Valeria Rodriguez
Global Learning-Reflection
Spring 2020
Florida International University was the perfect school for me to learn, network, grow, and the most important to find the confidence of joining clubs. The Global Learning Medallion improved my experience at FIU, and it taught me valuable lessons. After completing the global medallion, I put into practice my global perspective, global awareness, and global engagement ability. Taking the globally-focused courses also helped me decide on what to do with my life post-graduation. I was able to understand what my passions were by learning about international affairs and globalization. I was able to choose the correct internships; those internships improved my knowledge of human trafficking and women's health.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
I was honored to be part of the Global Medallion; personally, when I started doing the global learning medallion courses, I expanded my knowledge in the world and the human race. It was fascinating how we as humans tend to be selfish and live in our own “bubble”; my global perspective completely changed after this experience. Learning about human development, not only historically but also about how we can respect and learn about other cultures, religions, and languages, is part of the beauty of the world. As I learned about different cultures and customs, it taught me about being humble and to put prejudice aside. As a human rights enthusiast, I realized that many nations have different perspectives and that my own westernized view is different from others. Being able to help without implementing my own beliefs in other cultures was a skill that I learned with the program. Researching how to help in cases of human rights violations taking place across the borders, i.e., Human Trafficking, made me realize the purpose of the global learning medallion, and this purpose is to expand students global knowledge; it also helped me with my International Relations major, many of the courses that I took were in my major as well.
Identifying the stigma many societies go through and learning how to deal with cultural differences helped me land in the perfect internships that suited my interests. I moved to London for six weeks. I worked for Ovacome, an ovarian cancer organization, where I learned about women’s health and how much the organization struggled with getting the message outside London. I conducted a fantastic project Ova To You. Creating partnerships was my goal; finding communities where they had a barrier of Language, immigration status, religion, and gender based violence, were my main factors of why women were not getting enough information about Ovarian Cancer. I also Interned for The United Human Rights Foundation, where I advocated for human trafficking, teaching high schools, and providing research to the foundation with a group of exceptional students and mentors.
GLOBAL AWARENESS
I can understand what happens worldwide, especially after taking my globally focused courses; world regional geography where I learned about sociocultural studies, improved my awareness of how people tend to judge others, I learned about orientalism and how it is tied to racism. Contemporary international problems was an exciting course this course was mainly about national security, how the humanitarian intervention should proceed without portraying it as imperialism; the U.S has been accused of imperialism in underdeveloped countries, but by learning about others cultures, it helped to understand how to help without letting globalization and imperialism take over. Human rights and human trafficking were courses that increase my global awareness the most; it helped me understand how these issues among nations interconnect and affect each other. Research has demonstrated that people ignore human rights and do not advocate for human trafficking, which violates Article 5 of the Human Rights Declaration. All of these issues that happen across borders, and how governments and elites do little to nothing to address these inconvenient events, pursued me to advocate for those who do not have a voice.
Global Engagement
As a global learning medallion, I advocated for the United Human Rights Foundation, teaching younger generations about human trafficking. At the Moment, Miami is the first city nationwide in Human Trafficking, and many of the victims are high schoolers. I was able to help individuals that were scared due to their immigration status about women’s health and the impact of Ovarian Cancer in the U.K. I grew, and the Global Learning program's outcome led me to figure out what I want to do post-graduation.
As a global citizen, I want to continue advocating for human trafficking. Professionally I want to pursue a Masters's degree in Public Policy and Foreign affairs; I see myself building and implementing policies that will help the global south without offending/damaging their culture and customs. I will fulfill these goals by becoming a global citizen and putting into practice what I learned at FIU. I gained public speaking; this is essential when I have to present a case study, be a team player, and fully express my thoughts.