Today is the (kinda) first day of Fall Break (no classes tomorrow or Friday)! Since midterm papers and exams just ended, I thought this post was long overdue regarding the classes that I am actually taking this semester. In case you didn't know, I also declared a concentration earlier this month and made everything official. Now, I can finally tell everyone that I am a declared International Studies major with an International Development concentration. (Disclaimer: I can still change my major/minor/concentration before the end of the academic year, so there's a possibility this can change) Because my major is interdisciplinary in nature, I have to choose a disciplinary focus in one department, which I haven't decided yet. As for now, I'm leaning towards Geography. Monday/Wednesday/Friday: Geography of World Urbanization The Geography department at Macalester is well known for its ability to turn incoming new students into Geography majors/minors, regardless of their original academic intentions. From looking at the course catalog last spring, I noticed that many classes had an international focus, so I signed up for one and decided to find out the hype behind the department. While this class is slightly difficult for me to understand at first (it's not the Geography intro class), I found the professor very entertaining to listen to. One thing I love this semester are my professors, two out of four of them are Asian women; I'm really enjoying learning from professors who share a similar background as I do. Likewise, seeing Asian women as professors gives me the sense that I can potentially become a professor in academia if I were to pursue that goal. Introduction to the Analysis of Hispanic Texts After being scared out of the Hispanics department last spring when I sat in on the same class but with like 20 upperclassmen (I opted against registering the class last spring), I decided to register for this class for the fall; this time, only 15 people are in my class, and I have a friend from my previous Spanish class as one of my classmates. This semester really has me doubting my Spanish skills. After starting the semester with a poetry unit and reading works from Pablo Neruda and Jorge Luis Borges, I realized that much of my Spanish skills come from my limitations of thinking in English. On the bright side, I can now analyze Spanish poems better than English poems. Tuesday/Thursday: Introduction to International Human Rights I might have briefly mentioned this before, but the professor in this class is actually the same professor who I have taken my Intro to International Studies class with. Since my professor is a lawyer, he approaches the class with a law perspective. I enjoy listening to his stories that relate to the class topics and find it very eye-opening to hear. While I am all for human rights, I don't actually see myself working at a non-profit or an activist group in the future. However, a recent guest speaker has changed the way that I think of a career. She opened her own consulting firm several years ago after working for a larger firm, and she specifically works with larger corporations to identify human rights issues within the company and its relations. I thought her job seems pretty amazing. International Politics Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm regretting my choice in registering for this class. While I love the professor and her teaching style, the class is a lot more conceptual and abstract than I expected. Also, since this is an introduction class, the majority of the students are first-years (not that it really matters status-wise, but it does affect class discussions). I don't know what to make of this class in all honesty. Aside from my original interest, this class doesn't fulfill any requirement for me.
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about mecollege student. junior. international studies major. over-the-top foodie. archives
February 2018
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