Very humbly, I would like to say that if there is a department that suits me best in FIU, it would be the Office of Global Learning Initiatives. I have always been the type of person to enjoy learning about the world, its cultures, and its languages. I constantly try to find something new to educate myself in because the more you learn about the world and the international experience, the more you can connect with people and better understand them. This strategy all comes with an open mind and a desire to find a common ground between yourself and others, and this is what can make you a global citizen. The global perspective, global awareness, and global engagement are core elements to making a global learner a successful and thought-provoking individual. I know I will personally take my love for global learning and experiences here at FIU from this office into the rest of my life and in the duration of my career in Global Health. To work in Global Health requires these traits because I could be exposed to various diverse people with completely different backgrounds than me and being knowledgeable on the world and understanding its complexities while simultaneously respecting the dynamics of these conflicts and individuals will make me a better employee and person overall.

 

Throughout my global learning experience, I was constantly exposed to global perspectives on the following courses or events: water scarcity, designing marine protected areas, international protection of human rights, immigration and refugees, world civilizations, and theatre appreciation. Learning about various issues from migration and the refugees crisis to water scarcity, I can say I was able to grasp a good sense of issues that the world experiences and learn it from outside the U.S perspective to hypothesize why they happen and what causes people in other countries to struggle and leave their country, etc.

 

Global awareness, or understanding how issues are interconnected, was greatly understood in the Future of Latin America and the Caribbean in the following five areas: Health, a Green Future, Accelerating the Transition to Clean Energy, Digital Transformation, and Democratic Governance. I was able to learn so much from the different think tanks, agencies, and firms such as Kyle House Group, Freedom House, Atlantic Council, USAID, and Interamerican Development Bank on the issues they work on and ask questions pertaining to the region and how they all flow together. Without innovations in digital transformation, the economy, democracy, how can the region reach success and progress in being more resilient towards future health emergencies and the climate crisis. Other questions include how can states be more equipped to change their dynamic if their accessibility is very low or their governments are corrupt and non-democratic leaning in the region. Additionally, in Marine Reserves course, I learned how creating a sustainable marine protected area, the social, biological, and political sectors need to be taken in consideration.

 

Lastly, my capstone project or Millennium Fellowship initiative, “Beirut: Money for Medicine”, greatly exemplifies my global engagement as I was able to actively help an ongoing problem from Miami all the way to Beirut, Lebanon. I helped over 50 families in Lebanon who are suffering from the harsh implications of the crisis and simultaneously raise awareness to everyone in Miami on the issue and how I am helping. Raising awareness on the economic crisis in Lebanon was not only one thing I did, I additionally wrote a paper on the trash crisis and its negative implications. This paper won the Transformational Contest. Personally, raising awareness on the crisis was more of my motive rather than actually winning.

 

All in all, being a global citizen should never end. It is very important to continue learning about problems globally, understand how they intertwine and impact with everyone else (even if not geographically proximate), and understand all the actors and sectors that come into play with these events.