Dear Readers,

We only have a few weeks left before the years wraps up and I can’t believe it’s already over. Many of you chose to write a reflection of the year and our time spent in ASTU. A lot of us came into this class not knowing exactly what to expect, but having read your posts this week, I think it’s safe to say that no one is leaving this class without tons of new and useful knowledge thanks to Dr. Luger.

Paolina wrote, “ASTU100 took  away  a lot of my fears regarding scholarly articles”, and Alex summed up his blog post with the well put sentence, “Ultimately this course has significantly broadened my worldview and made me consider current affairs through a much more critical lens”. Isaiah wrote a great piece on the way this class’ focus on the subject of trauma in the context of our literature affected him and the way he can now think about such a deep topic more critically. Clara’s blog this week focused on how reading our class’s last novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid caused her to think about her own identity in a new way. She wrote  “In my opinion this is something that an individual has to figure out somewhat on their own. In essence, an individual  choses what they want to identify as.”

While we are all coming away with different and new perspectives, ideas, and skills, I don’t believe a single one of us will be able to leave this class claiming not to have learned anything. Melissa put it very well stating “Never in my life has a course opened me to see things in such a big perspective and now that I look back at it, it’s insane at how much we’ve got covered in one year and how we’ve learned how to write a literature essay not just some recap and summary”.

Reading my peers’ words on the year that is now behind us left me feeling great. We’ve all shared a lot this year in our CAP Global Citizens stream, and I get the sense we all feel like our time and energy has been well spent, and we feel confident and well prepared for the years still ahead.

Big thanks to Dr. Luger for everything she’s taught us this year!

Best, Olivea