Southeast student spends spring break at Washington think tank

KENNETT, Mo. -- Not every college student would give up her spring break to spend time at a think tank, but one Southeast Missouri State student did, spending five days at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C.

Caitlin Woods is a junior at the regional campus in Kennett and was one of 30 Southeast students who participated in the seminar, discussing global issues in foreign policy, food security, global health and challenges in civil society.

"They put you through simulations and everything you can imagine to get a picture of the real world," Woods said. "We had a different speaker every hour and fifteen minutes and working lunches. It was a 9 to 5. We learned everything from the military's perspective on things, global warming, starvation, water resources -- just the bigger picture on the world."

Woods learned the bigger picture is complicated.

"I'm concerned about going to class today and work today and packing lunchboxes for the kids," she said, "but these people look at things like HIV in Africa and how are we going to fund that?"

Woods especially was touched by the first presentation -- Seven Revolutions.

"It basically talked about how everything is connected -- technology and hacking and how it connects to something else," she said. "How we are spending more money to prevent hacking, yet we are taking money away from allocating water resources? Everything is connected. It was very dramatic in its impact on me."

On the last day, the students experienced a simulated crisis event. They played a predetermined role in which they responded to a global event and offer policy solutions.

"We went through a depiction of Russia trying to hack into our government database. Each person was in a department, and we had to come together as a group and decide what we were going to do," Woods said.

Once decisions were made, the experts showed the students what the results would have been.

"It was a real-life simulation," she said. "Just because someone like the president says, 'Here's what we are going to do,' it isn't that easily done. There's a group of people who have to come together and agree on that," she said.

Through the simulation, Woods said she better appreciates the complexity of the decision making process.

"It is a very long process, and there are a lot of different people to coordinate to make one decision," she said.

University credit is given for participation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. After coming home, there is still work to do, however, to complete the course.

"We will have a presentation. We are grouped into different aspects of the world. Mine deals with education. You put some of the information you learned from D.C. into your presentation, and we will all have to present for about five minutes before a huge board to prove our skills and show what we've learned," she said.

That presentation is Thursday at the Student Research Conference on the main campus at Cape Girardeau.

Students selected to attend represent every college and regional campus within the university. They were nominated for participation. The program is open to students who have a minimum of 60 credit hours and at least one year left at Southeast after the seminar. Students also must have a 3.0 grade-point average.

Woods said she is glad she had the opportunity.

"I learned to be more humble and to appreciate and be open-minded. It's not just a clear-cut, 'Oh, the president should have done this.' It's not that easily done. I feel they really are trying to do all they can to make it better for us. It's a much larger picture to look at the world and look at what's best for everybody, not just the United States. There's a lot more out there, and there are a lot more issues out there than what we deal with on a daily basis.

"It's very beneficial to open your mind and your eyes to see that it's not just about Kennett, and it's not just about Caitlin or anybody else. There's so much going on out there, and we should be more appreciative of each day."