societies within the Temne and Mende ethnic groups.

When we talked about East Africa, I learned that it is the world’s fastest growing region outside of Asia. I feel that African countries don’t get enough media coverage in the United States, and I would never have known this if not for this presentation. I learned about Ethiopia, the only African country which has never been colonized. Ethiopia is made up of more than 80 ethnic groups, the most prominent of which are the Oromo, Amharic, and Somali Tigrayan. I am very interested in the Amharic language, so I liked getting to learn more about the Amharic language and ethnic group.

I really appreciated the information I gathered during this presentation. Africa is a hugely diverse continent too often flatted by a Western lens, and I enjoyed learning a bit more about specific cultures within Africa. I am excited to continue learning about African cultures, as I think this increased global knowledge will help me become a better, more well-rounded IA scholar overall.

On October 26, 2020, I attended an IA event called Current Events Catch-Up. During this event, I learned about six recently-developing news stories: the beheading in France, the protests occurring in Bangkok, the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria, the debut of ‘socially-distanced Sesame Street,’ the reproduction of endangered Loa frogs, and recent developments in the housing market.

One trend that stood out to me was the rise of youth protest movements occurring across the world right now. Although we specifically focused on protests against the monarchy in Thailand and protests against police brutality in Nigeria, I think that these two stories are indicative of a broader social trend occurring across the world right now. For example, the ‘Milk Tea Alliance,’ which I learned about in a previous IA event, is a solidarity movement between protesters across Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand as groups of predominantly younger citizens move for progress in their countries and in the world as a whole. I think that this trend is relevant to my own social context right now, as being an American in 2020, I see and participate in protests occurring all across the country regularly. I am in IA because I care about change and progress, and I think that paying attention to the trends which go along with change and progress is crucial to understanding my role as a global citizen.

On October 22, 2020, I attended a webinar called Buckeye Bridge: Career Conversations about the Department of State. During this webinar, I got to hear from three current employees for the Department of State. I learned about different departments and career paths within the Department of State as well as what life is like abroad while working for the United States Government. I decided to attend this webinar because I have been interested in working for the government for a few years now, specifically in the foreign service, and I wanted some more information.

For me, the most important thing I learned from this webinar was the difference between the foreign service and the civil service. The foreign service requires a more general skill set, while workers in the civil service are much more specialized to specific interests, like narcotics or terrorism, for example. Additionally, while foreign service employees are based overseas and move around every few years, employees in the civil service are based in Washington D.C. and enjoy a more consistent lifestyle.

After attending this webinar, I am still considering working for The State Department as a potential career path in my future. However, I think that if I should go down that path, I would like to work for the civil service, instead. I am thankful for the resources and information I received during this program, and I am looking forward to using this experience to help aid the development of my career.

On September 23rd, I attended an academic event called Human Rights Pasts and Futures: Pandemics, Racism, and Colonialism. During this webinar, I listened to Dr. Iyko Day, Dr. Tiffany King, and Dr. Sharon Ya discuss abolitionist democracy, decolonialism, and human rights movements within the context of COVID-19. The panel was made up of three women, and that representation was extremely meaningful to me. This talk expanded my understanding of so many issues, and inspired me to continue learning about anti-Blackness, colonialism, and human rights.

Dr. Iyko Day’s main point was that civil rights laws can actually contribute to the growth of state circular and military capacity. She argued for abolitionist democracy, stating that abolitionism isn’t just destruction of the old system, but also a creation of a new, fairer system. Over the past few days, I have thought heavily about these points, and I find them inspiring. For me, the idea that civil rights laws might perpetrate the carceral state was groundbreaking, and will definitely change the way that I look at progress in society.

Dr. Tiffany King discussed the failings of ‘human rights’ organizations to protect Black and Indigenous lives, stating that the narrative of racism determines Black and Indigenous lives to be “un-registerable” and, therefore “un-grievable.” One point that she made which really stood out to me was the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created after the Holocaust, which was a grieveable mass white death. Before this webinar, I had never considered the creating of the human rights movement. Now that I have learned the historical background of the UDHR, I am left questioning the fact that it wasn’t created after the persecution of Native Americans or after the oppression of Black Americans.

