- Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two
or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.
My STEP Signature Project was an education abroad program: Film and Art in Global Context. We traveled to Athens, Paris, Berlin, and Venice experiencing modern art through galleries, art shows, and independent studios. During and after the program we were creating art based on our knowledge of the global forces that shape art.
- What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.
My understanding of the world really changed as I went on the trip. As someone who rarely listens to the news and who’s news consumption is mostly based on American events, I had no real knowledge outside world events. When I went overseas, I paid more attention to the news and was faced with the realization . I became much more conscious of world events and my privilege to be relatively unaffected by them.
- What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.
The biggest events that lead to my change in worldview occurred in Athens, the first stop of our education abroad trip. As we traveled through the city we passed by rundown and abandoned buildings until we entered the “touristy” area of the city that was nicer. On the last night of our trip, I remember sitting on the top of the hotel eating with my friends when we saw flares going off across the city. Looking at the news, we saw that there were protests and riots going on in Athens as workers were striking against the austerity measures being placed on them by the government trying to dig its way out of a debt crisis. We were assured that the protests weren’t going to come anywhere near out part of Athens, but it seemed surreal that we having a good time while thousands of workers were fighting for to sustain their livelihood.
The next morning, we were set to leave Athens at about 10am to go to the airport. At breakfast, around 8:30ish we received an email from the teacher to pack up quickly we needed to leave the city. Apparently, there were going to be protests all along the streets, and the police wanted us to leave as quickly as possible because there wasn’t going to be a way for our bus to leave the city. Without the bus, we couldn’t arrive at the airport, the strikes had stopped all transportation on the metro to the airport. As we rushed to pack and drove out of the city I realized how lucky we were to be able to escape this. We were all lucky enough to be chosen for the education abroad trip and had enough money to travel across the world.
One of the last events that impacted my worldview happened on one of the last days of my trip. Our group was in Venice when I saw on the news that there was an attempted attack in France near Notre Dame. It was another surreal moment because only about a week before we were at Notre Dame. I still distinctly remember it, all the tourists, the beautiful architecture. The attacker was killed before anyone was injured but I had never really thought that on this trip I would be in danger. The attacker was aligned with ISIS and in the US, that just seemed like a buzzword. I never felt any threat by them, they were just some group the US was fighting in the Middle East. But it wasn’t just the threat. While I was able to freely take a vacation, to go abroad, there were refugees fleeing from this crisis, being turned away the US and many European countries.
- Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.
This worldview transformation was significant because it really transformed me from a child to an adult. Before the trip I naively thought about the world as a place that wasn’t too different from the US, but I couldn’t be more wrong. I became more aware of geo-political events and I realized just how privileged I was to be on this study abroad trip. I realized the complex world that I am a part of, and how my place in it is one where I am privileged to feel safe and secure.
This change has affected me personally, in rethinking my values. I know I might not be able to change thing abroad, but I will still try to be informed of world events, as well as trying to make change starting on the local level at home.
