Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a CIA talk. The CIA emphasized the importance of languages and how the CIA wanted to recruit language major and minors who have specializations beyond International Affairs, International Studies, Security and Intelligence, or Public Policy. The CIA wants people from all fields: social and behavioral sciences majors, STEM majors, arts and humanities majors. This made me realize that the CIA wants to avoid falling into the all to common trap of creating an echo chamber of workers. The CIA wants people from all backgrounds and all walks of life. They want people with all kinds of perspectives because the CIA does not just defend and represent people in the international studies or security and intelligence fields. The CIA represents all people from the United States and the members of the CIA should be reflective of such a principle. I think it is important that government organizations take steps to improving the diversity in their committees. The reason change is stilled is because of too many like personalities that are content with their surroundings. We see this in all branches of government but right now, specifically in the White House. The president’s cabinet is not a representative sample of the people of the United States, instead made of up of primarily rich, older, white land owning males when so many other people make up the United States. The politicians only do what they do to serve themselves not the greater population which is ultimately detrimental  to the country as a whole. Change starts one and we see this in the house of representatives or senate with young people willing to change like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Ilhan Omar. This also includes older people who are passionate about changing the status quo-like Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, or Elizabeth Warren.

At the end of the day, people must work to inspire change and every person must fight to break the confines of an echo chamber. Major government organizations like the CIA and the FBI are attempting to do this, the responsibility is with the American citizens now. Hopefully this will lead to meaningful, long lasting change.

Recently I had the opportunity to be a part of a Francophone lunch. A professor from Kenyon college contacted my mother. He was a professor of French and Moroccan studies. My mother met with him several times and the two of them arranged a lunch banquet at my house. The professor brought over a group of his students to meet with me, a few other IA students, and several other members of the Moroccan community. We discussed the impact of colonization and imperialism.

France took over Morocco and forced Moroccans to assimilate to French culture. The Berber tribes were specifically impressed upon as they were more removed from the city Moroccans. My grandmother, a Muslim Berber, was raised under the French rule. She went to French Catholic schools, was raised Catholic and to this day is only able to read and write in French. She is not able to read or write in Arabic, which is her native language.

This was interesting as my grandfather had a completely different experience growing up. He was from Casablanca, one of the largest cities in Morocco. Despite Morocco being under French influence, my grandfather did not learn French until he went to high school and elected to take his courses in French.

My grandparents grew up only a few hours away but managed to live totally different lives because of French influence.

Even now, France and Morocco have strong relations. French president Emmanuel Macron meets annually with the Moroccan king, King Mohammed VI. France is the primary trade partner of Morocco and also the primary creditor and foreign investor in Morocco. The Royal Moroccan Airforce has a trust in the French aeronautical technologies.

There is also a Franco-Moroccan high speed train line (similar to the French TGV bullet train) to connect the two countries. Much of the economic relations between France and Morocco is based in tourism as most French vacation on the many resorts on the Mediterranean sea. The Moroccan national football team has ten French born soccer players as of the 2013 African Soccer Cup.

Now, Morocco has seen an increased influence from French Catholicism again. Morocco was almost 100% Muslim a few years ago, but now has 50,000 Catholics due to French and Italian influence. The Pope even made an appearance in Morocco in 2019 for the first time since 1985-34 years.

This is important because we have seen the impact of imperialism and colonization time and time again, from countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and even the United States.

This is an incredibly important part of International Affairs scholars as almost ever single one of the international issues we face can be a result of colonization and imperialism. The current political, social, and economic state of Morocco is a result of colonization and imperialism and the is something that I experienced first hand being half Moroccan. This lunch was not only eye-opening to the American students from Kenyon, but I learned quite a bit of information about my own culture.

Last month, I had the opportunity to help make Valentine’s Day cards for the Columbus Global Academy. The Columbus Global Academy is an incredible and unique school in Columbus that is exclusively for English language learners. The Columbus Global Academy is the largest school of its kind in the nation. The Columbus Global Academy is a middle and high school that has grades 6-12, students can receive English language support in a variety of subjects and high school students can also enroll in advanced placement (AP) courses or post secondary enrollment options (PSEO) for college credits. There are over 91 dialects and languages spoken at Columbus Global Academy and more than 55 countries represented including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Burma, Burundi, China, Colombia, Congo, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Laos, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Palestine, Puerto Rice, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Yemen. The amount of diversity at the Columbus Global Academy is unparalleled and there is probably a large sense of multiculturalism and globalism. Every single continent except for Australia and Antarctica is represented in the Columbus Global Academy student body.

