Multiculturalism and Sport
In the fall of 2016, I was fortunate to take the honors seminar, “Multiculturalism and Sport,” which is a course that challenged me to critically analyze the links drawn between sports and many, many elements of culture across our globe. Each week, we took a deep dive to look at how sports impact and are impacted by politics, government, religion, food, and many other aspects of culture. At the same time, we were challenged to design our own international sporting competition—an exercise that I greatly enjoyed—which required me to think fully about as many components that go into organizing an event of such great magnitude.
The most exciting portion of the course, though, was certainly our study tour to Melbourne, Australia. For my entire life, I have wanted to visit Australia, and I cannot imagine a better trip to have had as my first Aussie experience. The academic pieces of our trip included tours of famous sporting venues, a visit to a retired champion racehorse farm, and an aboriginal walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens, among others. But in our free time, I was able to truly see and experience the culture of Melbourne, as my classmates and I went to an outdoor market, spent time with a local fire brigade while grilling dinner along the river, and experiencing the night life that Melbourne has to offer. The most memorable and incredible experience that I had, however, was on our free day near the end of the trip. My roommate on the trip and I took a train about an hour and a half south of Melbourne to a small surf town called Torquay where we spent the entire day surfing with a local instructor. Quite honestly, I can say with confidence that my surfing experience will be a memory I’ll hold for the rest of my life, and it alone would have made the trip worth it. In all, this was my favorite honors seminar that I have taken so far due to the interest I had in the subject matter, the methods by which our professor presented the content, and the incredible study tour experience that I had in Melbourne. |
Hel(sinki) On Wheels!As our final course project, I was challenged to develop the proposal for an international cycling competition to be held in Finland. Through significant research, I developed a proposal that included everything from venue to race format to branding for the event. It was an awesome project to tackle, and I'm very happy with how it turned out in the end!
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