Month: October 2017

Why I’m Still Learning German

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Ever since I can remember, I have been taking German classes. In Kindergarten, they revolved around animals and colors. In the sixth grade, we had graduated to mathematics. And now at Ohio State, I have taken courses about German history and the current political climate in Europe. Throughout all of this time learning German, it was my time living in a tiny Bavarian town that solidified my interest in the language and the country.

My best friend Annika’s father was from Germany, and her grandparents still live in a tiny, rural town called Taufkirchen. The summer after the tenth grade, we both decided to go stay with them for a month and attend the local high school. Living in Bavaria was a bit of a culture shock. It is extremely isolated and homogenous, and unlike most cities in Germany, there were a lot of people who didn’t speak any English. Including her grandparents.

Attending the high school was also unlike any experience I had ever had in Germany. Unlike the previous time I had studied there, I had no exchange student whose job it was to show me the ropes and walk me around places. Nobody to tell me how the cafeteria worked or where my next class was. I was separated from Annika, and we were both assigned a course schedule for the next couple of weeks. It was definitely nerve wracking to jump head first into a German high school and German courses, and in retrospect I wish I was more open from the very beginning. But once I got over the feeling of always being lost, it was an incredible learning experience about the education system in Germany and it definitely improved my confidence in my German speaking ability.

Next Spring, I want to be challenged again in a similar way by spending a full semester in Germany. There is no equivalent to being pushed this far outside my comfort zone, and I know that participating in real German courses, hopefully at Bonn University, will both improve my German fluency and provide important new takes on the disciplines I am studying. Because so much of education is about perspective, especially in the Humanities and Social Sciences, there is no doubt in my mind that learning about the past and how to interpret the present in a different country will greatly improve my critical thinking abilities. Having experienced all of this on a smaller scale in Taufkirchen, I am looking forward to this new experience living in Germany next year.

History Outside of the West

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When I signed up for a Middle Eastern History course the summer before my freshman year, I was completely outside of my comfort zone. It was my first college level history course, and it was also the first time I had ever taken a history class that focused on countries that weren’t in the West. There was definitely an initial roadblock: in middle school and high school curriculums there is little to no focus on MENA’s history.

Once I got to Ohio State, I signed up for History of U.S.-Africa Relations. Once again, there were large initial challenges to taking in the material, as I had little to no background on any of the countries we were discussing. It meant that the course had to move more slowly than the professor would have liked, and that lots of details about the international politics and developments went over my head.

Experiencing history at the college level has definitely increased my awareness of these huge gaps in essential background information in the U.S.’s education system – this has become one of my main policy interests over the last couple of years. The history curriculum in elementary and high schools in the U.S. is definitely lacking in breadth, and looking back it would have been more helpful to have an introduction to the colonization of Africa or the 1948 Arab-Israeli war than to examine the War of 1812 on repeat.

In the end, taking the college courses that I have has definitely been worth it. It’s rewarding to leave a course feeling that I have a more comprehensive understanding of the way the world works, and also that I have so much more to learn. But I can’t help but wonder about the people that don’t take those courses at the college level (because let’s face it, most people don’t go to college and major in History). Because education, especially during elementary school, does so much to shape one’s world view, I would love to potentially find some outlet to get involved in education policy in the future. Being better informed about history outside of the West early on certainly can’t hurt, and it could make all the difference.

 

I have attached my final papers for my History of the Middle East and History of U.S.-Africa Relations courses below.  My U.S.-Africa Relations paper wound up focusing on the connections between media, U.S. public opinion, ad humanitarian aid during the Biafran War. The shorter paper for the Middle Eastern History course was about the role of women in the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

The Role of Women in the Iranian Revolution – History of the Middle East

War of Words – History of U.S.-Africa Relations

 

Columbus Community Kitchen

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This past weekend, I had the opportunity to volunteer with some of my fellow John Glenn Leadership Council members at the Community Kitchen in Columbus. Although our group has worked with organizations like the Columbus Early Learning Center and the Mid-Ohio Foodbank for several years, we didn’t know what to expect from this experience as it was our first time working with the Community Kitchen.

We arrived early enough to prepare for the breakfast service, and we all piled into the small kitchen to be greeted by Clarence, who directs volunteers and does most of the kitchen preparation and service. Because of our numbers, he delegated jobs around the building including cleaning walls, organizing the freezer, and doing the dishes. I was lucky enough to work on the food line during both breakfast and lunch services, which allowed for some direct interaction with the kitchen patrons and the ability to completely take in the atmosphere of the dining room. What stood out most to me about the organization was its open and welcoming policy, which allows for food service to anyone “no questions asked.” The result was an open dialogue between the staff and the regulars, but also a steady stream of new faces.

