STUDENT SPOTLIGHT_ Robyn Battles.mp4

The following is an computer-generated summary of the video transcript.

my name is Robin battles. Before coming to the Bush school, I did my undergrad at texas A and M. Galveston's. I studied maritime public policy and communication and I'm currently enrolled in the Masters of International Affairs program here at the Bush school. I think it just really eye opening. There's I've learned so many new areas of study that I probably would have been exposed to before because I came in thinking I knew exactly what I wanted and I was kind of the impression that I got it. Everyone comes in having an idea of what they want. But myself included have not totally changed it but just have had my horizons expanded. Um So it's been a really really rewarding process. It was a research fellow for the U. S. Pacific indo pay calm. So I got to spend my summer in Hawaii doing research on climate security issues. Um That was a new field of study for me but it was great to be able to use the research skills that I had learned how to do in school and finally be able to apply them to real world issues and create a product that could be used for the Department of Defense. The Bush school gave me a lot of the vocabulary and the know how and all the background information that I used um whenever doing my internship. Um but I think the internship kind of gave me a broader perspective um and being able to see how these things actually interact. I knew I didn't have a strong background in international affairs or world politics or anything like that. So when I came in, it felt like a lot of my peers did know a lot about these subjects, so that was really difficult to work through and I'm still working through and realizing that just because my strengths aren't the same as my pure strength doesn't mean that I'm any more or less capable than they are. I think there's probably a tendency to just kind of stick with what, you know, and again, that was my identity because I already felt insecure about how much I knew about international affairs in general. So I would definitely use some of my assignments as an opportunity to weren't about something that I didn't know before being able to draw from different times in history in different places around the world. I think that makes you a better candidate for finding jobs and just makes you more well rounded in culture, person in general, in reality, you know, some weeks you have a subject that comes up that you're like, oh yeah, I've been studying this since underground. I know exactly what's going on and your peers really highly regard you for that. And then some weeks, you know, it's just your turn to stop and listen and