Connecting With the World Around Me
By Jasmine Galdamez ’26
In Front of the Sydney Opera House, 2024
Singapore Hindu Temple, 2024
Photos courtesy of Jasmine Galdmez ’26
Finding my footing at Austin College as a first-year student was a bit of a challenge. I was now five hours from home with no familiar faces around me and a whole new life to build outside my home in Lubbock. I remember wondering when things would feel normal to me, when I would feel at home.
When I saw the Mock Trial table at the Opportunities Fair, I knew I had found my first step. I immediately jumped into attorney and witness work, fueled by my passion for law and performance. Through the program, I was able to meet the people who would eventually become a second family to me, spending countless hours and nights with them in the courtroom and traveling to multiple states for tournaments. I had found something to sink myself into and people to rely on, setting me on a firm foundation as I pushed into my sophomore year.
As I transitioned from being a clueless first-year to a more confident sophomore the following fall, my roommate briefly told me about another program they had heard about. The Political Science Department had just received a large gift from an alumnus to engage students with independent research abroad in Australia, Singapore, and South Korea, allowing students free reign in choosing their topic of study—the Asia-Pacific Scholars Program. By the time my roommate told me about it, the application deadline was only a week away. I hurriedly put together an application and sent it in with a day to spare. By the end of the semester, I was shocked and overjoyed to receive the email congratulating me and eight other applicants for being accepted into the program.
By the spring term, I was reading and writing down my research about the effects of structural violence on criminal recidivism among ethnic minorities in both Australia and Singapore. I had written a number of research papers for my other classes at AC, but nothing of this magnitude. By the time we were ready to leave for our field research abroad, I had already collected nearly thirty different sources for just my literature review. While I had laid a solid foundation for my research, it wasn’t until after traveling to Sydney, Darwin, Singapore, Seoul, and Busan that I was able to fully realize the direction of my work. The museums, landmarks, and people I met at every place we stopped were all critical to me fully understanding the context on which my research relied. Had I not been able to travel to all of these different locations, I would have missed so many nuances that just weren’t present in academic articles and papers.
Mock Trial and the Asia-Pacific Scholars Program have been integral to my academic and personal development while at Austin College. Through these programs, I have learned how to advocate for myself, how to push myself academically and, most importantly, how to make connections with the world around me. Both have been invaluable experiences in my life, and I am so grateful to have had them while representing ’RooNation.
