Humans of Hofstra: Sarah Stevens

Photo Courtesy of Jocelin Montes

“I took this seminar my freshman year on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and there were just a couple other freshmen in there. We were reading literature and prose on the conflict from both perspectives, and I started to realize how narratives can change based [on] how you’ve been raised and the way you’ve gone about your life. I’m from Tennessee; I’m from a rural area and I come to New York and it’s a very liberal, very bold area. So I started reading more on the Middle East and I started realizing that the Middle East was what I wanted to study because it’s so completely misunderstood. If we could find a way to frame that and talk about it in a way where everyone can find [something] to relate to, I think we would destigmatize a lot that is happening and actually be able to make progress that is less harmful. I’m really excited about this semester because I’m taking six classes, which I have been taking for every semester, and I’ll be graduating in three years with two majors. This semester I am taking all upper-level classes with professors I really like in areas I’m really interested in. One of the classes I’m taking, for example, is Terrorism in World Politics. It is really interesting to be able to engage in topics on the Middle East and international relations from that perspective, because we always talk about it but we don’t really properly engage with it. I am also taking comparative politics ... so all of my classes are really coming together this semester [and] converging in that one area. It’s really interesting because I’m actually getting to put to practice my education in the area that I want to study specifically. I would say [that] anybody looking [to go] into international affairs [should] intern in it before you make that decision, because that is how you know it’s something [you] want to go into. It’s [international affairs], not something that is happy; it’s never going to be something that is happy, it’s something that you have to learn to see the beauty in. And the only way to do that is to work and intern in it, because then you have those resources and those connections to be able to give you hope. I interned at the Washington Center through World Affairs Councils of America. It was a small non-profit grassroots international affairs organization, and it worked on spreading education on international affairs throughout the country. I interned there during the summer, and that is how I knew that both of my majors were right for me.”