Global Courses

As part of the requirement for this program along with my time at Forsyth Tech has afforded me the opportunity to take a number of courses designed with a global interest. Each course presents a different perspective based on the discipline covered. As a result, I've learned a great deal and it's helped broaden my learning and experience with different cultures, viewpoints, priorities, and how they see our world. Here is a sample of what I've taken away from my experience.

Introduction to Sociology

Introduction to Sociology – Martha Lang - SOC-210

The difference geographic location has on culture and behavior in people throughout the world was deeply interesting and an extensive concept focused on in Intro to Sociology. Including how norms can vastly differ from separate societies, as well as, the question of how they originated, what experiences did one people have that others didn't that made their values and virtues distinctly what they are present day. As well as how civilization is affected by sociological theories, that relate to how predispositions from others about a distinct group in society led to inequality in so many areas, based on what were inherently merely biological features.

I learned most about generally how people's interactions with each other change depending on the culture of the people, which is so largely independent in a lot of societies around the world. The course helped me to understand much better that a lot of what I consider normal daily occurrences like meeting for coffee as a way to talk to a friend, could be unique to my region and exclusive from another. The introduction of the Sociological Imagination concept changed how I think about these things, and consider how nations vary in lifestyles, as a way to explain the disparities in their customs and mine. Understanding these differences in the way people live is a significant way to bridge the initial feeling of division when meeting someone with a cultural background very different from mine.

You can check out my report on South Korea including some interesting facts about their culture and heritage by clicking on the included PDF file.

Global Prj S Korea (PDF Version)

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World Religions

World Religions – Emmett Page – REL-110

Spiritual faith creates a foundation for one’s beliefs and behaviors throughout one’s life. Since it has such a profound impact on people, a lack of exposure to or understanding of various spiritual beliefs, can make it difficult to relate to people of different faiths/religions. Often people from different countries, for example, have trouble interacting at first because they aren’t familiar with each other’s customs. That’s one reason why I think the subject of global religions is essential in education, even in our personal lives, by improving one’s knowledge and intuition when confronted with the stigma to realize what’s true, what isn’t, and why a so-called “outsider” would think the way they do.

During this course, I was able to interview Minister Gary Jaskula of the New York Buddhist Church. I learned about his journey to the position of minister of the church, along with the values he developed along the way. While the full course didn't go in-depth into specific individual religious aspects, such as Taoism or Sufism practices that are involved in the faith, the most prominent aspects of religions in different areas of the world were focused on and explained. The result being this helps enormously with grasping a branching religion, understanding its foundation, and thus the essence of the virtues others carry throughout their lives. Ultimately, this education leads to more effective communication and relations with others of differing belief systems.

With religion, as with science, education is not the enemy, on the contrary, the more we know and understand the stronger our faith becomes.

General Psychology

General Psychology - Jason Levi - PSY-150

Psychology and behavior can be regional and depend a lot on where one lives or grew up. Like mental conditions caused by nutritional deficiencies that are based on where a person lives. The words mental “condition” and “disorder” can be stigmatized often and made to seem less common and more severe than they might be. In reality, they’re very broad terms and while not ideal, the type of condition is an important distinction to decipher what exactly its impact on life will be. What’s considered a mental irregularity can be trivial, and sometimes not even negative in nature.

After learning how to recognize psychological characteristics, the next key subject was the treatment of precise conditions, often through therapeutic means. My main takeaway was just how common a part of life mental well-being and psyche “disorders” can be, contrary to how it’s often perceived.

World Religions Interview Project

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Introduction to Human Nutrition

Introduction to Human Nutrition - Mary Beth Hynek - BIO-155

Dietary choices depend significantly on culture and often reflect what food sources have been particularly abundant in that part of the world for many years.

An equally important aspect of food culture to consider is dietary restrictions based on religion, like kosher, a guideline for food limitations in Jewish Culture. It’s important to remember how drastically different other countries’ eating habits can be especially for those that do a lot of traveling.

An emphasized project of the course was on analyzing the diets of other countries, understanding what the country’s citizens eat, and dissecting what the diet says about the region’s average nutritional intake. Which countries are likely to have deficiencies and excesses, and why?

View the included PDF file to see my PowerPoint presentation on German foods.

Germany Diet (PDF version}

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World Civilizations I

World Civilizations I - Sonia Chandarana Tandon - HIS111

Culture is influenced by where you come from. Sure, a region's characteristics cultivate the lifestyle of the inhabitant to a degree. For instance, those that opt to reside in the Arctic Circle during the three-month polar night know very well to prepare for life to be a lot different. Therefore, this course focused on the establishment of some pretty fundamental functions of society like politics and religion, and how they began their perpetuated, essential existence in communities from the past to the present.

Dietary restrictions and surplus, mechanical tools, and electric energy are all parts of the evolutionary path developing civilizations will eventually take. This is typically in an effort to grow productivity so that all parts of life can keep flourishing. This would be the ideal thought process anyway. The truth is, it's more convoluted than that. Such as when the development of a culture changes for one reason or another (leadership change, war, etc.). For example, when the dominant religion molds its values into the society and encourages people to interact with the world around them in a corresponding way, independent of other beliefs entirely.

For the most part, the course acknowledges early stages of that process can be universal, in that many groups have developed in this manner initially before evolving into what they ultimately become.

World Civilization Short Writing Project

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Elementary Spanish I

Elementary Spanish I - DeOnna Reliford - SPA111

The way communities engage with each other varies all the time with vernacular, jargon, dialects, or anything else that makes a language exclusive. Language is always coated with nuance, and being introduced deep into a foreign language is an especially good way to understand this concept.

