Conservation Impacts on the Global Scale

What did you learn from GIP and the Global Scholars Program this year? Being a Global Scholar was a very enriching experience. I would say that I most directly learned how to conduct myself in large groups of people more effectively through moderating the panel with Joe Wong and Clement Cid, as well as how to set up an interview. The unexpected transition to the online interview format also pushed me to learn how to edit video. Through the class, I was able to hear the perspectives of other Global Scholars and attend numerous presentations given by experts on development economics, sustainability, and human rights issues. What is the legacy you and your fellow cohort members will be leaving when you graduate? Something I'm happy about is that the video recording of my interview with Dr. Cid will be accessible online. This means it will have continued impact long after the event's actual occurrence and hopefully reach more people outside the Poly community than if I w...

As of April 13th, I've finished my Capstone Project. The final form that the project was in was an online panel, but it went through a lot of changes in the process. I'll detail my process here. I started thinking about my Capstone Project in the second half of my junior year. At that point, I had no connections to organizations or concrete ideas about what the project would look like, and I was worried. I decided to focus on something related to my scientific interests, but the labs that I had worked with in the past were related to evolutionary and developmental biology and thus not well suited for a discussion of global health issues, a topic that I was interested in. I thought since Polytechnic is so close to Caltech, I might as well look into labs that tackle issues in global health and sustainability. After asking around, I was able to hone in on the Resnick Sustainability Institute, which supports labs doing research towards environmental sustainability. Talkin...

During spring break, I was able to read Jean Hatzfeld's Machete Season, translated from the original French. I was waiting to read this book for a long time beforehand because I was interested in hearing perspectives on the Rwandan genocide, one of the bloodiest events in recent years. The Rwandan genocide and Machete Season struck me for how disturbing it was. Examining the other book I had recently read, The Rape of Nanking, which discussed another genocide, led me to see how the Rwandan genocide and Machete Season are distinct. Machete Season is a book written from the perspective of those that were involved in the killings, which is quite unusual for this kind of book. (I believe this to be so due to the incentives that killers who are now imprisoned see for their stories to be published and how recent the tragedy was.) The Rape of Nanking mostly highlights survivor accounts of the tragedy, while Machete Season explores the experiences of killers, their motives, and their goa...