My Global & Environmental Identity
- I am Mina Ruffle. I am a Black third culture kid (TCK). Those two factors inform how I interact with the world and my global and environmental identity. I am not a citizen of one singular place, rather a citizen of the world. I have lived in five different countries, and each of those countries has changed different facets of my identity in many different ways. Living in developing countries forced me to care a lot about what happens in the world. It is extremely hard to ignore world issues when they happen in your face. The same goes for my racial identity. I interact with people in a Black body. That is not something that I can remove from myself. I have experienced discrimination because of who I am as a Black person. I have learned to become proud of my global identity. And my global identity has made me care deeply about the issues of the world around me. One of those issues is the environment and climate change.
- I lived in Bangladesh for a large portion of my childhood. One of the issues that most significantly affected Bangladesh was climate change. From June to mid-October, Bangladesh deals with the rainy season. While this has been a weather phenomenon happening for a long time, it has become much more intense with climate change. Bangladesh is located just north of the Bay of Bengal, where many major rivers in the Indian subcontinent drain. When the rain gets intense during the rainy season, the rivers overflow and erode farmland and many people’s homes. ⅓ of Bangladesh has gone under water since the start of climate change. When people lose their homes in rural Bangladesh, often they come to Dhaka, leaving Dhaka even more densely populated. I have seen first hand the effects of climate change. That is why mitigating the effects of climate change is so important to me. Climate change has deeply affected one of my countries and when you see your home get destroyed, it is something that you cannot unsee. That is why I care so deeply about the environment.
Global & Environmental Resume
GESC-designated Courses
- World History
- CL European History
- CL Comparative Government
- Spanish 5: Latin American Civilization
- Spanish 5: Latin American Short Story
- Spanish 5: Cinemas
- Concert Choir
- Chamber Singers
Elective Courses
- I do Model UN. In Model UN, you simulate the UN and debate about global and environmental issues as a country in the UN. It forces you to learn about world issues and the environment and makes you become fully immersed into the world of global politics and how that plays a role in what we see in the environment.
GESC Experiential Education
For my experiential education, I went to Italy and learned about Blue Zones. I learned about the Sardinian connection with the environment as well as the concept of longevity. I also learned about issues of access and equity. Being healthy outside of a Blue Zone is quite hard but being in the Blue Zone makes it much easier for one to be healthy because the lifestyle just allows you to be so.
Learning Artifacts
GESC Coursework
- In my European history class, we wrote a paper reflecting on the work of Dr. Ibram X Kendi and the legacy of colonialism in South America. This connects with the seek knowledge section of the matrix, specifically the section about how history connects with the present. This assignment forced me to reflect upon the historiography of Spanish colonialism in South America and how indigenous voices are often left out. It also forced me to understand how written history today affects the way we view the past. This was my first interaction with historiography and it forced me to contextualize how those in power hide things via history. We, nowadays, need to unveil the true stories to understand how history affects us.
GESC Seminars
- Post-Seminar #2 Reflection- The field trip to the masjid enhanced my understanding of Islam and its role in the communities in the United States. Before coming to the mosque, I did not realize that there was a community of practicing Muslims in Connecticut. But coming to the masjid helped me understand the true diversity of the community I live in. Furthermore, talking to the masjid leaders helped me understand the groundwork they do to get involved in communities and support refugees. It reminded me a lot of what my grandma does in Vermont helping refugees learn English. I did not realize how much of a community a religious space can be and how it can provide support for so many people. I did not really have any stereotypes of Muslims or Muslim immigrants coming into this activity, other than the internalized biases given to me by society. I grew up in Muslim countries and in many ways, going to the mosque and seeing the diversity reminded me of home. Tasting the food made me miss the food that I got overseas. The experience made me appreciate the diversity of the world around me and that Connecticut is not just a white Christian state. There is a lot of diversity and their is a global community in Connecticut. This visit makes me want to learn more about the experiences of coming to the United States and also the religious diversity within the U.S.
- Post Seminar #4 Reflection: I went to the Robin Okunkowo seminar and the featured guest took action by engaging in civil discourse to raise awareness and understanding about climate change via the Captain Planet foundation. Via the foundation she works for, she helps other young people advocate for climate action within their communities, which allows for climate change to be solved on a more local level, allowing long lasting sustainable change within communities. Many people are ignoring what is happening with the climate or are actively harming the environment. But Okunkowo and her team at Captain Planet are focused on justice and creating a world where the climate crisis is solved. Robin Okunkowo inspired me to focus on acting cooperatively to implement globally and environmentally focused positive change. Okunkowo empowers young people to implement changes within their own communities. I want to implement changes within my own community to better the environment and also solve issues. Okunkowo has inspired me to solve the world.