I think schools like Columbus Global Academy allow for increased communication, increased multiculturalism, and more cohesiveness between students of different cultures. Students that attend Columbus Global Academy are exposed to a wide variety of cultures allowing students from a very young age to grow up open-minded of other cultures, religions, and customs.

I think it is important for big universities like Ohio State to do events like card-making for the students of Columbus Global Academy as it represents the strong bond the two schools have. Students at Columbus Global Academy may be the first students in their family to go to college in the United States as many students are immigrants and some are refugees. Showing that an internationally known, highly ranked university like Ohio State wants to foster a relationship with the students of Columbus Global Academy can be very impactful for immigrant students.

The current administration has not been the most welcoming to immigrants or refugees of any age or national origin. It can be discouraging to have fought so hard to come to a country that does not seem to want you. It is important for children to know that despite the sentiments of our government, the American people appreciate and welcome immigrants.

I think these cards and increased communication between Ohio State’s International Affairs Scholars and the students of Columbus Global Academy is incredibly important to both the students of Columbus Global Academy and International Affairs Scholars at Ohio State, International Affairs Scholars have quite a bit to learn from the students of Columbus Global Academy and together we can bolster and increase multiculturalism, diversity, cross-culturalism, and multiracialism in order to improve our ethnic mosaic.

Recently, I got the opportunity to talk with my RA, Sam Harris, about the criteria and preparations I would need to take to go to law school. I was not sure if I wanted to go law school at the beginning of first semester. I was in between med-school and law-school. I thought about becoming a prison psychiatrist, but I decided I did not want to help people get better after going to prison, I wanted to make sure people did not go to prison in the first place .

I explored a number of different fields during my first semester and I decided that my true passion was law. I learned about wrongful conviction rates, the amount of innocent people on death row, and the racial disparity in prisons. I learned about the helplessness many individuals feel before committing a crime, including that of Jeffery Dahmer.

I knew that I wanted to help people. I wanted to provide defense services for those who may not be able to afford it. I wanted to help those who were subject to a broken education system, those who grew up with an intense distrust of the police. I wanted to help those who did not have any one else helping them.

I want to stop the racism that lies under our justice system. I want Black Americans and White Americans to receive the same fair trial for similar crimes. I was naive enough to believe that our law enforcement and judicial system had begun to move away from racism. Then, I watched a documentary in my sociology class that completely changed my world-view.

The documentary was called “The Central Park 5”. Five boys in the 1990s in New York City were accused of the heinous attack, rape, and attempted murder of a woman in Central Park early in the morning. The police divided these boys, some as young as 14 and as old as 17, and pressured them for 48 hours until they coerced confessions. Despite there being a lack of physical evidence, the confessions carried the boys all the way to Riker’s Island, one of the worst prisons in the United States. The entire time, my class was rooting for the boys, knowing that they would eventually be exonerated as the five boys were the people telling the story.

But our class discovered that even after being exonerated, the damage could not be undone. There were still those, including our president Donald Trump, who claimed that the boys were guilty. The boys missed crucial parts of their youth. They were robbed of years of their life. The worst part of this story is that it is not unique.

This made me realize that I wanted to help people. I never wanted to hear a story like this again. This story is not unique to America. All around the world, racism, sexism, and socioeconomic status plague the legal system. This is not just an issue in the US, it is an International crisis.

Sam described that the road to law school was not an easy one. The LSAT alone was physically, emotionally, and mentally taxing. The application process was difficult and the top schools were obviously selective. But I realized that I would be prepared to do all of this because law school was my dream. Being a lawyer is my dream.

This week, I had the opportunity to attend the Red-Light Ted Talk on Human trafficking. While all the talks were interesting, two talks in particular resonated with me: the talk from Judge Paul M. Herbert and the talk from Vanessa Perkins.

Judge Paul M. Herbert was the first to speak. He discussed that during his tenor as a judge, he saw countless cases of trafficked women facing solicitation charges. Judge Herbert decided that this was wrong. Victims of human trafficking should not have to face jail time for solicitation that they were coerced to do. Judge Herbert passed legislation and raised awareness about this issue all around Ohio.

