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Slavic Department Film Series: Children of the State (Campus)

The Slavic Department displays various Slavic films throughout the semester. The Russian documentary Children of the State was about a topic I was completely unfamiliar with, Russian orphans and how they were impacted by the Dima Yakovlev Law passed by the Russian Duma. The Dima Yakovlev Law was passed in December 2012, named after Dima Yakovlev, a Russian child adopted by an American family who was killed while left in a car. His death was used as the primary motivation to ban foreigners from adopting Russia children because Russian lawmakers believed Russian children should stay in Russia, where they were safe and tied to their culture.

However, this documentary revealed that Russian orphans who were adopted by foreigners were typically physically or mentally disabled and adoption gave these children a much better opportunity to develop socially and mentally. Various Russian orphanages were shown, were large groups of children were handled by relatively few adults, with little opportunity of a personal upbringing, where they could express their own thoughts and feelings. The documentary centered around an American family who were eager to adopt a Russian girl with Down Syndrome but were unable to do so even after they visited her because of the passing of the Dima Yakovlev Law. The family was incredibly excited to adopt this girl and give her a better life, feeling that even after one visit that they were bettering her life as she was talking to them, even though her caretakers at the orphanage said she couldn’t talk.

I was very fascinated by this documentary as I’ve always known that adopting kids from abroad was a difficult process for Americans, but I never exactly knew how difficult this process actually was. I think this documentary was very important in showing how the Dima Yakovlev law has impacted lives around the world and in showing the perspective of both those who were for the law and those who were against. I am in Russian Literature this semester and this opportunity was presented to me as I was in that course and could gain extra credit for my class. As I’ve learned more about Russian culture this semester through my Russian Literature class and through the documentary I watched, I’ve become very fascinated by Russian culture. In fact, I am actually now beginning to learn the Russian language next semester, along with taking a Russian course on Anna Karenina, which counts towards my General Education requirements. Since I am taking so many Russian courses, I may pursue a minor in Russian, which will certainly be an interesting combination with my existing majors, Economics and Mathematics.

 

Graduate and Professional School Fair (Professional Development)

I attended the Graduate and Professional School Fair at the Ohio Union which had representatives from all of OSU’s various graduate school programs, what these programs provided and how the graduate school admissions process worked. As an Economics and Mathematics major, I am very interested in attending graduate school for Economics, particularly getting a Ph.D. in Economics. My career goal is do research in Economics, particularly Economic Policy so that I can somehow help governments and international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund or the United Nations, make proper decisions on how to determine the best global economic policy to reduce global poverty and provide employment for people who are adversely affected by globalization.

However, since I’ve only really taken introductory level economics courses so far, I feel as if I need to learn a lot more about the various branches of economics so I can decide which aspect of economics I want to focus on, although I am currently remain very interested in international economics and global trade.

At the Graduate School Fair, I learned more about OSU’s Ph.D. program in Economics, particularly the admissions program and the type of students who are typically accepted into the program. To gain acceptance into a Ph.D. program, I learned that you need to have a strong GPA (I was very surprised to hear that!), you need a good score on the GRE Exam (yay, more standardized tests!) and you need to have some degree of research experience, along with a very exact idea on what you want to research in your field during you time as a Ph.D. student. I also learned that most Economics Ph.D. candidates are commonly Economics majors, Math majors or sometimes majors from other sciences that typically require a strong mathematical background.

I actually knew about this before I started college and since I knew I wanted to attend Graduate School, I had already made the decision to add a second math major with Economics, not only because it would help for graduate school, but also because I’ve always enjoyed doing math. Additionally, I also have begun doing research since last summer when I worked with a professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland on China’s Role in the Arctic Region as they are trying to build influence in the Arctic through heavy economic investment. Recently, I’ve become involved in research at OSU through the John Glenn College. I’m currently helping Dr. Chris Rea with a project on why deindustrialization has become such a prevalent topic of discussion in politics and media today, despite the fact that it has been a problem for decades.

The Graduate School Fair gave me more knowledge of what skills graduate school requires and I am glad that I am on the right path to pursuing a Ph.D. in Economics, even though it is only my first semester here at OSU.

Global Water Institute: Sustainable Water Systems (Academic)

The Global Water Institute (GWI) at Ohio State gave a presentation to IA Scholars about lack of water access faced by people around the world. At Ohio State, GWI researches sustainable measures to provide people around the world with access to water with the guidance from researchers across all fields, whether they be engineers, economists or environmental scientists.

Water insecurity is multi-faceted issue which creates various consequences for communities around the world. Through this presentation, I learned that 2.1 billion people around the world lack access to safe drinking water and these people spend nearly 23,000 years trying to access water.  This excessive amount of time spent getting water, primarily by women, prevents them from doing other productive activities, such as getting an education or getting a job to get themselves out of poverty, which creates negative consequences of the overall economic well-being of the nations they reside in, as more people in countries with improper water infrastructure are likely to remain in poverty.

GWI spoke about their efforts to improve water infrastructure in Tanzania, where nearly 51% of the children under 5 are stunted due to chronic malnutrition. They understood that in order to create a sustainable water system in Tanzania, it was necessary to understand the communities they were working so that people residing in these communities could assimilate with those coming in with the technology and could actually use the technology after those who installed it had left.

I learned that GWI focuses on providing communities with 6 things to improve water infrastructure. First, they focused on improving the general water and power infrastructure of communities. Then, they provided education and training to communities. They also focused on improving sanitation and hygiene in the communities they worked in, promoting women-owned small businesses, supporting improved agricultural methods that would use more efficient irrigation methods and the placement of private operator models so that businesses could flourish in the places GWI worked in that also provided employment as well as welfare to the community as a whole.

Prior to this presentation, I knew that many people around the world lacked access to clean water, and that water crises had led to poor health issues and even wars around the world. However, before this presentation I didn’t fully realize how lack of access to clean water prevented countries from overall economic prosperity, as women and other people in many nations spend so much excessive time getting water that they don’t have the ability to go to school, become well-educated and obtain higher-skilled jobs that can lift their families out of poverty. As an Economics major, it was really interesting for me to see that the problems faced by developing nations such as improper infrastructure and water insecurity, were both a cause and a result of the higher levels of poverty and economic instability in these nations.