We are a West Valley College club dedicated to global citizenship. Our mission is to shift our paradigm to an ideology of a human community that is interdependent and connected. As individuals, we belong to a broader class of humanity and have a collective responsibility to one another.
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Aditi led the international music event and here are a few words explaining the event and her experience: The club put on a celebration to bring the West Valley College community together to honor global citizenship. We played music from India, Russia, Korea, Japan, Iran, America, England, France, and China. West Valley College's President, Brad Davis, stopped by and talked about the value of global citizenship; he highlighted the contribution of the Global Student Club to our college community. Other members of WVC's administration, such as Dr. Victoria Hindes, also came to show support and appreciation for our club. Attendees learned about the meaning global citizenship (see our "About" page) and they enjoyed a delicious cake.
Spring 2014 Graduation when Global Student Club stoles were given to members continuing their goals after West Valley College.
Message by Michaela Rhine, former club president (the fourth person in on the right) I was so, so, so incredibly grateful for the Global Committee and all those that supported me, especially Vicky Kalivitis, Anna Brichko, and Cynthia Reiss! I have had the honor to stay friends with them and I am excited to be the student guest speaker for next Fall’s Global Conference. See you all next Fall! Thank you so much, and I wish the club and school success since you all have helped me out with mine! Also for those not involved in this club and scholarship, I strongly recommend it and hope you find the love and passion in it like I did. Please reach out to The Global Committee or The Global Student Club (add the times you meet/contact info here) to find out more about this great program on campus! Former Club Presidents and Students Vicky Kalivitis (Club Advisor) [email protected] Fall 2011 President: Shahin Ashrafzadeh Treasurer: Laurita Mendez Members: Mona Rezaeu, Keyvan Bigdeli, Jennifer Leman, Amy Hong Spring 2012 President: Caitlin Mattson-Kirby ICC Rep: Amir Majlessi Secretary: Aditi Prabhakar Members: Brittany Dundurs, Mike Dundurs, Alyssa Schweickert, Sean Song Fall 2012 President: Laurita Mendez Vice President: Aditi Prabhakar ICC Rep: Amir Majlessi Members: Faraz Gh, Haleh Aboofazeli, Michaela Rhine, Ramon Rousse, Navid Parhizgar, Negar Parhizgar Fall 2013 - Spring 2014 President: Michaela Rhine Vice President: Aditi Prabhakar Treasurer: Haleh Aboofazeli ICC Rep: Scott Secretary: Erinn Thompson Members: Sonya Espejo, Emily Capage Fall 2014 - Spring 2015 President: Aditi Prabhakar Vice President: Emily Cagape ICC: Natasha Morgan-Witts Secretary: Tiffany Tran Treasurer: Ksenia Koulechova Members: Jason Hui, Payom Niazmandi The Global Student club paired with the business student association and with Karina Dundurs and spoke on how Disabilities are seen in our world today. Bettina Brockmann’s book, “Some Same, But Different:Unlearning the Concept of Disability” discusses how a disability hinders success. We focused on ways to see ability within the multiple disabilities that are present in the world today. I was able to share a personal story of my experience as a Type 1 Diabetic. Afterwards, Sofia, another member in the club led a yoga session to calm the nerves of finals which were coming up. This turned out to be a great event and here is a picture of the poster that we used for this presentation. A Global Thought For Change: DISABILITY & STRESS AWARENESS EVENT!! Presented by Global Student Club On Monday- April 21, 2014 Come Join Global Student Club and our call to Disability Awareness Relaxation Sessions & practices for stress Raffle Prizes! While being part of this scholarship for four years, I have been able to become aware and to discuss many different topics of current news with Leigh High-School students. Such topics include the positive and negative effects of cutting edge technology, water usage and its influence on the environment as well as creative ways to rethink our approach to water consumption. The most intriguing session was one that involved the differences of a four year school, vocational school, two year school, and certificate program. I remember one young high school student who didn’t want to go to school and then by the next year I came and presented again, he had a plan to attend West Valley. I was so proud and excited for him and his future educational and career based goals! Students were also able to consider more options while picking out a school; for example, I looked down on vocational school, but I realized how awesome it is for those that need a job right away.
