Theater Appreciation (THE 2000)
This class was super fun! I learned about all kinds of theater in the world, its evolution, and was introduced to many classic musicals in class such as Little Shop of Horrors. This class had so many perks, such as going to FIU plays for free! The global engagement aspect stemmed from the fact that students got to see plays for free at FIU, I saw a play that was in Spanish and was set in Argentina, one that tackled migration issues, and a modern twist on Midsummer Night's Dream. The global awareness came from witnessing these plays and taking in the messages along with learning about the kinds of theater in the world, and the global perspective developed through the semester with exposure to all of these kinds of art forms. I got to act and embrace the theatrical side of me!
Environmental Science (EVR 1001)
I really enjoyed both the lecture and the lab for this subject. It taught me to much about the current problems we are facing as a global community with climate change threatening our environment, along with solutions. This class left me wanting to learn more about renewable resources and past massive extinctions. I found it so alarming that we are causing an extinction currently! I had to do a power point on the effects of flooding in Bangladesh with a group and I learned about my global footprint. This class definitely provided global awareness as it taught students about how global warming is affecting everyone internationally and how each society suffers. The perspective and engagement came from the activities we did at lab that showed us the power of plants, the wasteful habits of our society, importance of composting, and the detoxifying qualities of charcoal. We also went to the nature reserve to observe the plants.
Early European Civilization (EUH 2011)
I absolutely loved this course, in fact, it is one of my favorite courses I took at FIU. I love history and the older something is, the more fascinating I find it. This course went as far back as the beginning of civilization, in Mesopotamia! I l already was very familiar about Mesopotamian culture and world history as a whole as it's one of my favorite subjects to study. I was delighted to see on the syllabus that I was going to revisit this extraordinary civilization. We discussed trade relationships, ancient Greece, Persia, and Rome, and I loved everything I learned. I still have the notebook from this class so I can refer back to it. The professor inspired me, as most history professors do, and I felt so excited to be in this class and take on the challenges that came with the course. I learned that the world was more globalized than we had previously thought, that there were trade relationships with the Chinese, Arabs, and Mediterranean peoples even before the Roman Empire. Studying these connections that existed kept students globally engaged as knowing world history helps one understand other cultures and shows respect to others as well. When writing our essays we had to consider the big picture-the global context-in order to develop a stronger argument. I believe students in this class, such as myself, left more globally aware and with an enhanced global perspective.
World Regional Geography (GEA 2000)
Aside from history, geography is another subject I love studying. Fun Fact: I know the capital to all of the countries in the world and I collect maps. I was so excited to take this course and it was quite a challenge! To my surprise, science played a big role in this course. I learned about orthographic rainfall, which explains why there are deserts in some regions (rain shadow effect), and the different kinds of soil in different regions. We learned about political and physical geography and overall, I always felt engaged with this course. Like many of my other global learning courses, I would take this again. I learned about the wind patterns of the Earth and the Artsakh Republic- peoples in Azerbaijan who want their own nation. There was always rich knowledge I absorbed and the teacher was very well informed! This course expanded the mind of all its students in relation to the world around them, how it came to be and the peoples in it.
Societies of the World (SYP 3456)
I took this class in the Summer A semester in 2018. I really looked forward to this class because I would be taking it with one of my favorite teachers who knows me well as I'd taken her for all of my ENC courses. She is one of the most intelligent and kindhearted people I know. She has a passion for people which I why I knew she was the perfect person to teach SYP 3456. We learned about so many societies! The book assigned for this class was also very appealing, Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel and I learned about the cause of the mess of colonization, it all comes down to sheer dumb luck and good soil. I learned about how societies came to fall, such as the Easter Island head people and how they burned through their resources, along with the vikings in Greenland. I learned about societies and their parallels both past and present, how our actions are not much different from those of the Greenland vikings. For our term paper, each person got to choose a society and I chose Ethiopian civilization and wrote about their rich history and development through the ages. I think this course is important for one to keep stretching their knowledge on the world and gain an idea of where our world may be headed and why it is the way it is today.
