Author Archives: bdm5190

Round 2

By  BEN MECK

Hello, again! As my final semester gets rolling it looks like I won’t have much time to rest and play video games. So far this semester it has been interesting to say the least. In the beginning of this semester I had to finish up clubs for one of our fellow interns that moved on this semester; meaning I had to teach small children. Please keep in mind, the only experience in this field I have is maintaining the peace when I see my little cousin and nieces, so a classroom full of them was challenging to say the least. However, I pushed through, taught them some origami and had them the color and the world kept spinning round.

I have also been more active with the CGS this semester as well. I’ve been tasked with putting together a career event, taking pictures at events, as well as helping with our World Stories events on Saturday mornings. Needless to say by the end of this semester I will be the king of crafts (not only did we do crafts at the elementary school there is a craft portion at the Saturday events as well). I’m still doing similar things as last semester, helping with our Brown Bag lectures on Wednesdays, making posters and other various tasks that come up. I must say I enjoy the fact that it isn’t always the same! I am really looking forward to the International Affairs talks that are coming up (look it up on our webpage if you are curious), there is a talk on terrorism and that is just right down my alley being a Security and Risk Analysis major and all.

We also have two new interns with us this round; Bridget and Leah. Both of them seem very capable and are very nice. Bridget is our new media person which I am very thankful for seeing how I don’t use social media that much and that just makes my life a little easier! Leah will be doing the same things that me and Alanna already do, helping with events and making posters and the like.

Overall I think this will be a good semester. There’s some exciting events that are coming up that will give me plenty to do so that has got me pretty pumped and I can’t wait for the lecture I mentioned earlier.

Adios until next month!

Upcoming Event for International Week

As we all know we have International Education Week coming up here at Penn State. The event will be taking place November 12th through the 19th with plenty of movies, lectures, and events going on that week.  Us interns here at CGS have been given the opportunity to add to this week with our own events. I felt that this would be a good time to have people learn about extremism and Islam

For my lecture I hope to recruit a professor I work for to give a presentation on ISIS and how it threatens the stability of the Middle East and how it threatens everyone over the globe. I also want it to be made clear, just because this radical group has Islamic ideologies doesn’t mean that all Muslims support this. I feel that too many people misconceive the two ideas and mold them together since lately they have been the latest group to have extremist goals.  People have always had the idea that if a few of a certain group radicalize then the whole religion is and that isn’t the case. There have been many examples of this in the past with other religions too, take Christianity. Christianity led many crusades into the holy lands and murdered and killed thousands of people; that was a form of radicalization. You could even make the case that the Spanish Inquisition was another form or radicalization; and no one ever suspects the Spanish Inquisition (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJZ2m6_T1wc&list=RD7WJXHY2OXGE&index=4).

My goal is to have a presentation on ISIS and perhaps even a question and answer segment afterwards. I feel that this event will draw a lot of people because of how relevant it is in today’s news. Every day I turn on CNN or Fox or I check BBC on the internet and its always ISIS this and ISIS that; if ISIS hasn’t been on your mind even just a little bit lately you must live under a rock. Originally I figured I would have my event towards the end of International Education Week, that way my speaker would have the max amount of time to prepare. The more I think about it however, the more I realize that since this topic will probably be so big that if we do it at the beginning of the week it’ll help draw attention to the rest of the events. Overall keep your eye’s peeled for this lecture coming up, it’s going to be great.

Here we gooooooo!

By BEN MECK on September 17, 2014

In the words of my high school cross country coach, “here we go!” I’m excited to be a part of this years team of interns for CGS, being how this is the first internship I’ve ever had. My expectations for this experience are vague to say the least.

Being an Security and Risk major, this job seems like an odd fit. When I was looking for an internship, my adviser pointed this out to me and said that I qualified. I read about it and it seemed interesting so I applied, and now I’m talking to you all. If you think about it though its really not that odd of a place for someone such as myself. This is the Center for Global Studies after all and my major has to do with security and part of being secure is knowing what is going on around you.

As you all can read, my colleagues that I’ll be working with this year are involved with the after school program. I had thought about taking part in such a program but I had found that I was too busy but you may see me from time to time helping said colleagues of mine keep the children in line!

Currently I find this internship not to be that difficult, just perhaps a bit taxing when it comes to time. It is nothing that can’t be handled just that with everything I have to do, it just adds fuel to the fire. Although it may seem like a large task during some bits, Mrs. Lyall-Combs has always emphasized that she is around to help if need be. I find that to be very kind of her. I have heard from others with internships that sometimes they are just thrown into their internship and never given any guidance. I have been very appreciative of that lately.

In the future I see this job developing into something more meaningful than in its current state. I foresee some of the tasks I have been given really challenging me be on top of my game and that excites me. There’s nothing like a good puzzle or challenge to wake you up from getting caught in the common place fixtures of ones own life! As I come across these challenges I’ll make sure to keep you all informed.