REFLECTION

      Throughout my time at FIU, I have learned a lot inside and outside of the classroom. I have interacted with people from different places, volunteered in different projects across the community, and studied how culture impacts our daily lives. I think the biggest lesson I gained from my experience at FIU is the importance of having an open mind. All of my experiences have highlighted this and pushed me to expand my own perspective.

      Culture plays a huge role in our daily lives. This is something that I learned through my Global Learning courses. I learned in my Writing Across Borders course how important it is to be aware of cultural influences in many different aspects, however specifically when it comes to writing. I also learned through my Social Innovation class how culture can impact perspective and the development of solutions for social issues. Even in my Human Rights course, culture largely influenced how human rights violations are perceived and dealt with. Culture is the backbone of our global community. 

      I was able to interact with different cultures first hand and expand my knowledge and cross-cultural communication as well through the activities that I attended outside of the classroom. I met many different students through being a PAW representative, all from different places. It was interesting to interact with each of these students and see how friendship develops and is perceived in different cultures. I especially liked learning about the similarities we all had as well as the differences.

      Throughout the Global Learning program, I also learned how local and global issues are interconnected. I saw this through the lecture I attended on the Nicaraguan Crisis, as they explained the interconnectedness of the issues occurring in Nicaragua and the issues they create for us here in the United States. I also learned how pollution is a local and global issue as well through the marina clean up with Alternative Breaks. That event showed me how interconnected our environment is and how important it is to protect it.

      Through all of these experiences my global perspective grew immensely. These experiences even pushed me to engage myself in working toward solutions on global issues. My time spent volunteering with Paper Airplanes and the Immigrant Resource Center allowed me to help people who needed to adapt to a new cultural environment in order to be successful. These experiences helped me realize what I am passionate about and how I want to continue helping people in the future. I want to break down barriers between people of different cultures and help increase global awareness throughout communities. I specifically want to help communities see past cultural differences that we share and view them as unique aspects of humanity. I believe that having an open mind and global awareness is an extremely important way of life and I will continue to utilize these perspectives and be a global citizen as I enter the workforce.