The second talk was from Vanessa Perkins. Perkins told the audience about facing sexual abuse and molestation from a very young age. She was exposed to alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs during her early adolescence. However, she thought she was going to turn her life around. She started college and taking classes and was proud to be the first person in her family to go to college. However, she was unprepared for the stress and faced paced environment of her university and dropped out, feeling as if she had no other place to go. Perkins was coerced by an attractive, charismatic man to begin prostituting herself in exchange for money and drugs. Perkins was caught in a vicious cycle of prostitution, drugs, and money. This is how Perkins entered the human trafficking ring. It took a considerable amount of time and effort for Perkins to escape human trafficking and, with the help of local organizations, was able to get a second chance at her life. She was able to take more college classes and now has a job as a secretary at a high-powered law office in downtown Columbus.

Perkins’ story was unbelievably inspiring. It was frightening for me, to think about how easy it is to fall into the human trafficking ring. When I thought about human trafficking, I rarely thought of prostitutes and pimps. I pictured dark basements and abductions. Judge Paul M. Herbert and Vanessa Perkins’ talks were inspiring and eye-opening. Human trafficking is not a widely discussed topic, unfortunately. Individuals need to understand that anyone can fall into the human trafficking ring, and it is so important for people to provide resources for the victims of human trafficking. A positive cycle of rehabilitation and reformation needs to be put in place to stop the cycle of human trafficking.

Through my own research, I discovered that Ohio was the number one state for human trafficking due to its small size and the ability to drive in any direction for two hours and get out of Ohio. I learned that most abductions related to human trafficking occur at rest-stops with large trucks as rest stops are generally not well monitored. Every individual in Ohio should know this information.

This issue related to international affairs as human trafficking occurs all over the world. While we would like to believe it only happens in third world countries, that is not the case. Human trafficking happens all over the West, and we should be raising more awareness about this.

Recently, I had the opportunity to volunteer and attend the Law School Fair on October 25^th. I was a greeter at the beginning of the fair and guided incoming representatives from various law schools into the ballroom of the Union. After my shift was over, I was allowed to go inside and peruse the fair, being able to talk to several law school representatives. I even found out that a representative from the University of Pennsylvania was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Yuma, Arizona, similar to myself as I was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Yuma.

The fair caused me to reflect on why I wanted to study law in the first place. I remembered how when I was younger, I used to watch ‘Forensic Files’ and ‘Dateline’ with my mother, and I was horrified at the idea that some lawyers could defend people who committed heinous crimes. I later found out that not all defense lawyers are slimy money-suckers, and not all prosecutors are saints. I discovered the lack of resources some individuals have, and the amount of wrongfully accused people that face jail time because they are unable to afford highly acclaimed defense lawyers.

I learned about the bail bonds system in my sociology class. I was surprised to learn that the United States is the only country in the world other than the Philippines that has the concept of bail. I learned how bailbondsmen can be corrupt and even throw people in jail for not paying their bail back. Washington D.C. recently got rid of the concept of bail and the number of individuals who show up for their hearings increased. As a lawyer, I would like to combat the bail bonds system and hopefully get rid of it all together.

My dream post-graduation job would be working with individuals who are wrongfully accused or convicted. Often times those who are wrongfully accused do not have the resources to obtain defense lawyers that will be passionate and work hard for their cases. Ideally, I would like to work with the organization ‘Doctors Without Borders’ and work with the legal team to defend the medical professionals who go out into war zones and developing countries to treat the sick and wounded. Many issues surround ‘Doctors Without Borders’ as they advocate for helping any individual who is sick and wounded, even potentially malicious individuals, unlike the International Red Cross who only help who they deem ‘worthy’.

In the realm of International Affairs, law can be incredibly useful. Immigrants are often wrongfully accused of crimes and the court presents the dilemma of deportation or imprisonment in the United States. Taking international affairs courses and becoming familiar with issues and problems in the world that may push individuals to immigrate to the United States can be helpful when it comes to court cases surrounding such individuals. For example, it would helpful for someone working with a refugee family from Syria to know the issues in Syria such as the Civil War, the presence of ISIS, and the drought in the North.