I attended the “Syrian Trajectories from Damascus to Euroland: Trans Mediterranean Assemblages” event for my third IA reflection. The event took place on Friday, April 12 at 4:00 pm in Pomerene Hall 260. It fulfilled the Non-IA requirement.

The speaker was Dr. Leila Hudson, an anthropologist and historian from the University of Arizona. Dr. Hudson spoke to us about her research with a Syrian family had to flee the country. There were five sisters aged 40 t0 60 and their families. They were Pious Sunni muslims and lived in the Damascus suburbs. The first sister rushed her unmarried son to Egypt. The second moved in with her daughter in Jordan. The remaining three went to Tripoli, Lebanon and then to Turkey.

For my February activity and second reflection, I attended the STAR House volunteering trip. This event took place on Saturday, February 16 from ten thirty to one and fulfilled my service requirement.

STAR House is a drop-in center for homeless youth aged fourteen to twenty four. STAR House provides basic items such as food and clothing as well as services such as therapy and employment services. While we were there, one group organized bins of clothing while another group picked up trash outside.

For my first International Affairs Scholars event of this semester, I attended the “So You Think You Can Research” board. This took place on Monday, January 28th from 7:30 to 8:30 in Smith-Steeb room 101. This event fulfilled the academic event requirement.

The meeting began by introducing all of the International Affairs scholars who were participating in research. Their focuses varied from German, to economics, to security. All of the researchers seemed very passionate about their projects and encouraged us to get involved in research. They gave good advice, including that if we get involved in a project we end up not liking to not feel bad for quitting. There are too many research opportunities on campus for us to settle for one we do not like. To get started on research, they recommended that we simply just start emailing professors.

This event was very interesting to me primarily because I would like to become a veterinarian specialized in zoological medicine. In order to qualify for this specialization,  I will have to get published in scientific journals. Because of this, I would like to get involved in undergraduate research in order to begin getting expereince.

On Sunday, November 18th, I volunteered with the Ohio State Zoology club at Butternut Farm. This fulfilled my service requirement. Butternut Farm is a wildcat sanctuary located in Licking County, Ohio. Butternut started when the property owner’s wife rescued a bobcat. She then decided to start a sanctuary and rescued several more animals. The wife eventually ended up leaving, leaving the property owner to care for the sanctuary, which is why Butternut needs volunteers to help run the sanctuary. Butternut is currently home to a timber wolf, two cougars, bobcats, and several others.

There were four total volunteers that participated. We began by sweeping and mopping the floor of the main building that housed the indoor cages. I then washed bowls while the other volunteers scrubbed the benches inside the cat’s cages. Once finished with these tasks, we moved outside. We first changed the straw in one of the cougar’s enclosures. We then cleaned out an old, unused cage for the bobcats. Their current cage is prone to flooding, so Rick, the owner, wanted to get the old cage back to usable condition. We cleared out old wood on the ground, pulled weeds, and made a new bench for the bobcats.

This service event was important to me because big cats and conservation have always been fascinating to me. I currently plan on going to vet school, and my goal is to work with exotic animals and conservation in some form.

On Friday, October 26, 2018, I attended IA’s “Current Event Conversation Part 3: African Stereotypes from the U.S. Perspective” event. This took place in Smith-Steeb 101 and fulfilled the academic event requirement.

Sam began the discussion by going over facts that contradicted opinions that many hold about Africa. These included that more movies are made in Nollywood, Nigeria than are made in Hollywood, 50% of Kenya’s energy is hydroelectric while the U.S. and U.K. only use 11% renewable energy, and Kenyans are four times more likely to have a phone than access to a toilet. Sam also presented us with African news: peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea has caused borders to open for the first time in twenty years, Nigeria is having an election in February with candidates that are similar to those the U.S. had in 2016, and South Africa has removed taxes on feminine products.

The information presented in this discussion was very eye opening to me. I had never thought about how the United States’ government could be similar to those of African countries or that African countries would be more energy efficient than we are. As IA Scholars, moments like these are important. We should always seek to have an open mind, educate ourselves, and look beyond stereotypes.

On Wednesday, September 26, 2018, I attended the Center for Slavic and Eastern European Studies’ “Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe” seminar. This event took place in Enarson Classroom Building room 160 and was classified as a Non-International Affairs event. The speaker was Dr. Olena Nikolayenko, and her lecture was based on her recently published book. The book was also titled Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe.

I found the subject matter of Dr. Nikolayenko’s research, youth movements, very interesting. Her lecture focused on the following youth groups: the 1988 Otpor movement in Serbia, the 2001 Zubr movement in Belarus, the 2003 Kmara movement in Georgia, the 2004 Pora movement in Ukraine, and the 2005 Maqam movement in Azerbaijan. These groups were similar in that they look place during political elections and focused on academic and press freedom. The thesis of Dr. Olena’s book focused on why some of the youth movements were more successful than others. She concluded that the size of the group, youth voter turnout, youth vote for the political opposition, and the size of the post election protests were factors of success.

This lecture was very eye-opening to me because it highlighted the political restrictions other countries face. While those of us in America are free to peacefully protest as we wish, these youth groups had to worry about the repercussions of angering the current office holder, having their group infiltrated, and other such dangers Americans would never encounter. I really enjoyed learning more about global issues, particularly Eastern Europe since we have also been discussing this area in our scholars class.

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