At the Fall 2014 Global Committee Conference, I had the absolute honor of meeting Jochen Freid, the founder of The Global Salzburg Seminar. It was a pleasure meeting the person who introduced this life changing college program to me. I also was a student on a committee who got to speak on the best experience of this program, which was learning more about myself through the conversations I led with high-schoolers; I felt like a teacher, but I was so much younger. In addition to this Conference, I was able to work with Steve Branz from San Jose State University due to the Global Committee and go to California State University San Marcos for the C.S.U. Educational Conference. I spoke as a student presenting the pathway pipeline project idea to incorporate an easy transfer transition from West Valley to S.J.S.U and other schools are incorporating it too, such as C.S.U. Chico! I look forward to this and I was extremely honored to be a part of this new possible educational change. Michaela Rhine, WVC graduate (Currently at Chico State earning a degree in Communication Studies) The global club sponsored a French comedy-drama film, in which an unlikely friendship develops between a wealthy quadriplegic (Francois Cluzet) and his Senegalese caretaker (Omar Sy), just released from prison.
Some points of discussion: Is the movie about servitude or the movie about two men (one white and one black) who received their fair share of humiliation? You have a guy from the projects and a man who needs help to go to the bathroom. One has little to no support in life—even his family gives up on him after he gets out of prison - and the other is stigmatized by his illness. They are both pariahs. “Symbolically speaking,” Daphnee Denis notes, “the image is striking. A French aristocrat in a wheelchair gets help from one of the “socially assisted people,” as a former minister under Sarkozy once described those who receive government benefits.White France is paralyzed; immigrant France has become its arms and legs.”
An afternoon of storytellers representing diverse cultures in the U.S. and around the globe. West Valley College students recounted myths and legends from a variety of backgrounds. Stories that were shared had their origins in New Zealand, Mexico, the Czech Republic, India, Greece, Native America, Peru and the U.S.
Myths and Legends Finale - the event concluded with music from around the world. DJ Amir played globally infused tunes. Some students were inspired and dancing revealed. President Caitlin Mattson's Post
One of the greatest experiences that I had while attending West Valley College was being a part of the Global Student Club. While I was the president of the club, we hosted an event called "Global Visions of Beauty". We presented on the different facets of beauty around the world and what it means to be considered beautiful in different countries and how far people will go to reach a certain level of beauty. For example, the Kayan tribe in Thailand is known as the "long necks" because they measure beauty according to the number of brass rings worn around their neck; in some Chinese communities, height is seen as a sign of status, so men will get leg-lengthening surgery that breaks their bones and stretches their legs to make them taller. This event really hit home to me because in America young women, including myself, often look up to celebrities and models who don't uphold the true meaning of beauty as their bodies are photo shopped to look picture perfect. Growing up, I never really considered myself to be beautiful as I am not tall nor skinny like the women in most magazines. The one thing that I hoped to convey the most at our event was that we are all the same universally. No matter where we are from or the color of our skin, we all hope to attain a certain level of beauty and to be considered beautiful. When it comes down to it what matters the most is not how we look on the outside but who we are on the inside. Who you truly are will always shine the most and being your true self is the most beautiful thing you can be. Secretary Aditi Prabhaar's Post This semester the Global Student Club was interested in global standards of beauty and we researched on standards of beauty around the world. We found examples of long necks being beautiful in Thailand and light skin being treasured in Southeast Asia. Although this research was very interesting, I was left wondering, "how does this affect me?" After all, how does a beauty standard in Ghana connect with my life? Our club discussed this as a whole and we realized that we wanted to create a connection with students at West Valley College. We realized that although it is easy to point out that women in India shouldn't be putting bleaching cream on their skin, no one really talks about how we also put harsh chemicals on our skin to achieve our American standard of beauty. Our eyeliners, blush, and foundations contain many chemicals and there is research that shows how this negatively affects our health. We realized that we wanted our message to be about how we all face a common global struggle to conform to our individual society's standard of beauty. The resulting psychological and physical harm is a uniting global issue. My favorite part about this discussion was when one of male club members, Mike Dunders, pointed out that females are not alone in this struggle. He showed us research on protein powders and body building supplements that men take to gain more muscle mass and these were also bad for health. When we presented this in West Valley College, the crowd was not very responsive to the first part of our presentation, which was on beauty standards in other parts of the world. There was an occasional giggle or gasp, but I think most people did not find a connection to their own lives. As we expected, people really began participating when we presented the second part of the presentation, which was about our own standards of beauty. This allowed them to make their own realization that humans really are connected on a global scale in our struggle to achieve an arbitrary standard of beauty. |
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