We are pleased to announce Alyssa Bourmeche as the new SAIS secretary. Congrats to the new e-board again! Can’t wait to see what great leadership you will bring to the next academic year! If you’re interested in getting involved, check out our various committees: The Blog Team, Peer Advising, UN Advocates, and the Events Committee!
Esraa Saleh (President)
Maria Deaquis (Vice President)
Nikita Voevodin (Treasurer)
Alyssa Bourmeche (Secretary)
The Black Student Union at CCNY, Capoeira @ City, the Dominican Student Association DSA, Tau Epsilon Phi Fraternity Inc, the Student Association for International Studies, and Ccny Salsa Mambo Club bring you:
The 2nd Annual Afro-Latino Encuentro!
When: Tuesday February 18th, 2014 5-8pm
Where: Hoffman Lounge at The City College of New York
“Identity Through Art” Panel Discussion with:
Tony Perlata, Sisa Bueno, Alicia Anabel Santos, and María Isabel Hernández Amarante
Performances: Capoeira @ City and an Afro-Latin Jazz Band
Description:
The objective of the event is for our CCNY community to learn about the roots of the Afro-Latino culture, and most importantly, to embrace them. The African influence in Latino culture is so huge, yet so very disappointingly underrepresented. When many of us think of “Black” people, we think of African-Americans. We want to educate people that Black people are, not only in the United States, but all over the world; our event will focus, in particular, on the experience of those of African descent in Latin America. Outside of Africa, Latin America holds the largest amount of Afro-descended people—larger than the amount the United States does. We want to change the typical notion people have on Black History Month: if we can honor Americans of African Descent from the United States, we can also honor those from Central and South America and the Caribbean. Whether we honor someone who speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, or Creole—that shouldn’t matter. The point is that if we go down the bloodline, African Americans from the United States and those from the rest of the Americas have ancestors who came from the same place: Africa.
Model United Nations.
If I had to describe my experience with this course, I would have to say it was one of those college courses that left an imprint in your college experience. The course was definitely inspiring and enlightening to me, and I would recommend this course to anyone who wants an impact in their academic life. This may sound like a typical cliché comment regarding the course, but this typical cliché comment is true, and I will explain why.
The beginning…
When I first heard about the course, I was not sure if I would enjoy it. People said that it was work intensive and stressful, and that scared me a little because I was not sure if I would handle it. I was scared that I could flunk the course and it would affect my GPA. In the end, I decided to take the course anyways because a friend of mine told me that if I wanted to see a growth in my academic career and see my strengths and weaknesses, the course was worth taking.
The middle…
When people said it was work intensive and stressful, they were not lying. The constant update regarding world news, endless research regarding a small European country that was practically the same age as I was and not many people know of (Oh Slovenia), and the balance of helping and competing against your classmate within your committee. Moreover, I personally had to step out of my comfort zone in order to make speeches in front of the class and learn a writing format that I had no prior experience writing in. Despite the intensity, I found growth in myself as a student with the constant research and organizations with my notes, along with a change in myself personally as I began to get over my anxiety with making speeches (always with the “um”).
The end…
How the course was formatted, only half of the students in the course were picked to go to the National Model United Nations Conference in New York. I didn’t get picked to represent my committee (IAEA: International Atomic Energy Agency) at the conference. However, I was given the chance to represent another committee for the conference (UNCTAD: United Nations Committee for Trade and Development), but I had to learn all the materials within a week. Luckily, I had the teacher, the head delegates, the Independent Study Group, and former CCNY Model United Nations delegates to help me and my partner (“Thank goodness!”).
The conference was a long roller coaster ride of good and bad. The good: I got to meet a lot of students all across country and around the world, went through a little prank shenanigans, got to party a little bit with some of these students at the end of the day from a long day of debating and persuading on typing up a resolution, and stayed in a hotel that was already paid for. The bad: I was stressed, had lack of sleep, and loss of appetite to a point where I rarely ate. At the end of the conference, we got a chance to see the inside of the United Nations.
Overall…
Despite my internal complaints and thoughts of ripping my hair out, I was a little disappointed and sadden that the course had to come to its semester end. It was definitely a stressful and work intensive, but it was all worth it. I got to see myself grow as a student during the course, put my newly found knowledge and skills to the test at a conference against over 200 colleges and universities (our school won ‘Distinguished Delegation’ at the end of the conference), learned a lot about the United Nations and the process within the UN, and made new friends.
This was my experience with Model United Nations. If you want to know the true experience of Model United Nations, try it out for yourself.
For those who is preparing to take the course, I will see you as your head delegate when Spring 2014 starts.
As was previously announced on the IS Media – the time has come for the passing of the torch for this website! Meet the newest member of the SAIS Leadership Team – Sharon Shaji!
Sharon Shaji is a freshman at Macaulay Honors College at CCNY, with the intention of doing a double major in International Studies and Economics. As the new blog committee lead, she is chiefly responsible for maintaining and running the blog, www.global-city.org, and managing writers.
As the blog creator, I am excited to see where the blog will go, and am happy to see it continue in the hands of an enthusiastic, kind, and qualified person. From now on, you will be seeing less of me and more of Sharon! Cheers!
Finals season has officially kicked in and many of you are probably going away for the holidays!
Let’s have one big hurrah and what better way to enjoy it than with your fellow IS’ers and food 🙂
When: Thursday, December 12th at 12:30pm
Where: IS Lounge, NAC 6/293
It would be awesome if you could contribute something to the potluck. The more food we have, the merrier! Looking forward to seeing everyone 🙂
Please click here to fill out the form to indicate what you will be bringing:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1CgYlGtEzUrZeiAVilkSrM6v6ZzXu70DYyAlVF4YzSrU/viewform
Please click here to view what others will be bringing if you want to get a sense of what to bring:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoJ8LSsyr9nOdDltdmlEeXVxRy1WRGZWR18zRTJiYkE#gid=0
See the links below for all of our amazing event photos from IEW!
Culture Across Continents: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.10152023757133158.1073741837.107862973157&type=3
International Career Day: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152017450188158.1073741836.107862973157&type=3
Language Circle: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152023824708158.1073741839.107862973157&type=3
Global City 