World Affairs Seminar 2017
Black = Iyana Yellow = Marc Blue = Dexter
The 2017 World Affairs Seminar which we embarked on was without a doubt one of our most fruitful and memorable moments yet. Only few can say that they were welcomed abroad to interact with persons of different ethnicities, races, cultures and backgrounds to achieve a specific goal in efforts to better our world. Even fewer can say that they did this free of charge, and we are truly humbled, blessed and thankful to all of you that made that possible. The connections we made, lessons we learnt and experiences we encountered will continue to stay with us through memory for years and years to come. This year’s theme ‘Education and Social Justice’ encompassed lectures with refugees, journalists, and educators as well as breakout sessions with artists, teachers and veterans. The wide scope of information available to us allowed us to gain a holistic view
I cannot speak for Dexter and Mark, but in the weeks approaching our departure to Wisconsin I had an increasingly difficult time trying to conceptualize what the seminar would be like. It was honestly beyond my imagination because I had never been in such a situation before and it was my first time traveling alone. Dexter and Marc both travelled solo before so I relied on them, especially for the first flight. At first, it was a little nerve wrecking but in the end I came to enjoy traveling alone more than in groups.
After having travelled for over six hours to O’Hare international airport and waiting an additional four plus hours for the Nepalese and New Yorkers to arrive, concerns about the local temperature at Wisconsin was the last thing on all of our minds. For after sleeping on the bus for two hours and finally arriving at Carroll University our main goal was to end our hunger. However, my aspirations for warm food was quickly slapped out of my mind when the extremely brick cold wind welcomed me at the bus door making me realize that frostbite was not at all far-fetched, and I realized that I had bigger problems to deal with. Dexter seemed to understand and share in my predicament but Mark enjoyed the cold. This was our arrival at Carroll university and the beginning of our exciting journey with persons from all walks of life.
Thinking back, the seminar was not strict with time nor limited in choices. For my preconceived expectation of strict sleeping and waking hours along with few options to which all of us delegates were expected to conform was in fact not so. Apart from the group lectures, there was a wide variety of experts or past partakers of particular fields available for us to interact with during breakout sessions. Thankfully, because of the options made available to us, a person who was interested in the army could have chosen to interact with a veteran rather than a teacher who someone interested in education might have. The overall result was that we were able to gain in depth knowledge on topics that we already had an interest in, knowledge that we may not have attained otherwise.
For my breakout sessions I interacted with a mud-stencil graffiti artist. He thought us that graffiti art can be very successful in raising awareness on controversial topics such as women’s rights, black lives matter or simply recycling. Mud was used to create the stencil to boy-cut graffiti laws as mud could always be washed off. For this reason, however, stencils were done only under bridges and other sheltered areas not affected by rain. Smart. I also spoke to a veteran for my other session who spoke about the cons of joining the army and what should be done to ensure veterans are not subject to alcoholism, drug use, PTSD and other issues.
From the list of field trips I chose to visit the Urban Ecology Centre mainly because I enjoy nature. The centre is a self-sustaining building surrounded by a vast expanse of land encompassing a river, rolling hills, cycling trails and nature trails and ground produce grown from the ecology workers. There were also solar panels to power the main building. It had a cosy, rustic cabin feel and I believe it’s a great was to relax and enjoy outdoors in a sustainable environment.
The field trip I chose to go on consisted of a tour of General Electric’s healthcare headquarters. Unfortunately, there was a no camera policy therefore the experience was really hands on. The office comprised of the main building and living headquarters which were accessed using an underground tunnel. Upon arrival we were given first a general tour of the classrooms and then we moved on to the labs where chemical experiments took place, mainly in the field of cancer research. This was a beneficial part of the tour for me personally as I aim to achieve a career in chemistry when I am older. After, we were guided to the engineering department where we allowed access to virtual reality headsets through which we were guided through how the engineer students use these facilities for training to fix equipment in the field. We were given a small initiation class in which we were put to test in attempting to fix machines following instructions on screen. This was an eye opening experience as it helped me appreciate the great advancement in modern technology and has opened me up to considering the field of study as the work learned was stimulating and interesting. Then, we entered the conference room and we were guided through GE student intern acceptance procedures and the subject requirements for entry level jobs which were extremely informative and helpful. Then snacks and drinks were served and a question and answer session took place.
