Dover

By:

Romina Pinto

Published:

Countries

Demographics

,

Majors

Regions

Romina Pinto

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> Hello <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> University of South Carolina <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2022 <i>Destination city & country:</i> Canterbury, United Kingdom <i>Program provider:</i> University of Kent <i>Major/minor:</i> Major: International Studies Minor: Linguistics <i>Demographics:</i> First-generation, non-traditional <i>Future career aspirations:</i> After graduation, I would like to pursue a master's degree abroad in Global Security and Borders or in Violence, Terrorism, and Security. My goal is to be a part of an international project or international nonprofit organization to help bring the best practices to law enforcement or assistance generally, to improve the lives of people. Especially vulnerable communities, where families face violence or other critical issues that threaten their safety and impede their development and progress. <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> 1- Broaden my knowledge and gain the necessary expertise to strengthen my professional competencies regarding international cooperation and international security matters. 2- Increase my understanding regarding the UK's new role in Europe as the Brexit process takes place and how this affects the UK and neighboring countries. 3- Engage with a diverse community from whom I can draw more insight and different perspectives into the world, as well as establish lasting friendships and a network of contacts to further a cultural and professional collaboration.

Classes went well this past week. I am enjoying each of the modules and the topics that we are discussing during the seminars. I particularly enjoy these sessions because we get to discuss the readings of the week. It is getting busy because we have lots to read, in addition to the research we have to do for the essays assigned for each class. The assessment scheme for each of my classes consists of one essay and then a final exam, which takes place during the summer. However, for international students, who are only staying for one term and will not be here to take the exam during the summer, the required assessment will consist of two essays. This is the case for each of my classes, which means that I will have to write two essays for each of my modules. The due date for the first essay is in December, but the due date for the second essay has not been determined yet. I am trying to work as much as possible in advance, so I don’t leave too much for the final weeks of the term. On Monday, I went to the Mature Student Society lunch; this time, the group was smaller, but I met a couple of new people. This week, I also looked into the library services because I wanted to set up an appointment with a librarian. I did get the assistance needed, and I have an appointment scheduled for next week to look for sources I can use to write my essays. On Friday, I went to Dover to see the White Cliffs and the area around the port. This port is the closest to France, and its facilities serve as a ferry port, cruise terminal, and also for the transport of cargo. I really liked it, it wasn’t too busy as the weather is changing, but the views of the port and the white cliffs were very pretty. I used the rest of the weekend to start writing my first essay. I had already done quite a bit of research and reading on the topic, and I wanted to go ahead and put my ideas down and organize my paper. I have started on the essay for the module on Politics of the European Union; the prompt consists of evaluating whether it was out of idealism or self-interest that the original Six established the European Economic Community in 1958.