Global Education Beyond the Classroom: Engaging the World through Scholarship

For many years, I have challenged myself to advocate for global education and international studies across the world. I have read many books, travelled on my own, and engaged with other people about culture, traditions, and politics. I have formed relationships that connect people across a host of competing ideologies, religion, and beliefs that sometimes conflicted with my own thoughts. However, these contradictions challenged and inspired me to keep pursuing research and unlock such contradictions by participating in a host of scholarship competitions around the world. I have competed with thousands of scholars and researchers to earn opportunities for scholarships and funded programs. I am on a global quest to visit 10 countries and gain a variety of my own Humanities Moments. I have been face-to-face with a WWII Japanese soldier who believed his mission was his destiny, visited North Korea clandestinely to understand how the South felt about the war, learned about the travails of a Filipino family because of the influence of the Spanish conquest on their culture, seen the desperate experiences of the Bantu folks in Soweto in post-Apartheid who still struggle to find their identity and culture, and seen the eyes of our students when they sit among others in an International Competition during the World Animation Championship for Children in Greece. Each of these events triggered my Humanities Moments and will always continue to inspire and challenge me to also keep mentoring our students to do the same.