Year In Review: Year Three

In my reflection of A Year in China, I share the different experiences I had in

the past year studying at Fudan University in Shanghai and the impact it had
on my future plans. In an effort to not be repetitive, Id like to dedicate my
Year In Review to a single class that, and clich as it sounds, changed my life.

On Thursday of the first week of fall semester at Fudan University I

walked up to the third floor of the beautiful Guanghua Tower for my last
class of the week: Conflict Resolution and International Negotiation. I
dont remember my first impression of the course material, but I
remember very clearly sitting in awe at the laid-back professionalism
of the young teacher from Chile who had worked at the United
Nations before moving to Shanghai to teach and start a business
while I scrambled to quickly type the inspiring quotes he displayed on
his PowerPoint. If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never
come up with anything original. Sir Ken Robinson. We cannot solve
our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Isaac Newton. I was zero-ed in for the entire three-hour class.
But the early weeks of the semester drained my enthusiasm by the
end of each week. The midterm passed and I knew I was only passing
with a C average. It was not until a guest speaker came and gave an
impressive talk about life and purpose that the entire class jumped
back on track.
What is the purpose of life? he asked us toward the end of class. He
was sitting on a table at that point but came back to his feet as he
stared with intense eyes, fully aware that he had made mutes of us all.
You dont get to fucking ask that question, he frowned. On your last
day, life will ask you what was the meaning of your life. And youd
better have an answer.
Two days later Paris was attacked.
We gathered in class and the professor took the entire class to break
from the lesson plan and open discussion about what had happened as
we tried to wrap our minds around it. I had been a mess all week. My
best friend was in Paris, a handful of the students in the class were
from France, and we were all in shock. More upsetting, we felt helpless.
But nothing surprised me more than how in three short hours our
entire perspectives changed. We started referencing course material
about perspective and identity that we didnt even realize we
remembered. We started looking at the terrorist crisis not with the

question, Why are these groups attacking? but with the question:
What have we done to create this? It was a humbling and inspiring
experience.
What that class taught me going forward is that although I am only one
person, I have the power to make a difference in the world. In the time
after that class I began research to start a nonprofit in China an idea
which was delayed only because of the incredible amount of red tape
surrounding nonprofits in China (things like requiring all NPOs to
register with a government-agency as supervisor, which in turn leads
to over 80% of all nonprofits in China operating illegally and without
registration). But my goal to make an impact in the world has not
waned. What I realized later was that this drive to help the world how I
can has always been there. It was the driving force of my desire to
become a Foreign Service Officer, to become a TA, to intern with a
nonprofit while in China. My biggest take away from my third year
and especially this course was that I can make a difference in the
world in a number of different ways, and not get stuck on one specific
path to achieving this.
In the next year I will return to the University of Cincinnati for the fall
semester before embarking on my next journey: an eight-month co-op
in Germany. In this year, I hope to take what I have learned from this
course and apply it to what I am involved in during my fourth year:
assisting Professor Macarie with his iCats mentoring program for
Chinese students, volunteering with IPALs, searching for and eventually
working for a nonprofit for my German co-op, and improving my
website-building skills to be able to start my own website for Syrian
Refugee support. As I am now officially passed the midway point of my
undergraduate career, I hope to start translating my experiences into
achievements.