For my Field trip I went to the Milwaukee School of Engineering where the head biomedical engineer at the university talked to us about the many applications of biomedical engineering. Ever wonder who made the prosthetics that amputees use or the many medical equipment in hospitals like heart monitors pacemakers x-ray and MRI machines, even ultrasounds. All of these were designed and created by biomedical engineers around the world. He even allowed us to see some equipment like a pacemaker, a hip joint and even a brain wave monitor which many of the delegates were eager to try.
I had the amazing opportunity of being a part of group S during the seminar. Our leader Gregg was a visually impaired guy who actually attended Carroll University for his Masters. Due to our leader being visually impaired and, on the many discussions that my group had we decide to have a more verbal vs graphic presentation. Our goal was to create the ideal classroom through conversation. So as people came to our booth we converse with them on their idea of an ideal classroom based on their academic experience and the members of my group, (including myself), talked about our experience as well. Overall it was a great opportunity to learn about other people’s academic experience and learn their ideas on an ideal classroom. At the end of our presentation when we got back the reviews from other delegates they said, they really enjoyed our capstone but wish it was more graphical. Our silent response to that statement was ‘our leader is blind’.
In following with the theme for the week of Education and Social Justice, group K (my group) chose to focus on issues in the school system worldwide which resulted in social injustices occurring. This led my group to research every type of school system and analyse its individual pros and cons. In the end all the positive aspects of each type of schooling was used to put together the “perfect school system”, one in which there was no student stereotyping or social bias affecting students so that there was optimal learning conditions so that every child was able to grasp concepts at the same pace. It was found that many issues affecting students could be fixed with simple initiatives such as wider school feeding programs with more nutritious meals provided for instance, or initiating programs which had more kids mentored in school by older colleagues therefore teaching trust and compassion.
Throughout the entire seminar we had many speakers who came and talked about social justice and their experiences with it in life. The first speaker, Mrs. Geneva Johnson set the bar high with her very moving and inspirational speech. She spoke about her life and the social injustice she faced as both a woman and an African- American. Through her entire speech there was one quote she kept on repeating that stuck with me. It was, ‘START WHERE YOU ARE. USE WHAT YOU HAVE. AND DO WHAT YOU CAN.’ After her speech delegates where truly awakened to the social injustice in the world and were anticipating the other speakers who shared their stories and experiences. Then came Mr Will Allen and his Sweet Water Academy, where teens and adults work together to create an Aquaculture Habit. He also referenced a book that many of the delegates that read it endorsed, Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’. After came another speaker that many of the delegates were receptive too, Mrs Daniella Zalcman. She was a photo journalist that travelled the world telling the untold stories. Like the residential schools in Canada and the US, where Native American’s were force to give up their native ways. Many were raped, beaten and mentally abused. She even wrote a book entitled ‘Signs Of Your Identity’, were she told the stories of some of these people and had double exposure pictures that captured their lives. What followed were many other speakers that truly open my and all the delegates eyes to social justice and education in the world. These included, the US State Department that spoke on diplomacy, Sister Edna Lonergan who created the St. Anne’s Centre For Intergenerational Care, which is a day care slash elderly home where young children and the young of heart interact on a daily basis. Even the Rotary International President Elect and his wife spoke to us. Afterwards came Brad Lichtenstein and his company 371 Productions who captured the social injustice around the world in the many films they created. Then a Middle Eastern refugee by the name of Sahar spoke to us on life as a refugee and her experiences as one. All these many moving speakers made our week at the seminar a truly inspirational and educational one.