Spanish is a good example for native English speakers as to how “expression” in different countries will have conventional methods of speaking in that country that will be distinct from other languages. Some examples include making words about general things gender-specific or structuring the word order (i.e. noun followed by an adjective) differently in a sentence. Yet, even with this, there are times when the two can also be directly translatable and make sense to the other party translating the conversation.

So, becoming familiar with how another group uses their words specifically, is a basic step to learning how another culture conveys an idea, a feeling, or having any kind of multi-faceted conversation. This course wasn't just composed of what the basics of the language were. I had actual conversations with multiple professional Spanish language coaches that were articulated in Latin American Spanish as part of the class. My coaches strongly discouraged the ability to use my own native language as a crutch, therefore, these interactions required me to practice interpretation first-hand.

This experience also, however, allowed me to interact directly with citizens of Spain and Guatemala, speaking in their language and learning about their culture. The conversations were very similar to how one would interact in a casual setting, much like a foreigner visiting their country to learn about their traditions. This gave it a very authentic feel and made a big difference in how I learned to begin interpreting the language, along with discovering more about their day-to-day culture and traditions.

Spanish Coaching Meetings Journal

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State and Local Government

State and Local Government - Brian Hutchens - POL130

The syllabus for this course explains how it relates to the Global Scholar of Distinction program in that it is “designed to help prepare students for a world where virtually everything—the economy, culture, politics, and business— is global in scope.”

As we studied the way state and local governments operate in this country as compared to other industrialized nations I realized that the overall federal government structure cannot be completely separated. Therefore, how countries operate at the federal level can have an impact at the state and local levels as well. The term all politics is local shows the effects can go both ways. In the U.S. state and local governments are heavily impacted by their tax revenue along with the high cost of maintaining basic services. In addition, revenue expansion through new business formations and/or recruitment with incentives play a strong role as well. Across the globe, however, depending on how a country’s federal government operates, be it ethically and morally sound, or corrupt, can have a beneficial or detrimental effect on its citizens.

Although, where there’s power there’s always a certain level of corruption, deception, and dishonesty, even in our great country, it’s still a tremendous difference from lesser nations around the world whose GDP is 1/50 of ours, or worse, and whose leadership focuses more on the needs of the few at the expense of the many. On the surface, this is something that would appear to be widely understood, but it takes on a different tone when you see actual examples of other countries’ citizens not having the benefits that Americans can take for granted and even complain about. It gives the viewer a different perspective to build upon.

Elementary Spanish II

Elementary Spanish II - Laura Hortal - SPA112

This is the second in my three-part series of Spanish language courses. In this course, in addition to expanding on vocabulary and sentence structure, we continued the Lingua meetings with native Spanish-speaking tutors, where we speak all in Spanish.

One of the differences in this course was the inclusion of “immersion experiences” whereby we could write about our particular immersion experience with the Spanish culture. This could include festivals, food, entertainment, cinema, lifestyle, fashion, and just about any other significant factor you can imagine. It allowed us to be creative and explore the facet of the culture that we found most interesting. Thus, because our interest was higher we tended to take away more things from the material. For instance, how Cristela Alonzo in her Netflix special “Middle Classy” (2022) emphasized the importance of family in every aspect of your life, young and old alike, especially when it comes to enjoying and celebrating special moments in our lives. How the Hispanic culture has its unique sense of fashion and how it compares to the U.S., with colors, styles, layers, combinations, and more. There’s also the movie, “The Valet” (in Spanish and English), produced by 3Pas Studios and Pantelion Films (2022), where they introduce the gentrification that was taking place in the main character Antonio’s neighborhood. Addressing how the culture and traditions of the neighborhood were slowly being replaced.

The immersion addition to this second course was important. As my vocabulary increases and my correct usage improves, because of the immersion projects, I’m learning even more about the people, their culture, and the big and small things that make their lifestyle so interesting and appealing.

Mis Vacaciones a Colombia

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Philosophical Issues and Ethics

Philosophical Issues and Ethics - Dr. Cannon - PHI240

Professor Cannon’s Philosophical Issues and Ethics course was enlightening in the breadth that traditional ethics were explored. One moment that stands out to me with regard to this class occurred during my work on our semester project. We were to pick from a variety of media options including paintings, sculptures, pictures, videos, audio recordings, and more, and address a series of questions in relation to the work and the artist who created it.

I chose a work that included a series of miniature sculptures from the artist Mohamad Hafez, included in a video of his work entitled, “New York Minute Films: Mohamad”. I’ve attached my project in PDF form, just to the right of this description. You can learn more about it by clicking on the attachment. Overall, however, I was intrigued by the enormous levels of opportunity where ethics play a vital role in our society. This circumstance is related to the troubles in Syria and its impact on its citizens and the rest of the world. I was surprised when I realized how one person’s interpretation of an event can stimulate so many different reactions, some polar opposites of what the artist had in mind. I saw how this “difference in opinion and perspective” can lead to dangerous conflict and threats to the artists themselves. Equally (I presume), as well, some forms can lead to actual change in cultural perspectives that truly make a difference as in the famous “Tank Man” (a.k.a. the Unknown Protester). The nickname of what’s believed to be a Chinese student who stood in front of a column of tanks leaving Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 5, 1989. His act was in defiance of the Chinese government's violent crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests. After the video and subsequent picture, the world began to take notice. Ultimately, I learned art is a powerful way to address the ethical, and societal conflicts in our world today. As a result, I have a rekindled admiration for art in all its forms.

Contemporary, Non-Western Art & Its Cultural Impact

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