New International Student’s Perspective.

by Melan Shifa

About Me

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My name is Melan, and I am an international first-year student at Minnesota State University. I applied for the Honors Program before coming to the US, so I was part of the program since day 1. Currently, I am doing a double major in physics and computer science. I have always been interested in everything to do with science and technology so I decided to pursue physics since it’s extremely broad and added computer science to learn about technology and be able to merge my theoretical knowledge of physics with my technical skills of computer science to work on technologies that would solve major problems happening in our world. My goal is to start different startups that address the problems preventing us from having a sustainable world. I hope to work on startups revolving around clean energy, vertical farming, transportation, and the like. I am also into astronomy, which is one of the reasons why I chose physics. Learning about the immensity of the cosmos humbles me and gets me to a peaceful state of mind. One fact that I would like to share is that – experiments suggest all the stars, planets, black holes, every single matter big and small make just 5 percent of the universe, the rest is Dark Energy and Dark matter which we really don’t know much about, scary, isn’t it? 

My experience as an International Student

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The International Students Association was one of the organizations that made me feel right at home here at MNSU. Coming thousands of miles away from home was a difficult thing due to being away from family and friends and the culture you grew up in. Some instances might make you feel like an outsider. It gets hard to fit in but that is what I signed up for. For me, it did get difficult at first, even though this is not my first time moving. I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, grew up in the culture and traditions. Then came 2017 when we moved to Ethiopia and everything around me was new. I had to adapt fast, starting from the way people spoke.  I knew how to speak the Ethiopian national language Amharic, but the way I did was different, which I only noticed when moving there. About 3 years passed by and I was almost used to everything. Then you know what happens; I moved about 7700 miles to here, the United States. I was scared since this time I am away from my family and on my own. I was ready to be challenged, but luckily, I adapted and got on track fast. This surprised me. I hypothesize that my previous experience built me up to be able to adapt to new environments quicker. 

I expected I would be alone here, knowing no one outside my friends. But the international student community at MNSU is massive, like surprisingly massive. I had the chance to meet different people from different parts of the world including my home countries Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. I eventually came across the ISA, and at that point, I knew I did the right thing coming here. ISA welcomed us, new students, in a warm manner. They organized events that allowed me to learn about the different cultures around the world, including things about my own culture that I did not know. I saw that ISA was an ambassador to the international community at MNSU and even in Mankato. This made me eager to join them and be part of the mission. I wanted to contribute something to help grow the organization. They welcomed me with open arms to the board, working side by side with some of the most inspiring students on campus, I look forward to my journey with ISA. 

My first project under ISA will be organizing a massive ISA talent show planned to take place this spring semester. It was fun brainstorming ideas, debating which one to go with, and coming to a common agreement. Working on the graphics for the project is what my main responsibility is, and it is the next level. Imagine working on publications that will be put everywhere across campus. I look forward to this event since it will be showcasing many cultures and talents. The dinner afterward will also be a great opportunity to connect with fellow students and learn from each other. I wish whoever signs up to perform good luck since the prizes this time are attractive. It is also a great way to showcase what talents you have as you never know where it might take you. Overall, this has been a glimpse of what the cultural part of my moving experience looked like. I look forward to my next couple of years here and learning new things. 

Melan Shifa 

Media Relations Coordinator 

Honors Program Office 

Connect With Me

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Website: www.melanshifa.com

Email: melan.shifa@mnsu.edu

Instagram : @melanshifa

Photography page: @themobile.photographer

Summer Internship: The Opportunity to Discover the Density of Your Quantum States…

by Tatiana Soboleva

Being a junior in biochemistry last year placed me in the hot spot of academic development, and more importantly, the ardent desire to get outside my comfort-zone and explore new worlds. My prodigious excitement of this past summer was joining the summer research internship offered by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Utah State University through a fellowship I received with the help of the Office of University Fellowships.