Dr. Sharon Yam talked about transnational solidarity between grassroots movements, and I fond her points fascinating. I loved learning about the Milk Tea Alliance–the alliance between Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Belarus–and the alliance between Hong Kong and Black Lives Matter. I found the discussion of transnational solidarity to be inspiring, and Dr. Sharon Yam’s talk encouraged me to continue researching about and advocating for international movements. Additionally, she talked about the expansion of human rights violations during the pandemic, as with the anti-terrorism law in the Phillipines. While I was already semi-aware of the human rights abuses she mentioned, I was not aware of the way in which the pandemic perpetrated them.

Altogether, this webinar helped me reframe and expand upon some of my preexisting notions about the world. I learned about trends in the United States and abroad, and I hope to expand my knowledge of these trends as I study racism, colonialism, human rights, and history as an IA scholar.

Even before Louisville officials publicly announced that Breonna Taylor’s killers would not be indicted for her murder, they were preparing for protests to erupt around the city. And erupt, they did. This week, citizens all over the United States came together to mourn Breonna Taylor’s death and fight for change. I attended the protest at the Columbus, OH statehouse on September 23rd, 2020.

The slogans that we chanted in front of the statehouse were the same as the slogans we chanted back in March. This similarity was a harrowing reminder of how little has changed since the summer protests: despite the demands for change by Americans, our government and criminal justice system still have yet to commit to meaningful reform. As I marched, I grew progressively angrier with the system’s failure to give Breonna Taylor and so many other BIPOC Americans justice, and I felt the energy of the crowd around me progress in the same direction.

Twice, we departed the statehouse and marched through the streets. The crowd grew. The protest was peaceful, but it was deeply emotional.

For me, the emotional height of the night came when we stood before the steps of the statehouse and listened to one of the coordinators of the protest speak. On the steps, around 15 officers stood in a line, looking down on us. Some of them smirked as we cried for reform. I took a picture of the scene, and an officer approached me and snidely asked if I had taken any good photos. As I looked at the officers, I asked my friend if she thought they knew that they were going to be on the wrong side of history.

As an IA scholar, I have committed to become a global citizen. However, I believe that global citizenship starts within the community. I am racially privileged in America, and I want to make sure that I am not taking this privilege for granted. I hope to continue attending protests and learning how to best amplify Black voices and issues throughout my time in college, and I believe that IA’s resources, meetings, and webinars will help me achieve this goal.

Hello everyone! Because this is my first blog post, I figured I should start it off with some basic details about myself. My name is Addie Mykel, and I am a first-year student at Ohio State. I’m an International Affairs scholar, and my current plan is to major in Chinese and International Relations while minoring in Spanish.

On September 18th, I attended an online academic webinar by Boston College’s Dr. Gerald Easter on the current state of democracy in Russia. The Russian government has interested me for quite some time, as Russia is such a prominent and complex global power, and I was grateful for the opportunity to expand my knowledge on the topic. Going into this presentation, my knowledge on Russia was rather rudimentary: while I knew that democracy in Russia was practically non-existent, I lacked a nuanced understanding of the factors leading up to Russia’s current governmental state.

During this webinar, I learned a bit more about the historical context of Russian politics. I learned, for example, that the authoritarian regime found in Russia is a result of the chaotic collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 20^th century. Additionally, I learned that since the 90s, Russia has become progressively more totalitarian—while Putin’s rise was always marked by totalitarianism, his leadership style was originally more of a ‘hybrid’ between democracy and totalitarianism.

I still have a lot to learn about Russia, and I am excited to continue to grow my understanding of its government as I study international relations here at OSU. This webinar, however, has given me a great foundation off of which I can build my understanding of Russia in the future.