Month: April 2022

I have been making blog post every semester for the last 5 years about my international experience at not just OU but my time abroad. It is bittersweet typing this because although I will miss it; I am excited for the next chapter of my life. I loved that I was able to be part of this program because it let me continue my love for learning about different languages and communities with a degree path that was STEM related. It showed me the importance of how traveling does shape you to be a more understanding person because there is so much more to this world that the city you live in and the people you surround yourself with. I do wish covid didn’t interfere with the last 2 years but it brought a lot of knowledge that as a society we were lacking. I still think global engagement day was my favorite days within this program because not only did you get to talk nonstop about your time abroad but you learned so much from others stories. If I had one piece of advice for anyone starting this program is to talk to older members about their time abroad. I know I had a lot of information dealing with medical advice since I did fracture my foot in Arezzo. I am so happy OU even though the funds are not as much as they used to be for this program they have still made it an opportunity for incoming freshman. I know I would off been less involved on campus if it wasn’t for this. I will miss it very much but what I learned in the past 5 years will help me so much in my future and I can’t wait to continue expanding my knowledge about the global community. I would also love to come back and talk to future fellows about my last 5 years. Anyways, I am so glad I will have this to look back on in years to come.

Much love,

Stefania

As I type my last few blog posts I wanted to talk about the post-graduate job I obtain with a French company Schlumberger. It is an oilfield service company which locations all over the world. One of the main attractions to this job is the opportunity it gives its employees to travel by relocating them to different parts of the world. Although, my first location is set to be in Louisiana, I can’t wait where my future with this company takes me. The job also offers 6 days off every two weeks so I’m excited to use that opportunity to explore more of the US and the world. It shown me that even though I decided to go with a less international major like chemical engineering that did not limit my ability to still get to demonstrate my passion for international community. I know this is great opportunity that will let me learn not just about myself but learn about other cultures as well.

I decided this semester to once again join the Italian club that I was a part of in the beginning of my college career. Since, covid happened I got less involved in clubs outside engineering which does have an international aspect to them but is not for everyone. I got to practice the Italian that I somewhat forgot with the lack of practice in the last couple semesters. It made me realize how much I did love learning new languages and how much I missed it. It was fun to attend karaoke night at Michelangelo’s one last time before graduation. I would recommend everyone that has finish their language classes to keep up with the language club even though there is no more extra credit being offer for attendance. I will forever be thankful for OU love in Italy because it let me embrace that side of my heritage.

As a Christian living in a promplty christian community little is mentioned about other religions holidays. I spend 6 years in the Middle East where Ramadan was highly celebrated. Therefore, when I saw this event posted on group me I had to attend. It was very interesting relearning some of the traditions that other middle eastern countries had compared to Saudi Arabia. I had a blast reminiscing my childhood because I thought about all the late night mall trips I used to take when I lived there. Also, the festivities that followed Ramadan and how it was a big celebration no matter what religion. It was also interesting learning more in depth about the holiday since I did some research before attending. I would recommonded everyone to look into holidays from religions that differ yours. I am dreaming of going back to the Middle East to experience this celebration once again.

I attended this webinar because of the previous international event I attended a couple weeks prior. It was broken down into multiple characteristics that one can determine if it truly is security dilemma. The ones listed by the speaker were; interactivity, denial of interactivity, increasing dominance of inaccurate generalization about Self and Other, evidence of exceptionalism and dehumanization or infra-humanization, and policing internal discourse. Later graphs were demonstrated to show the trend between certain objectives like interactions between US and China events which shown a negative trend within the last couple years. I was honestly a little lost on the remaining topics of this webinar because of how in reality both governments overlap in quite a few ideas when talking about government. The difference is how each country demonstrates it. I would be interested in continuing my research in this global policies as we see what happens between these two countries as generations continue.

wealth of knowledge here

at my fingertips, waiting

to be discovered