Introduction

[This is what I have to say, which of course is something really important.]

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Part 1 Background Information Planning

I’d like to create an op-ed about the impacts of the shootings that happened in Colorado at the end of February and the beginning of March, especially the impacts on international students on campus. This topic is meaningful to me as they were the very first time I received shooting alerts in my whole life as an international exchange student. I came from Tokyo, Japan, one of the safest cities in the world with strict gun control regulations. I had never faced a threat of shooting in my whole life until I came to Boulder. As I knew almost nothing about how to protect myself from shooting accidents, I was genuinely terrified and always alarmed. What surprised me the most was that it seemed like people continue to live daily life even after what happened. We go to school while the suspect was not arrested yet, which did not make sense to me. The way the shootings felt like a part of life scared me the most. Another important aspect I’d like to focus on in the op-ed is that I felt like I have more risks than other people due to my identity. I have diverse aspects in my identity: Japanese, an international student in the States, a woman of color, an Asian, and a non-native speaker of English. Although I am proud of my identity, those aspects made me feel like I am even more exposed to risk in shooting accidents. Many of my friends who are also international students with the identity of women of color shared similar experiences with me. One of the risks I realized is that we have limited information about safety in terms of lack of experience to face those accidents, language barriers, and limited communities we have access to.  With all these backgrounds, I’d like to discuss the importance of providing more accessible information about safety to minority groups and media coverage of these impacts.

Part 2 Reflection and questions

Although my current topic is the impacts of shootings on international students at CU,  I am considering extending the topic to the State level to make my topic be relevant to the audience.  If I keep it only in CU, many of the audience without connections with CU do not necessarily find the motivation to read the op-ed. It is probably better for me to focus not only on the impacts of shootings on CU international students but also on international communities and women of color in Colorado or in the States. Again, I am still figuring out to what level I should extend my topic to make it relevant to the audience’s interest. Also, I am figuring out what kind of actions I should motivate the audience to take in the conclusion, in addition to the accessibility to safety information and more media coverage about the impacts of shootings on international communities. I’d like to figure out what other aspects to focus on in order to motivate the audience to take action.