Krystine O'Connor
Krystine O’Connor is a junior at Arcadia University studying History and Secondary Education in pursuit of her Teaching Certification. During this summer, Krystine was able to Travel and stay in London, England for two days, and then in Prague, Czech Republic for a month. During her time there she took a class at Charles University that studied in depth the Jewish Art and Architecture in the Czech Republic, with a concentration in Old Town Prague and the Jewish Quarter. While there, she also had the opportunity to visit Terezin, an old Jewish Ghetto and former concentration Camp. She also was able to visit Kolin and Karlovy Vary, two towns in Czech-Moravia which are well known for their natural spa towns and beautiful hiking destinations. This experience was one of a kind and she hopes she can incorporate all she has learned to help her in her future endeavors as an educator.
CEE Title: Identity Knight
My CEE is entitled Identity Knight. Identity Knight is a two hour program that is designed to educate and give a platform for conversation around five areas of identity. There is a presentation done by myself based around the topic of identity and the ‘self’. This presentation aims to teach and offer explanations and reasonings to questions on identity. These questions include ones such as; what is Identity, How does Identity affect how you view the world, How important is a ‘sense of self’, and how intersectionality affects everyday life. After the presentation students will be able to participate in round-table discussions with their peers. These discussions are facilitated by five Arcadia students and each is assigned a topic of discussion. These topics are gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religion, and political affiliation. This discussion style takes after the ‘unconference’ style, meaning that at any time the students at the table can leave and join any table at any given time. At each table is two different style paper petals with each table having their own assigned color. The purpose of this is so that, if students choose to, they can make a flower out of all the petals at each table. The flower serves dual purposes. The first being that it allows students who learn more in a kinesthetic and visual way to be more actively involved. The second is that no two persons flower had looked the same, representing the collective uniqueness in all of us.