My favorite seminar was, “Does bad science exist?” by Natasha Machera. In this seminar I had the opportunity to discuss with my peers about bioethics and scientific innovations, I reflected on how important science is for society and due to the interesting conversations that we had, I realized that I would like to pursue a career in scientific research to ensure a sustainable and prosperous world for this and future generations.
The fact that Professor Shelley Kagan would be holding a lecture for the Literature, Philosophy, and Culture track is what attracted me to the program. I’ve watched his lectures on the philosophy of death on Youtube since I was 12, and his lecture in YYGS, “The Trolley Problem” did not disappoint my very high expectations. In his lecture, there were many fun examples and student interaction, truly highlighting the point that philosophy is a fun topic full of discussion.
If I had to describe my YYGS experience in one word it would be ‘transformational’. I say this because it was one of the very first times that I got to learn about and interact with people with common and similar goals to that of mine. I was able to learn many new concepts and further my understanding on ways to best solve the world climate crisis through sustainability.
I learned so much from my last seminar, “Deep Hanging Out as a Method.” I explored the different techniques anthropologists use to conduct research and draw conclusions about various ethnic and cultural groups. Overall, YYGS has forged my perspectives, establishing a more aware and opinionated version of myself. It allowed me to delve into the world of different fields and investigate how experts and professionals work within different frameworks. I’m very grateful to have come across this unique and unforgettable opportunity.
If there is one thing I learned from this experience is to embrace difference. The world is enormous, with people of different backgrounds, paradigms, and personalities. Therefore, it’s more vital than ever to be aware of our differences and embrace them. Yale Young Global Scholars was one of its kind opportunity that taught me how to be a true global citizen.
The most memorable part of my YYGS experience was connecting with my peers around the world. I initially thought that I would be intimidated and that it would be hard to find commonalities, but that idea proved to be false. Through interacting with my family group, I was shown how similar we all really are and how geographic differences did little to separate us. I still talk to the friends I made there today, and we are already planning meetups for the future.
My most memorable experience was Family Time. Here I was able to meet different people and actively listen to different perspectives and interact with different personalities.
The most memorable moment for me was during ‘The Missing Voices in a Century of Jazz’ lecture. The lecturer had taken a trip to Ghana and displayed a clip of him dancing to the beats of the Ghanaian drums. As a Ghanaian hearing this really touched me. Ghanaian drumming is a huge part of our culture and its rhythm provides essential messages like togetherness, courage in conflict, and respecting leaders.
Lectures were also fantastic. Professors were incredibly nice and explained their respective topics extremely well. My absolute favourite lecture was one by Professor Nilay Hazari about inorganic catalysis and reaction mechanisms.
Two precious learnings from YYGS: Make matches with people through these small opportunities you get and never have this predefined concept of a teacher, always try to get along with them, they are friendly as you get, here teacher-student learning was not a one-way thing, it was learning facilitated from both sides.
