Christian Kowalski – Introduction

My name is Christian Kowalski and I am from Durham, NC which happens to be less than an hour away from our amazing university. Currently, I’m double majoring in Political Science and English Literature with minors in International Studies and Peace/Conflict Studies. Along with the Project Pericles program, I am involved with Model UN, the LEAD Program and am training to become a Writing Center Consultant. This past summer I worked at the Duke Global Health Institute and was able to learn the ins-and-outs of an office than works internationally with medical facilites in sub-Saharan Africa. While the work I did there I personally classify as “glorified office assistant work”, by interacting and meeting professionals in the Global Health I gathered quite a bit of knowledge about civic engagement and service work. Working at Duke was a wonderful opportunity and I hope to apply some of the concepts I learned to our program.

The reasoning for my interest in International issues and my eventual application to the Periclean program starts with an opportunity where I went to China the summer of 2013. I went with a study abroad program where we toured the country and learned about the culture with students from Mexico, New Zealand and China. By collaborating and interacting with these different students, I learned a great deal about East-West relations, Chinese culture and current political trends and movements that envelope the world today. While our focus for the Periclean Program is on Namibia, my experience and time in Beijing instilled a passion for understanding and exploring the world around us.

So as a member of the Periclean team, I hope to contribute to the program the various insights and ideas I’ve come across and hope to come across while studying Namibia. I’m also looking forward to collaborating with my classmates as we discuss the best methods to reach our goals for this program. For the next three years we have the ability to establish some form of sustainable change in Namibia, and I can’t wait to see what our finished vision is for the country.

 

 

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