by Maya Arora ’20 (Immaculata House)

The Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Global and International Studies is a four-week summer program that exposes students from all across Pennsylvania to all kinds of global affairs. Each week’s instruction has a theme. The first week was Commodities and Capitalism—this included everything from the future of capitalism in America to the clothing commodity chain. The second week was about the Environment. During this time, we simulated the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit with a pair of students representing a country present at the conference. The third week was Global Health. We had a number of speakers talk to us about everything from epidemics to recycling soap. The final week was Human Migration, a topic plagued with politics and hardships. We discussed the many human migrations happening in the world right now, voluntary and forced. The program was an eye-opening experience and exposed me, personally, to many topics that I had not even heard about. It was a great learning experience, a wonderful way to make lasting friends, and an important tool in my understanding of the world today.