GESC Electives
- My elective that I do is Model UN. This activity has helped me understand the world and how different governments view the world. Even though I may not agree with a country’s stance, researching a country and attempting to understand the government forces me to understand the world better. This connects with the enhanced understanding and seek knowledge part of the matrix. Model UN forces me to contest assumptions that I have with countries and also helps me understand how history, specifically colonial history, affects how different countries do diplomacy. Model UN has made me a global citizen.
GESC Experiential Education
This photo was taken after making bread in a small Sardinian town in Italy. Before making the bread, we learned about the importance of creating bread from home and how it is healthier for you and more sustainable. Furthermore, we learned about the importance of slowing down, and making time for your health, which is something that I have taken into this year. I have tried to make time for myself to prioritize my health.
This photo I took in Rome at the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is very historic but it is also very close to many other historical sites in Rome and Rome is very walkable. This made me think about the environment in the US and how we rely so much on cars. I wish I could walk around more often.
The Colosseum was a very cool place to go to because of the fact that it is so historic and to see how interconnected we still are with history was so cool. You always read about the Colosseum in textbooks but actually going to the Colosseum was really cool and made me think about how close I actually am with history.
Capstone Project
Learning in Harmony: A Musical Database
Project Rationale
This project is extremely important to me and the community to show the globality of music to the Loomis community. This project emphasizes how music is interconnected in everything and most forms of protest, and it is really important to show this to the community.
Target Audience
The target audience for this project is the Loomis Chaffee community, specifically the teachers and students who teach and or take GESC classes. This project attempts to show the connections of the world and music and because of how important it is to so many cultures, we have chosen for it to become the forefront of our project.
Project Process
Originally, I wanted to work on helping the refugees at the Islamic Center in New Britain, however I was not able to do that. I then pivoted to working with Preston and Zaylie on this music project, however it took many tries to get to this point. Most of our ideas were way too big for the scope of Loomis Chaffee and the time that we had to do a final project. Finally, we settled on creating a framework for introducing global pieces at music concerts at Loomis, as well as creating lesson plans for GESC classes incorporating music. This project is important to show the globality of music. During this process, I had multiple meetings with teachers to discuss how music can be incorporated in their classes. Furthermore, I worked with Preston and Zaylie, which means we had multiple meetings to discuss the progress of the project. This project took a long time but it ended up really well polished.
Project Reflection
- I feel like the final product is finished and while I have not fully explored its impact, I am sure that next year, the project will be very impactful and the teachers will incorporate parts of our lessons into their classes. Our project connects to multiple parts of the Alvord Center matrix, including enhancing understanding and seeking knowledge. Our project seeks to help people understand the impact of protest and music and how music can send messages that cannot necessarily be fully spoken. Furthermore, it also focuses students to do their own research on how their subjects interconnect with other subjects and cultures and the globalization of the classes they are taking.
This project helped me learn more about music and why it is important to different cultures and protests. I had never learned about the impact of Bad Bunny’s music before this project but this project helped me understand why his music was important. This project helped me understand why protest and speaking out is important. Many people protest and music is one of the ways that people are able to speak out, especially against injustices and authoritarian regimes. In the future, I envision this project on a larger scale, with our lesson plans being used in classes but also a class itself created on the globality of music. I think this subject is very important and has a lot of potential to create a class, however, it has not happened yet because no student has asked for the class and taken the steps to create it. But I definitely think in the future that a class should come from our project.
GESC Reflection (150-300 words)
I have grown as a global and environmental scholar because I have taken more classes in global and environmental scholarship and learned way more about the environment through this course. Before this course, I had exclusively taken global classes, mostly with a focus on history. But since my GESC trip, I have become more focused on the environment and how it affects humans and the issues that we see around us. Longevity is in large part due to our lifestyles and the food we eat, and our environments have a huge impact on that. It is hard to recreate environments that lead to a long life if they are not intrinsically there in the environment already, leading to a lot of inaccessibility for healthy lifestyles around the world. Furthermore, with the courses that I have taken this year, I have learned a lot more about how governments create the world that we live in and how we are affected everyday by the actions of a few. This program has pushed me to be more active in my community and I will forever be grateful for that.