One of the main reasons I am thankful to be a member of the John Glenn Civic Leadership Council, which I joined through my Learning Community in my first year here at Ohio State, is that it provides opportunities to interact with the Columbus community at large. Because the campus is so big, it is very easy to become completely wrapped up in this university bubble. I think it’s essential to remember that Ohio State is a part of a larger community, and that as students we have a responsibility to participate in it as a whole.

 

Arriving in Washington D.C.

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As a member of the John Glenn Civil Leadership Community, I was lucky enough to travel to Washington D.C. in the spring of my first year at Ohio State. On a Wednesday, we got straight on a bus after classes were over and headed to D.C. Although I had been once before for a couple of nights, I had never had time to truly explore the city, and I was looking forward to seeing it in a new professional light. We had visits scheduled with State Representatives, National Public Radio, the Washington Post, and myriad Ohio State alumni.

Although these experiences did leave impressions on me, and helped me better gauge what it is like to live and work in D.C., one of the most memorable times I had on the trip was the first night we arrived. When we got there, it was already late, and we had an early and packed day ahead of us. But a group of Learning Community members who I was with wanted to go out and explore the city. At first I was hesitant, but eventually I gave in and we walked from our hotel in Georgetown to the White House.

We got there right before they turned the lights off for the night, and it was a truly breathtaking experience seeing the White House without all the crowds and noise, and it wound up being one of the highlights of the trip. Above all, it was a good reminder that, more often than not, saying “yes” to more opportunities pays off.

 

 

About Sarah

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Sarah Stradling is a history major working towards her Bachelor’s Degree with honors research distinction at the Ohio State University. She is majoring in History and International Studies with minors in German and Philosophy. Here on campus she combines her interests in politics and history by serving on the Executive Board of Model Arab League and participating in the Collegiate Council on World Affairs. She also serves on a committee for her learning community, the John Glenn Civic Leadership Community, which develops and runs policy simulations for her peers. One of her other main interests is linguistics, and she keeps up with German and Spanish through conversation tables and the German Club on campus. While Sarah is unsure of her postgraduate plans, here at Ohio State she wants to prepare for graduate level education by writing an honors thesis in the discipline of History. She hopes to conduct research abroad in Germany in the next few years. Although she has done some archival work in the past, including some translation between German and English and extensive uses of online databases, she is always looking for new opportunities to gain more research experience in hopes of aiding her own original work in the future.

My Experience as a Delegate from Yemen: Model Arab League Conference 2017

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I raised my placard into the air, unsure about what I was going to say if the chair of the Social Affairs Council called on me. Despite the practice I had in the Model Arab League club, there was no way to simulate the feeling of sitting on my council during the actual conference.  Joining MAL was far outside of my comfort zone.  First, there is the Arab League aspect.  I am not a Middle Eastern politics expert by any means, so there was a huge learning curve when it came time to memorize leaders, political parties, and religious affiliations. The hardest aspects of this were working within realistic alliances during the unmoderated caucuses as well as being appropriately deferential in the moderated caucuses (OSU was the delegation from Yemen, so this involved a lot of “deferring to the honorable opinion of Saudi Arabia.”)

Additionally, before joining Model Arab League and going to this conference at Miami University, I had never had public speaking experience. In fact, public speaking was something I avoided at all costs. Before attending the conference, I doubted my ability to speak up in my council. And once I was there in the room, surrounded by seasoned upperclassmen who used MAL as their Model United Nations off-season practice, I was certainly intimidated.  Representing a country like Yemen, it would have been easy to stay quiet and let other countries take control of the committee. I was afraid that what I said would be uninformed or just plain wrong. That I would confuse parliamentary procedure and speak out of turn. However, after watching how the other delegates operated, I felt more confident and was able to contribute to the committee dialogue and resolution writing. After a long couple of days of debate and cooperation, my fellow delegate and I won the distinguished delegate award for representing Yemen in the Council for Social Affairs.

During the conference I gained confidence in my ability to speak in front of groups of people, a greater understanding of a part of the world that I did not learn about in high school, and relationships with students from other Ohio colleges who have similar interests to me. For me, participating in the MAL conference was stepping outside of what I was used to and comfortable with, and I will remember this experience as I continue to challenge myself throughout the rest of my time at OSU.  I know the practical skills I learned will be useful, both for other MAL conferences and other future academic endeavors, but more than that I know that what I learned about myself will be far more important.  While I found that most of my strengths were in the unmoderated caucuses, which focus more on informal relationship building, resolution planning, and direct debate, I also learned that I could make my voice heard in the more organized aspects, like formally addressing the council.  Speaking up in front of that committee was one of the scariest experiences that I have had in my first year here at OSU, but it was well worth it.