US Embassy: This was a fascinating visit for real! It’s not common I feel like to receive a visit from a diplomat! These three ladies were very insightful and had great upbringings that led to their current roles. To be very honest, I had not one clue what diplomats’ roles were. I thought they just got to drive around in the cars with “diplomat” tags and pop in and out of their embassies. It was very new to me to find out that the role of all of these embassies is to make sure that the interest of the country can be completed safely and in the right way. The same goes for other countries with embassies in the US. The biggest takeaway for me from them was that you can come from almost any background or study and end up working for the government. The speeches they gave us about never giving up and always trying your hardest seem so cliche but they are true in their cases. Having no idea what I wanted to do after college used to scare me a lot more than until their presentation. Seeing how each of these ladies began their careers doing completely different things ie. running marketing for an airline company for 20+ years, overseeing a contract be changed to allow color speckles in gum, to facilitating a gym be built for the president, gives me hope and a sense of tranquility that everything will be ok.

Office of Sustainability: The enthusiasm of our guest speaker was so transferable. I hadn’t thought much about the topic of sustainability until I entered high school. Since then, each year I feel like has increased in the term and actions around it. Now that we’re university students, our daily lives are shared with learning and living sustainably. In my opinion, this topic in Charleston has been in the spotlight for longer than here in Greece. CofC already has initiatives and has completed changes since before I was enrolled. This presentation was a lot more applicable to me as the changes made at ACG were more current. It’s crazy to believe how many single-use plastic bottles are no longer being discarded since implementing water bottle fill stations. Another thing to note is that Starbucks on campus charges for using plastic whereas in the states it does not. I think here in Greece, you just don’t have to pay the tax if you bring in a reusable bottle unlike in the US where you save $.5 or $.10 on your drink. While this is a great initiative, there needs to be research about how to save money when mobile ordering in the states!