In this installment of monthly IA events on Monday, January 28th, I went to our very own Sam Harris’s event about law school for our academic requirement.  Sam Harris had a powwow on the Smeeb eighth floor with cookies and valuable advice.  She told us about some of the basic ideas around the process of applying to law school and about the infamous lsat test.  For example, I learned about how much time is required to study for the test, about five to six months.  This is new to me since I have never studied for anything for that amount of time; however, if you look at questions on the test it makes sense.  They are complicated and difficult to wrap your head around.  In order to prepare for the test, Sam recommended that we take a class focused on studying simply to make it a habit and after to put about twenty hours of week into preparation.  Law schools put a majority of their weight into acceptance based off lsat scores and grades, so having high scores and grades is uber important in order to get into law school.

Sam also told us about the application process, which involves the usual application hum drum.  She told us the advantage of getting into a top fourteen law school is important because a lot of top firms have their fingers in these schools, so for networking purposes these schools have a major advantage.  She also recommended applying on the day that the application becomes available since it gives you a slight advantage.

The reason why I’d like to go to law school is because I want to eat the rich.  I think that white collar crimes get don’t get punished enough and when they do it’s too lenient.  For example, if someone robs a convenience store for $100 they can go to prison they can go to prison for multiple years, but if a Wall Street banker causes the 2008 financial crisis, robbing the American people of billions of dollars and important things like pensions and retirement plans, then they get little punishment and even get the federal government to bail them out because they are too big to fail.  There is a discrepancy with how poor people and rich people are treated in the courts.  As Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer who defends those who are disadvantaged by society, asked a judge, “[to try a] 14-year-old poor black male client as a wealthy privileged 70-year-old white male.”  This quote summarizes a lot of problems in the American justice system.  I would like to help and try correct this problem.

For my October requirement, I went to the IA Academic Involvement Fair for academic credit.  This was set up by our very own Sam Harris and was very successful.  I met the CCWA (Collegiate Council of World Affairs) club in particular.  This is essentially Model United Nations, which I was the president for in high school.  Model UN is something that I was very excited to do at college, so it was great to see them.  Model UN essentially simulates that actual United Nations, while simplifying the rules in order to finish a conference in a weekend.  Model UN is set up into several committees that are either emulated after the actual UN committees or more unique “crisis” committees.  UN committees would be committees such as the Security Council or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  These committees simulate the actual powers that the committee has in the United Nations.  For example in the security council,  the P-5 have veto power.  Crisis committees are unique in that they can be just about anything such as Star Wars committees or historical committees.  In these committees, the delegates have the actual power that the figure would have in real life.  For example, if you are Fidel Castro in a Cuban committee in 1959, then you have all the powers that Fidel Castro would have had at the time.

I did not know that we had Model UN on campus and did not see it at the Involvement Fair at the beginning of the year.  This speaks of one of the flaws of the Involvement Fair: it’s size.  Because the Involvement Fair is so massive, it is easy to miss groups that you would otherwise be interested in.  While Ohio State uses its mass of clubs as one of its strengths, this sheer quantity can be a detriment.  The mass of clubs can easily drown out other clubs.  The Involvement Fair that sam set up was the opposite.  Because it was small, it was easy to talk to the higher ups for clubs in order to find out what the club is about.  This was a boon.  It was much easier to genuinely look at all the clubs present rather than gloss over them like I ended up doing at the Involvement Fair at the beginning of the year.  Additionally, the IA mini involvement fair was a better way to catch up and meet with new people.  This is because there was food present and because there weren’t massive crowds of people pushing their way through.  This created a much better environment.

For my service requirement for the International Affairs Scholars learning community, I went to the Community Commitment day on August 25.  For myself and several other IA members, we volunteered at a cat shelter.  While at this shelter, we cut branches, folded blankets and towels, helped shy cats socialize with humans by reading to them, and, most importantly, pet cats.  What was truly remarkable was the sheer quantity of cats that were kept at the shelter (about 1,200).  Additionally, the shelter was a “no-kill shelter” which means that the shelter refused to euthanize cats, even cats that would have to be kept at the shelter for life and could not be adopted.  This has the unfortunate drawback where if there is not enough room at the shelter then the shelter cannot accept any new residents.

The goal of the shelter was not only to take care of stray cats, but also to get cats adopted.  They encouraged adoption by having an entire room devoted to taking cats into for playtime.  This allows prospective adopters to start to learn the personality of cats and to see if the cat would be a good fit for the family.  While volunteering, we saw a family show up with the intent to adopt a cat.  They brought several cats and kittens to the play room to see how the cats interacted with the family.  The perpetual smiles on the two brothers faces were enough to show how worthwhile shelters are to society.

Two important things that I learned at the cat shelter where: one, what to do if I find an abandoned cat and two, the merits of adopting cats rather than buying cats.  If/when you come across a stray cat the first thing you should do is call the shelter to tell them about the cat and if possible bring the cat to the shelter.  Once at the shelter, the cat will be treated, fed, and spayed/neutered.  The only populations of animals in the world whose populations have increased alongside increasing human populations are domesticated animals.  This includes dogs, cats, and goldfish.  Unfortunately, the increase in total cat population has also increased the total stray cat population.  This is why it is incredibly important to spay/neuter cats because it will help reduce the amount of cats that will be born stray.  Every cat owner if they do not intend to breed their cats should spay/neuter their cats for this very reason.  Many cats can and will find mates even when the cat has a home, which will often produce more strays.  This idea of reducing strays is also why you should consider adopting a cat rather than purchasing one.  There is an over saturation of adoptable cats, but the supply of purchasable cats is based off the demand of cats.  This means that more people adopt then the population of stray cats will be reduced while the supply of purchasable cats will remain unchanged.  This is why cat lovers should consider adopting before they purchase a cat.

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