The Global Learning (GL) program at FIU has truly increased my global awareness to issues around the globe. In the beginning, I had thought I knew everything I could possibly know about environmental and social issues, but after taking GL courses, I learned that I had only scratched the surface. The interdisciplinary approach taken in these courses enabled me to not only understand a subject such as climate change from a natural scientific perspective, but also opened my mind to studies in psychology and the economics on this issue. Global learning also made me more aware about my own biases and how practices that would be deemed as "deviant" are considered "innocent" in the eyes of those that are doing them. One example of this was when I learned about the cocaine trade in South America in my Geography of Global Change course, seeing how farmers perceive that there is no issue in growing and creating the drug when they believe it supports soldiers in the battlefield.
Global learning has also impacted what I want to do in the future. I initially entered FIU with the idea that I wanted to become a cultural anthropologist, but after taking several GL courses, I shifted my focus to environmental issues. GL courses expanded my horizons and encouraged me to apply to earn a second bachelors degree in environmental studies. Now, I hope to attend graduate school and earn a masters in environmental planning and management with a focus on marine and coastal affairs. I hope to bring the interdisciplinary and global perspectives I have gained in the classroom to my future field of work.
Aside from the courses, the program also gave me the opportunity to engage in a local non-profit, the Tropical Audubon Society. As part of my capstone experience, I sought not only to gain skills in environmental advocacy and communications but also wanted to learn how protecting local environments and promoting sustainable practices would have an impact on the rest of the world. The goal of a capstone project is to make an impact on a global scale and I initially had trouble understanding how my work in conserving Biscayne Bay, Miami's Pine Rocklands, and the Everglades could do that. Then it came to me, all these local ecosystems have 2 things in common that are a larger part of the biosphere--1) water and 2) biodiversity. The water we drink and manage here in South Florida travels throughout the world, throughout the oceans and atmosphere. Areas of high biodiversity are also important as researchers and environmentalists seek to protect these areas for the array of ecosystem services they provide to us and other organisms. By understanding how my work was having a global impact on environmental issues, I was able to transition my future plans as an anthropologist to an environmental researcher and advocate.
Global learning has also impacted what I want to do in the future. I initially entered FIU with the idea that I wanted to become a cultural anthropologist, but after taking several GL courses, I shifted my focus to environmental issues. GL courses expanded my horizons and encouraged me to apply to earn a second bachelors degree in environmental studies. Now, I hope to attend graduate school and earn a masters in environmental planning and management with a focus on marine and coastal affairs. I hope to bring the interdisciplinary and global perspectives I have gained in the classroom to my future field of work.
Aside from the courses, the program also gave me the opportunity to engage in a local non-profit, the Tropical Audubon Society. As part of my capstone experience, I sought not only to gain skills in environmental advocacy and communications but also wanted to learn how protecting local environments and promoting sustainable practices would have an impact on the rest of the world. The goal of a capstone project is to make an impact on a global scale and I initially had trouble understanding how my work in conserving Biscayne Bay, Miami's Pine Rocklands, and the Everglades could do that. Then it came to me, all these local ecosystems have 2 things in common that are a larger part of the biosphere--1) water and 2) biodiversity. The water we drink and manage here in South Florida travels throughout the world, throughout the oceans and atmosphere. Areas of high biodiversity are also important as researchers and environmentalists seek to protect these areas for the array of ecosystem services they provide to us and other organisms. By understanding how my work was having a global impact on environmental issues, I was able to transition my future plans as an anthropologist to an environmental researcher and advocate.