Applying for my fellowship was quite a challenging process, but a rewarding one! In essence, the application required a thoughtful approach towards several parameters about myself as student, an objective auto-analysis if you will: discovering what tools I had in my tool box that made me of interest to the programs I applied to.  This was the perfect time to work closely with the Office of University Fellowships and professors from my department. They offered me great advice in connecting with research organizations I was interested in, including potential schools and labs that offer such opportunities. When it came to searching for specific fellowships and putting together my application, I found the staff at the Office of University Fellowships extremely helpful. They reviewed my applications multiple times, giving constructive and objective feedback. They helped me to write and re-write my essays until I had a well-rounded product that reflected my best personal capabilities, goals, and motivations.

I pursued an inorganic and organometallic synthesis research opportunity and became part of a new scientific family- Dr. L. Berreau’s research lab. This is not an exaggeration- by joining the program, I became a member of an entire family where everyone was responsible for me and I was responsible for my project.

My experience at Utah State University helped me to determine my research field for my ultimate PhD career. I absolutely fell in love with the brainstorming of reaction design, its practical execution, and the analysis of outcomes and potential improvements.

During my internship, I learned a lot about the manner in which graduate school operates. I did observe only the summer work regime of the graduate students I collaborated with; however, I got an accurate image of what I could expect to see during my graduate studies. I was able to ask questions about graduate school experiences from the graduate students I knew in the lab. That helped me to understand what that realm of academia looks like. To summarize graduate studies in a sentence, it is a hard work! Graduate students spend a lot of time researching and studying. Working with graduate students gave me the opportunity to hear the heart rate of the lab.

My fellowship opportunity let me clearly see the cracks in the walls of my knowledge in chemistry and biochemistry. It also revealed areas that I was interested in, but did not have a prior exposure to. I like to nickname my experience, “the diagnostic center for my academic car.” It might sound strange, but truly, it was exciting to be able to visualize what I need to remodel, refresh, repair and buy for my academic-knowledge car. I love shopping in this case!

A lesson I learned about the process of becoming a professional is that it is often staggered by a person’s inability to determine areas that need improvement. Gradually they become satisfied with where they are at; that is not what science is about! They have to be perpetually mobile; otherwise, the flame that was once lit in them will cease to exist with the lack of oxygen.

To conclude this short discussion, I would like to thank the scientific family of Dr. Berreau’s lab that adopted me for the past summer, showing me the path of my interests and giving me tools to get close to the destination; letting me perceive the density of my quantum states and inspiring me to extensively replenish my knowledge.

Some of My Favorite Intercultural Encounters

An inspiring insight on culture as a warm welcome to campus by your Honors Director, Dr. Dahlman

Global citizenship to me does not necessarily mean exotic travel to faraway places. Just traveling to new places without investing in learning about cultures is just that, traveling. Globally minded citizens engage with people from different cultures wherever and whenever.   It is my life’s mission to learn about other people, their cultures and views and promote intercultural understanding.

I would like to share just a couple of my favorite intercultural encounters and what I learned from them.  One of my favorite interactions has been with a student who I got to know in one of my classes many years ago at MSU, Mankato. She was from Egypt and had also lived in Kenya. She had lived half of her life in a refugee camp.  Coming to the U.S. and Minnesota meant an amazing opportunity for her both personally and professionally.  However, she faced many obstacles while in college.  Despite the fact that she was a brilliant individual, she wasn’t always able to demonstrate this through her language abilities. She told me that failure was not an option for her because her professional goals were not hers alone but that her hopes and dreams were also for the people back home in Africa. We stayed in touch when she graduated. I just saw her a month ago at the University of Minnesota, where she is currently in Medical School (and doing really well!!).  She has taught me so many lessons about resilience, hope and commitment.

When we talk about cultures, we don’t just mean ethnicity, race or different countries.  My next example deals with culture in terms of socio-economic status.  This incident happened last winter. I was sitting at a coffee shop in the Twin Cities on a Saturday morning. I saw a homeless person sitting on a park bench outside of the coffee shop.  It was chilly and he did not have a coat on.  From the corner of my eye I saw how he entered the coffee shop (I assumed to warm up a bit) but was escorted out as he did not purchase a drink.  I stood up and went outside to him and asked him if I could purchase a coffee for him. He looked me in the eyes and said, “Thank you ma’am.” I purchased a huge cup of coffee and a muffin for him.  Five minutes later I saw how he stood up and walked right into the coffee shop and sat down in one of the comfy leather chairs and drank his coffee.  That day I learned the lesson of human dignity and how we can do little things to help even if we cannot rescue people.

