On October 24, my fellow intern Katie and I got to host our event “Echoes of 20th CenturyFascism on Modern Politics and Culture” after a long and arduous period of planning – it wasn’t easy!

Finding a venue and time was easy, thanks to the help of Sarah, Mary, and Emily, but finding speakers was the difficult part. I had to have sent out emails to at least 30 professors and graduate students before we finalized with Dr. Jens-Uwe Guettel, Doctoral Candidate Kevin Reuning, and graduate student Brad Morabito.

Despite the strenuous task of finding the speakers, I could not have asked for more knowledgable or engaged speakers than the three gentlemen that we had. It was evident that each was an expert in their field not only in their well-organized presentations, but in their responses to questions from the crowd after they presented.

On that note, the crowd honestly surprised me. We had over 20 participants, more than I wouldhave expected, and all of them were entertained, engaged, and interested in the discussion. I had some friends from my political science and history courses, and they all gave me encouraging words about the event since they knew that I had helped plan it. Them being there meant a lot for me because I know how busy their course schedules are, yet they made time to support me and learn about fascism – not necessarily the most fun of topics.

The CGS staff was also very commendable through it all and helped make it a huge success. Katie helped immensely with planning, organizing, and hosting with me, while Sarah, Emily, and Mary helped with the logistics and made it possible to pull of the event seamlessly. Their expertise in event hosting really showed.

All in all, it was a pleasant experience that taught me valuable communication skills, event planning, and communication among speakers, colleagues, and school faculty. Moving forward, due to the lessons learned from emailing professors, I will have to start planning events about two months out, at least!

– Aaron Morris