On the first day in addition to the amazing speech by Mrs. Geneva Johnson, with the help of the US State Department, all the delegates had the opportunity to have a simulated debate. Each of us got to be part of one of the stakeholders in the debate. I have to admit that it started off rocky but after the first 10 minutes every one of us fully took on the role we were given and debated like true pros. The discussion in my group even went on to include human sacrificing and threats of creating World War 3, and as the controller of the debated state once it is not specifically stated in the instructions anything goes. So we found ourselves creating stories and information to aid in our argument and using persuasion to obtain our goals. Like I said we were debating like the best of them. It was an amazing experience for me especially as I had never done anything like that before unlike Marc and Iyana who had the opportunity to be a part of the MUN before and had experience it.
On campus there was a list of activities provided in which we could partake in during our free time with friends. On the new football pitch they had which was fully artificial turf there was the choice of kickball, soccer or Frisbee under the floodlights. As an avid sportsperson I took part in all and was able to keep up a good sweat while there to work off the heaps of food they fed us. Also there was an indoor basketball court which yours truly tried for the first time and failed at. For the lovers of the arts there was the selection of karaoke, arts and crafts, braille learning, and dance practice for those participating in the annual talent show in which Iyana stole the show. A dedicated journalism crew kept WAS delegates and group leaders updated all week and Dexter’s group leader, Gregg, did Q&A’s session on the college radio station in which I was able to share a little bit about home.
The talent show is by far my favourite memory from the seminar simply because of the energy and willingness of the audience and the sense of pride felt in representing Trinidad and Tobago and by extension the Caribbean. This was crucial to me as I had made numerous Caribbean friends from The Cayman Islands, St. Croix, The Bahamas and the US Virgin Islands, and did not intend to disappoint at all. The three of us had already met a lot of great people from different American states and countries and had made some amazing friends that were ready to support me just as much as we were to support them. The energy and excitement within the room was amazing and surprisingly I barley felt nervous. Especially considering that I had made up the entire folk dance the previous night and was running on 3 hours of sleep. Dexter, Mark and all the other amazing people I made kept me excited and motivated. Dexter added a little pressure because he kept asking “Yuh finish de dance yet, it lookin’ good” and then I would instantly get a slight bout of nervousness and try to hide it, but that was one of the things that motivated me to give a spectacular performance. We had given out our National flags to our friends so that they could wave it during my performance and they had done the same. So the overall result was various County flags being waved in support. From the stage, it was a beautiful slightly emotional sight. I danced to “Workout” by Nilah Blackman and everyone loved it. Most people were surprisingly, what I would call, ‘overly’ excited about the folk dance which to me really wasn’t all that spectacular but I realized it was because many of them had not ever seen folk dance before. There was also singing, salsa dancing, Irish dancing, Nepalese traditional dancing, an amazing pianist (Dexter’s roommate, Simeon) and other musicians and comedy acts. It was an evening full of entertainment and laughter and without doubt one of the most enjoyable nights.
I am not a very outspoken person and I definitely do not attend dances at all but after my friends constant nagging I actually went to the dance and I had an amazing time. One of my friends even taught me a popular dance in the US called the woggle earlier in the week, so when the song came on I was right there in the middle of everyone woggling along (if that’s even a word). It was actually fun dancing and just enjoying the company of my friends at the dance. My only regret/complaint is that the DJ did not have any soca, he didn’t even know what it was. So Iyana, Mark, myself and all the Caribbean friends we made were disappointed as we all know soca is the best music to dance to. However despite this the dance night was loads of fun.
At the end of it all, it turned out to be a truly eye opening experience, one in which we were able to share life experiences and participants are able to gain different perspectives on world affairs from talks by highly experienced speakers in many fields. These experts pasted on their knowledge and helped us to see the world from a logical, non-biased perspective, one which urges us to speak out against injustice rather than be silent and to ask questions necessary for further knowledge, rather than to judge from what we see on the surface. But the most fulfilling aspect was the connections we made. We now have new friends from all over the world… making the programme an experience that we all agree will never be forgotten.