Weekly Blog #15

All of this week, as well as over winter break, have been incredibly valuable learning experiences. Over the break I completed my original work project and am proud of how it turned out. I put several hours of work into researching the Venezuelan human rights and constitutional crisis, which is thoroughly reflected in my final original work product.

After researching and reading all of the articles listed above, I went through with specific colored highlighters and pens, to annotate and identify all of the aspects of the Venezuelan crisis that are in need of review and revision in the form of a constitutional amendment. In order to become more knowledgeable about the specific Venezuelan crisis in recent years, I decided to thoroughly analyze and annotate articles such as the 5 most recent amnesty reports over Venezuela (dating back to 2011), the opinion analysis of a UN Human Rights expert, articles discussing Maduro’s current plans of revision for the Constitution, and the Venezuelan Constitutional Referendum from 2009, to name a few.

I then went in with specifically colored sticky notes and tabs which allowed me to explain my point of view throughout the articles, and where I believed a constitutional revision would be helpful in preserving the human rights of the Venezuelan people. After annotating and giving feedback and notes on several articles, I felt that I was equipped to begin rewriting the preamble to the constitution, as well as brainstorming ideas for the amendments. Therefore, I typed out a list of all the changes that had to be made, and categorized them into ten groups. I then began typing my own version of the Venezuelan Constitution.

Throughout the break, I was also able to update my digital portfolio and research portfolio with all of my research assessments, annotated articles, interview assessments/notes, and the new addition of the original work category.

In addition, I also organized all of my papers and props for my display board I will be presenting at the Research Showcase on January 17th.

As far as obtaining a mentor goes, I have put an immense amount of effort into trying to reach Mr. David Winn, the Vice President at The Center for American and International Law. Over the break and in the past week, I have sent him two emails with mentor requests. After not receiving a response, I attempted to call him at The Center this afternoon, but had to leave a voicemail. Hopefully, Mr. Winn will accept my mentor request as soon as possible so that I am prepared for the Research Showcase.