Reflection

I started Florida International University (FIU) in the fall of 2015 as a transfer student from Miami Dade College (MDC). Prior to my university career and as a Miami native, I had only interacted with a small network of people and cultures very similar to my own. Since starting college at both MDC and FIU I have been able to expand that network and have had the opportunity to experience a multitude of different cultures and beliefs that have greatly enriched my time at both institutions. During my first semester at FIU, I enrolled in the global learning course Myth, Rituals, Mysticism in which I learned about emic and etic perspectives. Emic perspective is how a specific society perceives and categorizes the world, their rules for behavior, what has meaning for them, and how they imagine and explain things. Etic perspective is when an anthropologist decides what is important about a society and gives everything a meaning based on their experiences. In life, I hope to use these different concepts and ideas to connect with people and society and be a better individual.  I want to step outside of myself, step outside of my etic and biased perspective, and have an emic perspective. I want to view other cultures from their perspective to learn how they think and feel differently than myself. 
During my third year at FIU, I  enrolled in an additional Global Learning course: global psychology. One of the two group projects assigned in the global psychology course consisted of researching love, marriage, and romance across cultures. Working on that particular project really opened my eyes to the many differing and often disparate perspectives that cultures have on this topic alone. However, it also made me realize how unique each perspective was and how each one holds its own intrinsic value even if it is different from my own. If anything, this project helped me to become more open-minded and really began my appreciation for the truly global society we live in. No perspective or culture is wrong or right on any topic, but rather are a hallmark of what makes humanity so unique.  
During my final semester at FIU I attended the majority of my global learning events virtually. One of those events really made an impact on  me as it touched on issues that I had previously thought were unique to the United States.  It was a lecture presented  by Mariam Potocky, Ryan Essex, Barri Phatarfod, and Maria Giannacopoulos on Australia’s attempts to deter immigration through isolation. The panel  discussed  detention centers on two different islands where asylees often wait months or years for  their asylum cases to be processed. The conditions at these centers are so horrible, that the detainees  have had massive food strikes and self-harm episodes. One of the speakers was a doctor who was asked what the psychological repercussions of being held in isolation at such a  center were. Her answer really hit hard. She said that after eight months the likelihood that detainees  would be able to be functioning members of society after getting out of the center was very low. 
I think the reason this lecture had such an impact on me is because I was able to draw parallels to the detention centers in the United States where immigrants are also being held in isolation.. I am not fully aware of the  conditions in these centers, but if they are anything like the ones in Australia, it is very distressing to think that my country could be doing this to people. This issue hits even closer to home as Miami is a city full of immigrants, I have friends, teachers, and colleagues that are immigrants or are first generation Americans. To think that the people that have enriched my life in such positive ways could have been one circumstance away from being in a similar situation is disheartening at best.  The speakers in the lecture did highlight  one key way to make changes to this system: speak up and hold our governments accountable.
Upon completion of my university career I will have a Bachelor's degree in biology as well as psychology. My ultimate career goal is to study the behavior of animals to not only   learn more about them and aid in conservation efforts, but to also use that  information to increase our understanding of human behavior as well. The book Divergent by Veronica Roth has a quote that I believe summarizes my goals:  “We believe in shouting for those who can only whisper, in defending those who cannot defend themselves.” I want to do that not just for  animals, but also my fellow human beings.Garnering a global perspective has impressed upon me the importance of being an  involved citizen, a compassionate person, and a lover of the rainbow of differences that not only make up my own backyard, but the world as a whole.  Moving forward, I aim to use these newfound perspectives to inform how I make a difference in my community by either voting, donating, or speaking against social injustices.