As you all know, the motto of St. Edward’s University is “take on your world.” In my time on the hilltop, I found that I hardly ever live this out in my day-to-day consumption of news media. With the saturation domestic politics on my Facebook and Twitter feed by mostly American journalists, it’s hard for any international news to peek through. Since the election of Donald Trump, I feel isolated to American news and drama even though I have almost unlimited access to the entire world via social media and the Internet.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve connected with a few international professors to see if they could share their thoughts or any interesting stories of news occurring outside of the US that haven’t been covered enough.

Starting in Japan, Professor Maeri Megumi listed several issues in Japan from long-term to short-term, regionally and nationally. There is a standout issue that comes to mind when considering news that we’ve been hearing about recently: North Korean government threats to deploy nuclear weapons in the region. The Japanese are especially vulnerable due to a clause in their constitution that prohibits them from building up arms or having a military. While they do have defense systems, it’s currently hotly debated whether or not they should go on the offensive against North Korean aggression

At the national level, Professor Megumi said there have been continuing issues with the 2011 Fukushima reactor disaster that forced nearly 250,000 people permanently out of their homes. The clean up is still in progress, and those forced to uproot their lives are having to rebuild elsewhere.

Looking to the future, Professor Megumi mentioned the aging population as an issue that most Japanese people think about. Another issue that was a surprise to me is the changing role of women in Japanese society. As women become more educated and involved in the workforce, they are demanding better childcare provided by the government. Right now, women across Japan are raising their concerns about the immature and underdeveloped state of childcare infrastructure in the country, which hinders their ability to contribute fully in the workplace.

Why don’t we know more about Japan, or other places, for that matter? What other horrible things are happening around us? Moving forward, there are a few tried and true ways to keep tabs on the happenings in other parts of the world.

1. Follow and read more diverse news sources.
   If you’re unsure about where to start, try the library. There are periodicals from hundreds of publications ranging from the Economist to the Armed Forces Journal. If you don’t find what you’re looking for (or are not really into going to the library and reading a newspaper) the same is available online at library.stedwards.edu.
   

2. Ask someone who knows more than you.
   This is a broad qualifier. Humans can’t know everything all the time. Ask someone who is interested in something that you know very little about. Ask them what they are paying attention to at the moment. At St. Edward’s, it’s really easy to get an international opinion. Currently, 11% of our student population is made up of international or exchange students. That means that you probably have a class with an international student.
   

Be aware and listen more.
At the end of the day, the special ingredient to becoming a more global citizen is listening to the voices of people and taking the time to understand the world from their point of view.