Hi guys! I’m back to tell about an exciting seven-day event I participated in from October 14th, 2019, to October 21st in Montreal, Canada. I was chosen to play along side eleven other women on Team USA for Team Handball. Playing on a national team was truly an honor and experience I will never forget. In huddle, our coach always reminded us that we are here for a reason and should wear USA on our backs proudly. I learned so much about the game of handball, and how to interact with other teams and refs that might not understand English. Our team was composed of girls that play all around the world for different school and club teams. Bonding and building chemistry with them off the court was difficult at times, but proved to be very rewarding on the court. A trip like this is exactly what the International Affairs Scholars Program is about: Connecting with those around us, exposing ourselves to new people, and maximizing our opportunities to learn. In my exit interview with the coaches, they emphasized how coachable I was, how I connected with the other women, how hard I worked, and then offered me the opportunity to tryout for the next tournament. I believe that the International Affairs Scholars Program prepared me for opportunities like this tournament where I was forced to assimilate to several other cultures and living styles as all the teams were housed in the same hotel. I hope to use the connections I made during the week to help advance the Ohio State Team Handball Club.

Hello! This week I attended the International Affairs World Trivia Night on October 6th, 2019, in the Sky Lounge of Smith-Steeb at 7:30pm. I really enjoyed the event as I got to meet other International Affairs Scholar Program members. It can be difficult to get to know everyone in the program because there are so many of us. Additionally, this was a great time to relax and have fun with a friendly competition after doing homework all day on Sunday. To give a recap of the night, we split up into teams of two once everyone had arrived. My partner was a good friend of mine, Seth Cotler. He is also a first-year student and lives on the eighth floor right down the hall. We called ourselves “The Dream Team.” The trivia was an international quiz that tested us using the outlines of countries and then various flags. Identifying the different countries solely based off of their outline was a little difficult because there was no indication of size or context clues in the pictures. On the contrary, the flags were much easier to associate with the correct country because most of us had already familiarized ourselves with them before. Overall, Seth and I worked together to consult eachother on the best answer and trusted eachother’s initial instincts when one of us was not sure of the correct answer. We ended up finishing in third place, which won us some nifty IA gear. Altogether, this event showed me that it is ok to take a break sometimes to have fun and get to know the people around you.

Hello again! This week I attended the United Nations Trivia Night on October 1st, 2019, at 7:30pm in the Enarson Classroom Building. The event was hosted by the United Nations Association on campus. This was an interesting night to say the least. To elaborate, I found the games to be a harsh awakening to how little I really knew about the world’s alliances and its historical conflicts. Despite being in the International Affairs Scholars Program, where an emphasis is placed on staying up-to-date with the recent news, I was definitely guessing on at least half of the questions from the 3 main topics: International Conflicts, History of the United Nations, and Global History. Each section ranged from specific dates of certain events, such as when the Berlin Wall fell and what day the Korean War started, to the number of mortalities during the Wranda Genocide and what tribe was being suppressed. Overall, I found myself wishing I knew more about global historical conflicts. Once we finished the first topic, I knew that the other two sections were probably going to be rough and I needed to study, but I tried to keep an open mind and have faith in my abilities. I thought that I had a relatively extensive knowledge of global history; however, the Trivia Night proved that I should never be content with my current state and I should actively seek out opportunities to learn much more about what is going on outside of the United States.