During my first year experience I was able to significantly develop my skills in global understanding. Coming to George Mason has broadened my understanding of the world in which I live. I grew up in a very diverse neighborhood and was able to develop friendships with individuals from all over the world. I learned that there was more than one way of life and began to pursue global understanding at an early age. Many of my friends were Christian, Muslim or Hindu. I still treasure those early years of childhood but things have changed and I have had to grow up. To me the world is now complex, beautiful, and broken all at the same time.

          Coming to New Century College was the best decision I ever made because I have never been in such pursuit of understanding ever before in my life. I do not feel inhibited or intimidated by any obstacle which stands in my way. Prior to my first-year experience, I was disenfranchised by the education system because I felt that I was limited and I was forced to learn the curriculum of the public education school system. I had many questions but received inadequate answers that did not satisfy my thirst to analyze and understand. Living and learning among the extreme diverse body of Mason students has allowed me to share my own ideas about the world while listening to the ideas of others.

          For me, the most important skill developed from this year is my ability to connect, analyze and understand various social, economic, political global viewpoints. The Electronic Portfolio of NCLC 130 really brought out the best in me in sparking and engaging my interests in attempting to answer a very large question pertaining to global understanding. All throughout the year there were many assignments I completed were required of me. Granted, I did all of my work to my best ability but I often felt that I was writing about things that were of any particular interest to me. My interests were sparked by NCLC 130 The Social World because it was the first history course in which history itself was not dictated to me but rather it was taught in a fashion that acknowledged and sought after my own personal opinion. For the first time in my life, I began to question things.

          During NCLC 130 I had a passionate interest in learning about the relationship between Christianity and Islam and desired to broaden my global understanding of the subject. Seeing as how I was given the opportunity to decide my research question for my first electronic portfolio, I decided to make an attempt at answering a big question relating to past and current world relations between western civilization and Islam. I knew this was an immense challenge from the beginning but my passion for understanding caused me to avidly pursue an answer to the question. At first, I had no idea how do go about organizing my thoughts. Overtime I worked out a rational plan of organization in which all of my thoughts were developed into a well-defined and constructed argument.

          I began with an introduction outlining what the reader could expect to look for throughout the website. On this page of the website, I was able to touch on the different subjects that I would cover throughout the course of the electronic portfolio experience. Beginning with the past of the Middle East and western civilization provided an ideal environment for global understanding to take place. I also decided that some of my pages would incorporate the use of photos as visual aesthetic aids to enhance the reader’s experience of the written material being presented. The entire process of the NCLC 130 portfolio helped me to sharpen my global understanding into an effective argument by pulling from and integrating various examples of my learning experiences pertaining to the subject throughout my entire experience of The Social World.

          The actual contextual subject matter of the slides was broken up into country studies, conceptual studies, and final thoughts. The country studies included Turkey, Algeria, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. The conceptual studies included contrasting views on the role of Islamic Feminism, the dilemma of Orientalism and the western voice of Wendell Berry. The conclusion and final reflection were also added at the end to some up the ideas of the research question asked and to bring insight to future solutions and possibilities of the various scenarios present in today’s arena of international relations. Completing the full process of the portfolio assignment enabled me to reach a new level of competency level learning that I had never experienced before in my entire life.

          The task was long, difficult and arduous. There were some points where I thought that I chose such a broad topic and was worried that I would not to justice to the question being asked. I remember asking other students what topics they picked for their portfolio and all the answers I received seemed very simplistic. I could have done an easy topic but I felt that attempting to take up the challenge of answering some of my own questions that I had asked for so long to others was a much more worthy cause. As a result of my efforts in completing the final product of the NCLC 130 Electronic Portfolio, I was able to rest at ease with the personal satisfaction of pursuing and successfully finding global understanding amidst all of my beliefs, doubts and confusions about the world.