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ASC Coffee Chats: Careers in Counterterrorism

ASC Coffee Chats: Careers in Counterterrorism

19 April, 2022

The College of Arts and Sciences hosted Adam Jones to discuss his education and career in counterterrorism. Mr. Jones described his career path to us and detailed how he entered the counterterrorism field. As listed on Handshake, his accomplishments include “served as Chief of Staff to Acting Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence… Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor to the President’s Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor at the White House and supported a presidential transition as an IC analytical representative. Earlier in his career, he served on the staff of the President’s Daily Brief, the National Intelligence Council, the National Counterproliferation Center, the US Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, and as a targeter in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations. He began his career in the IC as a speechwriter to the Director and Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence.” This was really interesting to hear about because I want to pursue a career in counterterrorism. I enjoyed hearing his anecdotes from his time in the White House.  I thought it was very interesting that he did not start in counterterrorism and did not think his career would ever take a global focus. This event is related to IA because the career is internationally focused and it requires knowledge of other countries and cultures. This event really related to my academic career and my future career goals because I was able to hear how things I’ve learned in the classroom are applied to real life. Mr. Jones gave a great insight to the different career paths in counterterrorism, including the positive and negative aspects. This event was a great informal way to ask questions and receive advice for pursuing a similar career path and Mr. Jones was a very intelligent and engaging speaker.

Career Paths with CIA- From Analysts to Auditors and So Much More

Career Paths with CIA- From Analysts to Auditors and So Much More

22 March, 2022

The College of Arts and Sciences hosted a representative from the CIA on March 22nd. The representative gave a presentation on the different directorates housed in the CIA, as well as different career options in those directorates. She gave details on specific job requirements and which areas of study each directorate typically hires from. The CIA representative gave great detail on the Directorate of Operations and the Directorate of Analysis, which are both directorates that interest me. The presentation was incredibly informational, and the representative answered many questions about the application process. This event relates to IA because working for the CIA is a way to stay involved in world politics. People employed by the CIA, specifically those in the Directorate of Operations and the Directorate of Analysis, become experts in their specific countries and the CIA is a big power on the international scale. I learned a lot about the application process and more specific jobs that are offered in my areas of interest. I feel like this was a great way for interested students to put a face to the agency and feel like there is a connection to interact with. While there was a lot of information and questions, I thought the event was well-timed and the representative was a very engaging woman to speak with. As a Security and Intelligence major, it is my dream to be able to work for the CIA, so this presentation was incredibly relevant to my academic and career goals. I feel like I have a better grasp of what I will have to do in the future to get the job that I want. Attending this event was a great way to more deeply understand my career options and narrow down a specific focus for my future job.

“The Modern Pathway of Belarus: From the First Democratic Election in 1994 to the Crisis of 2020 and Its Aftermath” with Yuliya Brel-Fournier

“The Modern Pathway of Belarus: From the First Democratic Election in 1994 to the Crisis of 2020 and Its Aftermath” with Yuliya Brel-Fournier (U. Delaware)

18 Feb, 2022

The Center for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies hosted Dr. Yuliya Brel-Fournier, an assistant policy scientist at the Center for Applied Demography and Survey Research at the University of Delaware. Dr. Brel-Fournier presented the way that President Lukashenko has managed to accrue more power in Belarus and how Belarusians have reacted to his reign. She introduced the different social promises that the citizens of Belarus have entered with President Lukashenko. The most important aspect of these promises is that Belarusians were in a contract of loyalty to Lukashenko in exchange for well-being and the development of their country. Dr. Brel-Fournier also discussed the month-long protests that occurred after the election in 2020, in which Lukashenko supposedly won 80% of the votes. The protests were of a much wider scale and time length than those that occurred in the past, and the protesters included more than one demographic of Belarusians. The reaction from police was also much harsher and President Lukashenko went to much harsher terms to maintain power and control in the region. This event was relevant to IA because Dr. Brel-Fournier was lecturing on an international issue as the protests and Russian involvement was a highly popular news story in the months following their election. Before this event, I had a basic knowledge of the events that occurred in Belarus during the 2020 election, but this lecture taught a well-rounded, more encompassing background of not just the country of Belarus, but also the way that President Lukashenko has manipulated their government and created his modern-day dictatorship hold on the nation. Overall, I feel as if I understand the crisis of 2020 more because of the historical background and analysis of what Belarusian citizens really want from their government. While I do not particularly study the eastern European area of the world, I have previously discussed this issue and written a small paper about the post-election protests so it connected to some of the earlier aspects of my academic career. In the future, I would like to study the region more to understand the power dynamics at play with Russia and the other eastern European countries. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I believe that more academic focus will be drawn to that region and I will be waiting to see how the country of Belarus fairs in this crisis.

