Olivia Gilmore is a rising senior at Florida State University where she studies international affairs. With her university, she has studied abroad for a total of four semesters, and she speaks two foreign languages. She was born and raised in Simsbury, Connecticut. Olivia is the Media and Communications Intern here at CTWAC.

1. When and why did you first show interest in global affairs?

When I was 15 years old I went on a trip to Sicily with my high school music department. Not only did we do some sightseeing, but we also performed two concerts in beautiful opera houses. This was my first time in Europe and I was amazed; I instantly fell in love with Italy. When I was deciding which college I wanted to go to in the Spring of 2014, I was reminded of a special program at Florida State where you spend your first 11 months of university abroad, and then you get to pay in-state tuition for the rest of your undergrad career. It’s an awesome deal, so I spent my freshman year of college in London and Florence. I was actually originally a theatre major, but after my year abroad I decided to abandon that to study international affairs.

2. Do you have a particular area of interest within global affairs?

One of my main interests is languages. I started taking French in 8^th grade and I have had three French exchange students who have helped me get the accent down. When I studied abroad in Florence I started to learn Italian, and I am currently working on that. For now that’s all but I’d really like to learn more in the future. Besides that, I am really into politics, which is sort of a recent development. I actually just got back from a semester in London where I interned at Parliament, so British politics is one of my main focuses.

3. What do you do in your free time?

I enjoy photography and filmography, and I’m also an amateur comedienne.

4. What do you do at CTWAC?

I’m the Media and Communications intern so most of what I do is manage our social media accounts, create content, emails, newsletters, blog posts… I actually wrote the blog post you’re reading now.  I’m interviewing myself.

5. Why do you think global engagement is important?

I took a class a little over a year ago called “Thinking Beyond Ourselves: Global Perspectives” and despite the cheesy name it was a valuable experience. In this class we mostly reflected on intercultural experiences we’ve had, our place in the world, and how this affects others. It’s important to think in this way so that we don’t get caught up in ourselves. I think Americans especially can have a hard time thinking in a global context due to many factors. The more we encourage global engagement, the better our world will be.

6. Do you have any tips for how to get involved in global affairs?

There are many ways to get involved in global affairs- from simply subscribing to a world news source to travelling all over the world. Stay informed, join discussions, and think in a global context.