My last example of a cultural encounter happened last December when I was in Warsaw, Poland, to do a workshop for teachers there.  I take pride in the fact that I speak several languages and always try to accommodate communication by speaking the local language.  However, I don’t speak any Polish.  Many people spoke English there but not all. I noticed how people who knew very little English tried so hard so that we could communicate.  I felt bad as I was in their country and they had to accommodate to my needs.  I understand that English is a common language for people across the globe, but we still need to be aware of the truths underlying those communications, for example, who gets to speak in their language? How do we show respect through language choice and communication? How does language relate to power? That was a very humbling experience for me.  At a minimum, we should never just start speaking English, assuming that the other person speaks/understands English, but always kindly ask if that indeed is the case.

I look forward to a great year in Honors! I look forward to hearing about your intercultural encounters (old and new) and the learning that resulted from them. Always remember:

“Life begins at the end of our comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch

Reflecting on UMRHC

By Spencer Sulflow, ’18 (Exercise Science)

Left to right: Spencer Sulflow, Chad Lease, Stephanie Peterson, Sarah Aldrich, Sajid Sarkar, Olivia Robinson, Lauren Bach

From March 26th-28th, our Honors Program hosted the 2015 Upper Midwest Regional Honors Conference. As a first year student in the program it was very exciting to be a part of the planning for the conference. Our class, Exploring Leadership in the Context of Conference Development  helped with the planning and the work of putting together the conference. I was part of the Marketing Committee. We utilized social media to advertise and communicate with conference attendees. Being on the planning side of my first conference was interesting. I had to pay attention to how a conference should look from an attendant’s point of view and also learn the behind the scenes work needed to put it on. It was surprising to see all of the details that go into planning such an event. This was a quality learning experience for not only me but everyone in the class.

As the conference approached, I was excited to attend and be a part of my first honors conference, see our planning put into action, and hear student and faculty presentations. Once the conference started, I became very busy for the weekend. Between facilitating rooms, directing people throughout campus, running social events, and attending to various needs there were jobs for everyone. Many honors students outside of our class attended and helped during the conference. It was exciting to see so many MSU Honors Students working together to benefit others.

There was a variety of presentations ranging from students discussing their own honors programs to professors highlighting what they’ve done with a certain discipline at their college. The social events also went well, my favorite being ice skating at All Seasons Arena. It was fun to watch many people learn to ice skate for the first time.

 

I enjoyed utilizing social media to promote and engage people during the conference. As a part of the Marketing Committee, I was able to use Twitter on my phone throughout the conference. Many attendees took the time to tweet about the conference and showed their excitement through pictures both of their presentations and the social events.

Overall the conference was a great experience for the class as a whole and for me as a first year honors student. I was able to be a part of a planning team, work at an important event, and see other honors students present research in a similar setting to that of what I will be doing in the future. I am very glad I was able to be a part of planning the conference and look forward to other events such as this in the future.

More information on the conference will be published in our Spring 2015 issue of the Honors Beacon newsletter being released next week.

Attending Susanna Calkins’ Writing Historical Fiction Workshop

by Rachael Igo, ’16 (Creative Writing; Mendota Heights, Minn.)

On Monday, March 23^rd I had the pleasure of attending Dr. Susanna Calkins’ presentation Writing Historical Fiction: Balancing Authenticity and Accuracy. This event was co-sponsored by the Honors Program and the History Department. It was inspired as a way for students in Dr. Corley’s honors seminar Witchcraft, Gender and Society in Preindustrial Europe, to gain insights while they complete their historical fiction short story assignment. Other students and MSU faculty benefited from the presentation as well.