IA Movie Night

IA Movie Night

5 Dec, 2021

The social chair, Madison Meixner, hosted IA Movie Night in the glass classroom. We watched the movie “Peninsula” which is a stand alone movie in the universe of “Train to Busam”. “Peninsula” is a Korean movie in which the Korean Peninsula has been ridden with a zombie like disease. The main characters are sent to Korea from Hong Kong to retrieve a truck full of money, while avoiding being bitten by the zombies left on the island. The main characters meet a family on the peninsula that was left there when the outbreak first occurred. This causes character growth and a change in priorities from not just retrieving the money, but making sure that the young girls are able to escape to a less dangerous world. The movie was in Korean with English subtitles, so it required more attention than another movie would require. This event related to IA because we were consuming the media of another country, which is not easy to do outside of IA. I really enjoyed the movie, despite it being a bit scary at times. I did not know the premise of the movie before going, but having seen many American zombie movies, it was super interesting to watch a zombie movie from another country. I am not studying epidemiology or Korean, so this did not relate to my academic or professional goals, but it was still interesting to watch. Another good aspect of this movie night was that I got to meet some of the first year students in IA who I have not been able to meet yet. Having this movie night was a nice environment to meet each other and discuss our opinions on the movie. Overall, I enjoyed the night and the movie and I would be willing to attend many more movie nights in the future.

Second Year Series: Academic/Research and Study Abroad

Second Year Series: Academic/Research and Study Abroad

26 October, 2021

In this installment of the Second Year Series, Megan Kenner, the Second Year Experience and Mentorship Chair, was joined on a panel with another IA student, Maya Patel to discuss how they completed their Second Year Projects. The two project types were Study Abroad and Academic/Research projects. Megan shared how she did her project on the Study Abroad and how she was able to put together her project. Maya discussed how she began her medical research for the project and how she was able to put her project together as well as what challenges she faced. This event relates to IA because it was in discussion of the IA Second Year Project which every second year has to complete to finish the program. The content of their projects also related to IA because Megan was supposed to complete a study abroad in South Korea, which would have allowed her to be immersed in a culture different from that of the United States. This event was very informative as I plan to do a study abroad for my second year project and I will definitely use the information that Megan shared to shape how I do my project. I also thought that Maya’s project was super interesting because it dealt with how music can positively affect people undergoing breast cancer treatment. While I am not personally interested in studying medicine, it was still interesting to learn about how she was able to incorporate IA into that passion of hers. This did not directly relate to my studies because I am not studying the Korean language or medicine. It did however relate to my interests and my career plan as I hope to complete a study abroad to bolster my education. Overall, this was a very informative session.

IA Game Night

IA Game Night

29 August, 2021

This event was a social event hosted by the Social Chair, Madison. Members of International Affairs Scholars were invited to the 10th floor common room in Smith-Steeb Hall to play a variety of games in order to meet new people and act as a stress reliever. At this event, I played a game called Blockbuster with my roommate and two girls from our year. The game was so much fun and it was a good opportunity for us to get to know the other two girls as, with Covid-19 rules at the university last year, we were not able to interact with many other people in International Affairs Scholars. This event related to International Affairs Scholars because it was hosted by the social chair and other members were present at the game night. The specific game I was playing also featured some international movies that we were able to discuss and learn more about. I really enjoyed this event as it allowed for a fun night of getting to know other people in International Affairs Scholars. This event was a good introduction to what the university and being in International Affairs Scholars is like in a world less effected by Covid-19. I would love for another game night to occur because we were able to escape from the stress of our normal routines and have simple fun with each other. There was no connection between my academic or professional interests in this event, but I believe that was to my benefit as sometimes it is easy to get wrapped up in the stress of my career endeavors and in turn miss the parts of college and life that should not be missed, like spending a fun night with friends playing board games and laughing. This event was one of my favorite nights of this school year so far and I look forward to fostering the connections I made and being more involved with International Affairs Scholars as the year continues.

