dialogue to munich | Explore Program for Undeclared Students

Hi! My name is Keelin and I’m a second year combined Criminal Justice and Political Science major. I’m going to be writing about how going on a Dialogue of Civilizations after my freshman year helped me to continue to narrow down where my passions lie and what I might possibly want to pursue after university.

Midway through my freshman year I declared Criminal Justice as my major, and at the end of the year I decided to combine it with Political Science. When I declared Criminal Justice I was 100% sure that was the right decision for me, but when I added the Political Science I honestly was only maybe 75% certain that this was what I wanted to do. I had added it because I wanted to broaden my area of study and had taken two classes in high school that had interested me. At the point when I combined my major I had already applied to the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Dialogue simply because it sounded like a course that would be incredibly interesting and if I had to take summer classes I didn’t want it to be another two months on campus. It just so happened that it lined up with the Political Science part of my new major, which was a really nice added benefit.

So, after applying, getting accepted and some pre-departure meetings it was off to Munich where the course started. Over the 30 days we had the chance to spend time in Munich, Nuremburg and Berlin in Germany and 2 days in Poland while visiting Auschwitz. We took two NEU classes while there which were History and Politics of the Holocaust: Perpetrators, Victims and Bystanders and Memory, Trauma and the Holocaust. We learned about the Holocaust in a depth that I never thought I could and were able to consider so many different aspects and outcomes that had never occurred to me before.

I had come into the experience expecting only to gain a much deeper understanding of the intricacies and history of the Holocaust and maybe make a few friends in the process but what I hadn’t expected was to discover a passion I had for international law and justice. Prior to this I had been almost 100% set on pursuing criminal law in some capacity after undergrad, whether as a defense lawyer or a prosecutor. However, something was sparked inside me when we went to Nuremburg to learn about the Nuremburg Trials which, for those of you who don’t know, were where the perpetrators had been tried at the end of the war in order to achieve some sort of justice. While at the museum, the main topic of the day was whether or not justice had actually been served. To keep a long story short, this discussion lead me to realize that pursuing justice in an international setting is something that is rarely truly achieved and that fact hit me hard and inspired me to want to try to do more. I still don’t know what that might be yet, but I know the desire is there and I’m on the way to figuring out what my role in that may be.

Our stop in Nuremburg was about ½ way through the trip and for the rest of the month I kept coming back to this thought of law and justice in each of our stops. So, while I may have headed into this Dialogue unsure of my choice to pursue Political Science and just looking to learn about the Holocaust, I came out of it being 100% sure I’d made the right decision switching to a combined major and with a major new interest.

So, with all this being said, I challenge each of you to go and take advantage of any opportunity you’re offered that interests you even in the slightest. Whether it’s a Dialogue, research, Coop or anything else, each step you take has the ability to have an impact even if you don’t necessarily realize that at first. Your path to exploring what you want to do does not stop the day you pick a major, it will continue to develop throughout your years at NEU and after.

By: Keelin Fitzsimons