During my senior year at FIU's College of Arts, Sciences, and Education (CASE), I had the utmost pleasure of serving as a member of the CASE Dean's Student Advisory Council. Alongside a cohort of approximately 25 individuals and staff at the CASE Dean's Office, I was able to assist with advancement work conducted by the College. More specifically, I was a part of a subcommittee that worked to propose student engagement measures for the online student community. Given that a great majority of FIU's online student population resides outside of the U.S., I found that my membership in this committee furthered my understanding of the needs of international students. Despite being American-born, I felt I could relate to online internationals in the sense that we are all striving to achieve in the face of financial and academic barriers. Thus, I committed to being a voice for this community by advocating for college-wide events that are inclusive of online students residing in a different country. From this experience, I learned the significance of being culturally aware and connected to individuals from different walks of life. Though their circumstances are not my own, I now know that using my privilege to amplify their voices is essential to my transformation into a global citizen.

Also during my senior year, I was an active General Board member of FIU's Pride Student Union - a bureau dedicated to educating, uplifting, and engaging with the university's LGBTQ student population. As a General Board member, I assisted the Executive Board with the planning and implementation of educational and social programming events. One such event was the LGBTQIA Student Forum, which for the 2021-2022 academic year centered students with both visible and invisible disabilities. As both a panelist and a member of the event's planning committee, I was blessed with the opportunity to learn of the joys and struggles associated with the intersectionality of being LGBTQ and having a disability. Furthermore, the students facilitating this event came from a plethora of backgrounds, such as being a racial, sexual, religious, or gender minority. Given this amount of exposure to people outside of my own community, the experience was no doubt enlightening. The chance to actively engage with these students only furthered the pursuit of my goal: empowering diverse student populations as a reliable individual in a higher education setting. Thus, as I enter graduate school and land an eventual education-related career in Japan, I will frequently refer back to this incredible experience as an example of how to holistically engage with distinct global perspectives.