By ALANNA KAISER
With the start of the new year came the beginning of my second semester as a CGS intern! After a positive experience last semester, I chose to return to the Center for the duration of the school year. Now that I know what I’m doing and have become a master at answering emails in less than 24 hours (usually…), I’m hoping to spend this semester doing CGS tasks as efficiently as possible, and to hopefully get more exposure to global environmental topics, since that, after all, is my major area of interest.
Even though we’re only a short while into the 2015 spring semester, CGS already has their hands full. We’ve kicked off this semester’s brown bag lectures, have helped out with various comparative literature luncheons, and even hosted a few graduate student presentations. Unfortunately, unlike last semester when I was living the good life with a very open class schedule, this semester has me toiling away in classes at all hours of the day (Seriously, 9am-9pm on some days…) so I don’t have the opportunity to attend many of the lunch hour events that I would like to. My weekdays definitely lack the hearty dose of CGS that they had last semester.
However, all hope is not lost! CGS does have programs exclusive to the spring semester that occur out of the traditional nine-to-five time spectrum. Among these events is the World Stories Alive series. CGS, in partnership with the Schlow Center Region Library and Global Connections, runs World Stories Alive almost every Saturday morning at 11am at the Schlow Library. During these events, short children’s stories and nursery rhymes are told in different world languages, including French, Arabic, Chinese, Turkish, Romanian, and Spanish to name a few. After the stories and songs are over, the kids and their families get to make a craft connected to the story or the culture of whichever language is being focused on during that week. For parents, it’s a great way to start building a global perspective in their kids early, or to practice a language that may be connected to their heritage but rarely or never spoken at home. For kids, it’s a fun way to spend a Saturday morning, singing and making crafts to take home. For us interns, it’s a great way to get our fix of cute little kids making crafts and singing songs. Any way you frame it, World Stories Alive is a great series of programs.
As this semester progresses, I’ll hopefully be helping out with many more CGS events, in addition to assisting with the publications and paperwork that come out of the Center. First on my list to tackle is assisting with the possible formation of a lesson plan for a film that will be screened as part of the College Town Film Festival. This film, “Broken Landscape: Confronting India’s Water-Energy Choke Point“, is a great bridge between the global focus of CGS and my environmental interests. With any luck, us interns will produce a worth-while lesson plan for middle and high school students exploring the topics of coal extraction and the local environmental, economic, and health effects in one region of India.
With that in mind, I better get to work! Stay tuned for updates from myself and the rest of the semester’s CGS interns, and check out a complete list of CGS events here.