PRLC 3810: Global Issues in Leadership

With several PRLC classes under my belt,  I'm extremely eager to continue to learn about leadership in our ever-changing, dynamic world. My last course, PRLC 2810: Multilevel Issues in Leadership, served as an independent study of sorts. I spent the semester diving into the Foster Care System and the intricacies of the systems built around it and the individuals reliant on it. I'm excited to expand my scope of leadership knowledge onto a global scale. I'm eager to learn about how various cultures interact with the same wicked problems, how differing laws around the world impact each problem, and how ethics are tied into it all. This is the first PRLC course I'm taking with a new professor- Chris Coker- rather than Dr. JulieMarie Shepherd Macklin. I'm curious to see if I gain any new leadership perspectives and whether or not the pedagogy of the class differs drastically.

Prior to completing this course, I assumed we would be diving into global leadership issues in a completely different manner than we did. My class looked into a plethora of pressing real-world issues such as freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, privatization of space, artificial intelligence, and the collapse of the Afghan government. My group spent countless hours looking at the last topic from every possible perspective. Because the collapse of the Afghan government was still an extremely active process during our research, we were able to track different paths of leadership taken, various military and political tactics, and see the worst of humanity exposed. My knowledge of operations, both political and military, was deepened and the solutions we examined gave me an entirely new perspective. Most importantly, I was able to deepen in empathy- seeing the refugee crisis form, seeing the Afghan president flee from his people, and seeing how the rest of the world reacted. My cultural and historical knowledge of Afghanistan has increased drastically,  alongside my desire to make the truth about these situations from both sides known.

My project group was given the task of providing context, theories, and a solution to the complicated situation that was the very recent fall of the Afghan government. We explored a plethora of options, all of which had been previously explored, and landed on a final solution that was more out-of-the-box than expected. You can go through our final presentation slideshow below.