Creatively-driven and Hardworking.
International Portfolio
Spanish: Level A2/B1
Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 (Santa Fe College)
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Throughout my Spanish classes, I learned conjugations (present and past tense), did a live conversation as a group project, and took weekly grammatical quizzes.
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As someone who enjoys language-learning, this class gave me a foundational understanding of Spanish. Because of these classes, a joy for learning Spanish sparked within me. Something that developed as a hobby has now developed as a goal. I have plans to one day become fluent. I still try to practice Spanish through studying, language exchange, and media consumption.
My Spanish Audio:
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Basic Self-introduction
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See left
International Virtual Exchange: Egypt
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Participated in a 4 week exchange with students from Ain Shams University
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Participated in live Zoom sessions & breakout rooms
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https://padlet.com/jessicasurana/a1dmjnosfajed4z7
During Summer 2021, I participated in a virtual cultural exchange with Egyptian Students from Ain Shams University. This was my first cultural exchange, virtual at that, and we utilized Padlet and Zoom breakout sessions.
I learned a lot about Egypt beyond the usual pyramids and ancient hieroglyphics. Before this, I hadn’t thought of Egypt too much. I was expecting to learn the many differences between our two countries, but some of similarities surprised me. One moment that stood out to me was learning the significance of Easter in Egypt. It is not only a holiday there but a whole festival that dates back to ancient Egypt.
Ultimately, this experience taught me that language exchange is not the only valuable exchange. Exchange of cultures can be eye-opening, do away with misconceptions, and allow us to meet great new friends.
African Humanities 2420
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Researched South Africa
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Studied African nations prior to colonization
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Created South Africa presentation (see below)
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Submitted essays on colonization, South African languages, environment, religion, etc
In this class, I learned a lot about pre-colonial Africa. While I learned small tidbits of multiple African countries, in the class, we picked one country to focus on. I chose South Africa and did extensive research on its cultures, languages, and history. We were required to write multiple essays and present a poster board of all our research at the course's end.
I thought this was a very informative class. My historical African knowledge was quite small outside of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, so I was very excited to learn more beyond that.
Cape Town Water Crisis (South Africa)
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Compiled research into informative PowerPoint
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Compiled for Technical Communications class
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Gave oral presentation to class
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Title links to presentation
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Black Professionals in Europe (University of Florida)
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A panel from 4 black professionals about their experiences working abroad
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Panel explained European benefits, cultural differences, and racial issues
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Q/A was highly informative
As an African-American woman who has interest in working abroad, it was enriching to hear about the steps I might take as a student to get an international career. While many of the panel had STEM or law careers, they assured us that many jobs outside of those ranges are available and thriving.
To the right, is the event flyer.
Global Trivia (Santa Fe College)
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A student life Zoom event incorporating world trivia
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One of the three winners of the trivia contest
We were asked multiple trivia questions that we had to submit via Word document. For the final round, we were tasked to use coordinates in Google Earth to find a list of locations as an international scavenger hunt.
Because this was my first time hearing about and using Google Earth, I did very poorly here. But it taught me even though I may not be winning points, I might be winning something else valuable. I now have better understanding on how to use the platform. I also learned many cute tidbits about the world and how to use the global map interface better.
HUM2020: Intro to Humanities
In this Humanities course, I learned more about humans in general. We were assigned weekly readings and different articles outside of the textbook.
A moment that stood out to me from this class is when we read about the "Nacirema," which is American spelled backwards. The way we read about the nacirema showed how often Western media exotifies and strips the humanity away from other cultures at times. It was a fun satire and a good experience for self-reflection.
Another thing I learned about was ethnocentrism, in which you judge another person's culture by the standards of your own culture. Ethnocentrism is often very harsh and not nuanced, so it is important to avoid ethnocentric thinking when dealing with others. These are two things I will definitely remember as I began working with more people of different international backgrounds.