I grew up in the metropolitan area of Washington D.C., in an edge city in Northern Virginia. While my high school was fairly diverse, many of my fellow classmates came from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, and shared many of the same ideologies. In this sense, while my exposure to differing cultures and opinions was mostly sheltered, living in the Washington D.C. area meant that global topics were always in the peripheral. I was incredibly lucky to have the nation's capital easily accessible, and for many school trips we would explore our nation's role on a global scale. I had never been to Miami before my acceptance to FIU, and my first year here was a huge culture shock. For the first time in my life, I was fully submerged into a culture vastly different from my own, and exposed to a community with a wide range of backgrounds and ideologies. This experience awakened my global perspective, as I began to understand the widespread global diversity I had never experienced before. With so much to offer, it wasn't long before I fell in love with Miami's vibrancy and all of the experiences it has in store. My first semester at FIU, I enrolled in EVR 1001 to fulfill my UCC requirements. I had always been interested in the environment and issues surrounding sustainability, but this course was incredibly enriching and vastly increased my global awareness. I became so passionate about these issues that affect us all that I changed my major and even became a learning assistant for this course in the spring of 2015. This course, and many of my following courses relating to environmental issues, made me understand how these problems will effect us on a global scale, and made me increasingly aware about the impacts our changing environment could have on the world we know. By nature, I am a curious person, and my hunger for learning more about the world around me prompted me to take a variety of global learning courses throughout my undergraduate studies. In the fall of 2018, I took LIN 4640, which required us to attend one Tuesday Times Roundtable during the semester. I had never been to one of these events before, and this small step sparked a new sense of global engagement for me. I found the event to be so informative, that I decided to continue attending them, and discovered the Global Learning Medallion program during this time. For the first time, I began to see myself as a global citizen and an agent for change. I regularly attended any event I could and submerged myself in a wide range of global topics to better understand and engage with the world around me. This program has quite literally changed my life. Through the variety of courses, events, and experiences I've had during my time at FIU my global perspective, awareness, and engagement has completely turned on it's head. These experiences have developed newfound skills in communication, self awareness and development, and a passion in civic responsibility. Looking towards the future, I am intending to begin graduate studies with a focus on Non-profit Management. I am particularly interested in one day being able to offer international aid to those being directly affected by environmental impacts, but in the meantime I look forward to offering local services with a focus on global issues, and feel confident that the skills I've gained through this program have helped me become a global citizen and act as an agent for change.