Community Meeting with Kevin Kelly

Community Meeting with Kevin Kelly

14 April, 2021

For this community meeting, the quest speaker was Kevin Kelly. Kevin Kelly is the executive director of the Dayton International Peace Museum, a nonprofit museum. The Dayton International Peace Museum works to focus on issues of unrest and war and promote peace especially with issues like WWII but also police brutality around the nation and the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th. This event relates to IA because the museum itself promotes awareness of what is going on around the world and trying to fix issues of inequality and injustice to promote peace and safety for all. IA works to promote awareness and fight for world issues of inequality and the International Peace Museum also works to do those same things and is working to adapt to the political atmosphere that America and the world is in right now. I learned about how nonprofits can be impactful in world issues especially through the programs that Kevin Kelly discussed that the Peace Museum had and is working on like the red line discrimination in the 1930’s through the 1960’s. This event did not necessarily relate to my current career interests, but it opened my eyes to what other options are available in my future that would still involve being active and educated on world issues. The part of the event that connected to my course work this semester was the question about his opinion on pulling troops out of Afghanistan as this is something that we discussed in my Terror and Terrorism class. After this event, I am interested in going to the International Peace Museum in Dayton when they open up in order to support this nonprofit and learn more from their different exhibits.

Final Current Event Night

Final Current Event Night

5 April, 2021

IA Academic Chair, Samantha Zimmerman, hosted another current events catch up night. She created a Kahoot, testing for general knowledge of 5 news stories from around the world that she chose, but chose other news stories to provide deeper detail about in a PowerPoint after the Kahoot. In the PowerPoint, Samantha discussed Miss Grand Myanmar’s speech against the military in Myanmar in the middle of nationwide protests. She also discussed the court battle between the company, Oracle, and Google which made its way to the Supreme Court where the Court ruled in favor of Google. Other events included The Weeknd’s $1 million donation to Ethiopians in Tigray, an agreement signed between world leaders addressing future plans for any more pandemics, and the Twitter argument between a U.S. Representative and the president of El Salvador regarding tweets about the border. This event was related to the International Affairs scholars program because it involved looking at news stories from around the world and getting a sense of what is happening worldwide. This was a great way for me to be caught up on what is happening around the world as I have not been paying much attention to the news lately and I feel even more informed due to the change in the amount of stories covered. There was not a lot of intersection with my course work this semester, but the story of what is happening in Tigray reminds me of a group that I studied in the beginning of the semester, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. As always, this was a good way to get sped up on what is happening on a national stage.

Vigil for the Atlanta Eight

Vigil for the Atlanta 8

20 March, 2021

On March 16th, a man in Atlanta, Georgia entered three massage parlors and killed eight people. Of the eight victims, six were Asians and seven were women. Although authorities claimed that this was not racially motivated, this shooting occurred in the background of other hate incidents against the AAPI community and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The organization Anakbayan not Columbus held a Vigil for the Atlanta 8 in Goodale Park on March 20th in order to honor the lives lost and to stop Asian hate. At the vigil, there were four planned speakers, all from the AAPI community who spoke about their reactions to the events in Atlanta, their identities and how the coronavirus pandemic and the rise in Asian hate has impacted their lives and their work. Then, there was the opportunity for attendees to speak in an open-mic portion, where more members of the AAPI community discussed their reactions to the shooting and their experiences in life. Finally, there was a candle lit, two minutes of silence for the eight victims of the shooting. This event relates to IA because it deals with the struggles of those that are not ethnically American and the discrimination and hate that they receive within our country due to biases related to Asian countries, and more specifically the stereotypes perpetrated about Asian women. As a white woman, it is important to educate myself on the struggle of the communities that I don’t identify as and be a strong advocate for change. Attending this vigil was a way for me to show support and to connect with more resources in order to educate myself and work for actual change within America. Asian hate is so prominent and it is important to recognize my biases and let the AAPI community speak about their experiences and amplify their voices.

Current Event Night

Current Event Night

14 March, 2021

IA Academic Chair, Samantha Zimmerman, hosted another current events catch up night. She created a Kahoot, testing for general knowledge of 5 news stories from around the world that she chose, but chose other news stories to provide deeper detail about in a PowerPoint after the Kahoot. In the PowerPoint, Samantha discussed Switzerland’s new ban on face coverings and what that means for Muslim women living in Switzerland. She also discussed the settlement that the city of Minneapolis had reached with George Floyd’s family. The George Floyd case has been in the media and in my head over the past year. Other events included the arrest of Bolivia’s former President, the EU’s struggle with vaccine distribution, and Amazon’s banning of a book that deals with transgender individuals. This event was related to the International Affairs scholars program because it involved looking at news stories from around the world and getting a sense of what is happening worldwide. This was a great way for me to be caught up on what is happening around the world as I have not been paying much attention to the news lately and I feel even more informed due to the change in the amount of stories covered. There was not a lot of intersection with my course work this semester, but it was interesting to learn a little about the different head coverings worn by Muslim women and how legislation can apply to those garments. As always, this was a good way to get sped up on what is happening on a national stage.