As a creative writing major, I was exceptionally excited to attend this event. One of my dreams is to write literature for adolescents and young adults. Historical fiction is among my favorite genres. Reading about Calkins prior to the event, I recognized her to be someone quite like myself: a woman with professional goals and a dream to have “side” writing projects published as books. The types of novels she writes, Lucy Campion murder mysteries placed in seventeenth century England, also appeal to my interests. As a child I loved reading Nancy Drew, and watching murder mystery shows is one of my guilty pleasures.

Meeting Susanna Calkins over pizza with other honors students before the presentation was a blessing. It was great to hear her publication story and how she succeeded as a writer. It was also inspiring to hear that she started out small just like I am. Her first book in her Lucy Campion mysteries was a side project she gradually worked on over a span of ten years. She currently has two books published in her series— A Murder at Rosamund’s Gate and From the Charred Remains— as well as a third, The Masque of a Murderer, being released this April.

During her presentation, Calkins talked about the strategies she uses when writing historical fiction. She answered the following questions: “How can we contextualize our historical stories without just dumping information on our readers? How can we make our dialogue seem authentic without sounding stilted or archaic? How much historical research is sufficient?” According to Calkins, the accuracy and authenticity of the historical time period present in writing is crucial. Readers need to be able to picture themselves within the times. Her Ph.D. in History proves extremely helpful to her in this circumstance. She also likes to look at paintings and pictures from the time period.

With regards to historical accuracy and the amount of necessary research, Calkins emphasized the need to avoid sounding like a history text book. Instead, she recommended treating the historical time period as a character. For example, she likes to use maps and online digital reconstructions of the historical era in which she is writing. This practice helps her visualize where her characters are in order to correctly portray them in the specific landscape. She also raised the issue of getting every little historical detail correct, and when to judge how much research is too much. Calkins emphasized that the main goal of writing historical fiction is to tell a good story. In order to accomplish this, the historical aspects and research cannot drag the story down. However, she noted that authors must get the guns and clothes right, or critics will come knocking down their doors.

After the insightful workshop, I had the opportunity to purchase Susanna Calkins’ first two books and have her sign them. As I am sure most college students will agree, it was a phenomenal experience to meet and make a connection with someone who is successful at my dream job.

For more information about Susanna Calkins and her work, visit http://www.susannacalkins.com/

UMRHC at Minnesota State is One Week Away!

by Tia Jacoby, ’15 (Communication Disorders; Farmington, Minn.)

Sajid Sarkar, José Lopez Munoz, Spencer Sulfow, Tia Jacoby, Haley Doran

The 2015 Upper Midwest Regional Honors Conference is rapidly approaching, and those of us that are a part of the course Exploring Leadership in the Context of Conference Development, are more than excited for the 26th of March to arrive. On our first day we were informed that our small class would be responsible for contributing to this huge event that would be hosted at Minnesota State University. Many of us had never attended a conference like this before, so we started the semester by visualizing our goals. The 2015 Upper Midwest Regional Honors Conference theme is “Confluence and Conflict” and will contain a variety of presentations for scholars to attend. Our class of fifteen highly motivated honors students has been excited from day one for the challenge of organizing such a respected event.

Our first step involved forming into committees. The five of us (pictured above in our spiffy honors shirts) compose the Marketing Committee. (If you see someone sporting an “Honors Crew” shirt at the conference, feel free to ask them for help!) We are in charge of spreading news about the conference and providing updates on social media. Look for tweets from us during the conference by following our twitter account: https://twitter.com/MNSUHonors . The other two conference committees are the Program Development Committee and the Hospitality Committee. The Program Development Committee worked hard to create the program for the conference and helped create the presentation schedule. The Hospitality Committee coordinated fun social events including ice skating, an ice cream social, and film showing. Our three committees have worked diligently to make this conference the best yet.

Exploring Leadership in the Context of Conference Development has been a challenging course that has taught us the vitality of organization. There are so many details that go into planning a conference, and not one of them can be overlooked. Planning this conference taught our committee how important communication is. Everybody has to be on the same page if we want to be successful. All three committees are thrilled for the big day to arrive so that we can continue to aid our honors community. Check out our honors website for even more information about the 2015 Upper Midwest Regional Honors Conference. We cannot wait to see everyone there!