Like many first year students here at American University I have a passion for international relations and the world around me. I came to AU with a purpose, a goal to further my understandings of world events and their underlying causes. However, like many students I quickly realized this was a far more complex task than I had originally thought. I was inundated by theories such as Realism and Constructivism, as well as introduced to concepts such as globalization and transnational crime. I learned two things from this experience: knowing these theories does not mean understanding global affairs and you need some sort of hands on experience to truly grasp the intricacies of international relations. Because the State Department and other government institutions are not in the business of handing out jobs, this real world experience is hard to come by. Multiply this by the fact that the majority of…