Student Spotlight: Dane Chamberlin

Student Spotlight: Dane Chamberlin
Student Spotlight: Dane Chamberlin

Name: Dane Chamberlin
Instagram: @dane.cham
Majors: Global Studies and Political Science
Minors: French, HRHA, Classics
Hometown: Tucson, AZ

Favorite Book:
My Favorite book for fun is Red, White and Royal Blue - it’s nice to imagine a woman won the 2016 election and I love that it includes queer romance and international relations. My favorite serious book is the Iliad - I like that I can find humor in Zues essentially telling Ares to grow a pair and face Athena like an Adult, but also acknowledge the only truly human moment is the moment when Achilles rampages after realizing Patroclus has died. In a way both stories bring our greatest desires to life while pointing out the struggles and failures we go through to achieve them.

Favorite Movie:
My favorite movie is Umibe no étranger (In english its called The Stranger by the Shore) The animation is beautiful and throughout the whole film there lives a wistful wind that carries the emotions of the characters. It’s funny too and half the time I’m angry at the main characters for being painfully oblivious.

Why these majors and minors?
I chose to study political science in middle school. As a kid I wanted to be a Pastry Chef - I studied baking, event taught my self how to decorate cakes which I did competitively in high school and worked in a baker my senior year. I also wanted to be a shark biologist when I was young. But because of family and an intense fear of the ocean which I conquered later on I found out that law was the best track for me. I originally planned on doing Poli Sci with a minor and Business so I could go into corporate law. However, I realized that I preferred international relations and my love for cooking, and sharks, and anime, and mythology, and paleontology, and sociology all drew me to a cultural studies path that would allow me to explore my passion in learning about the world we live in. I honestly didn’t know what Global Studies was until I putting in my college applications, I had to google it, but it the best decision I’ve ever made.

Recommendations:
Take fun classes -that’s my recommendation. People are scared of taking a class just because it sounds cool but that’s like half of my degree. Although I took an intro level Kayaking class just so I’d have an excuse to get on the water. I’ve been kayaking since I was kid but college took so much of my time I decided that a class was the best way to ensure I got time to relax and do something I loved. As for “Why you should join Global Studies?” I’ve gotta be honest I can’t answer that, I think global studies is for someone who want to be able to make their own way in university. It gave me freedom to explore a ton of routes in my education and my specializations which have really helped me focus on what I want my future to look like. I think it’s the kind of major you choose if you want to have a hand in the world but also another hand somewhere else more centralized- it is such a broad study that a second major is just natural.

Extracurricular Experiences:
I’ve been up and down and all around when it comes to getting out there in my college life. So far I’ve studied abroad three times in Israel (before the war started) for Politics and the Israel-Palestine Conflict, Greece for Classics, and I’m currently in France studying International Relations and French. I’ve been doing research since year one, I worked on the Homerathon project my first two years at UNL in the Classics department, and this year I’m conducting my own UCARE research on France and Islam which I’ll be continuing into my thesis next year. On Campus I’m the President of Mind & Craft which I founded with my absolute best buds my freshman year. I usually hold down two to three jobs during the semester but by far my favorite has been the opportunity to be a Peer Mentor for PRISM and to a POWER class last semester. I’m always running rampant around campus when I’m there and that’s how I prefer it to be. With lots of coffee, as well.

I absolutely recommend everyone do something - I totally get it if my life sounds like hell, but I think if you spend all that money to go to university and you don’t take every opportunity you can to do something then you're missing out. I tell everyone to study abroad. At this point I’m giving the Ed Abroad Office free advertising, I’ve sent at least a few people their way. It doesn’t matter what major you are or why you're going, I believe that going abroad for an extended period, meeting people from other cultures, opens your eyes to a wider world. It’s a piece of the puzzle that’s missing in America, not enough of us get that experience of the grandness of the world. For me, my first time abroad was Israel and I was scared to go - as a queer person who is non-confirming in the Middle East. My favorite part was realizing just how much I felt at home in this place that was completely foreign to me. As we’d travel up down the country we’d see different terrain that looked just like my home town in Arizona and I was so happy to be back to dry heat. When I got to meat the people I found the most welcoming people I had ever met, even when I was at a bar and I had to clarify that I was interested in someone because i ‘played for the other team’ it was celebrated. I’ve been asked if I would go back and the honest truth is that I wish I could be there helping the people who need it most. These trips can be life changing and even if they aren’t it is still an experience you will never forget.

Post-Graduation Plans:
As for graduation, I’ve been starting prep for LSATs, I’m not looking forward to it. Law school is so close, but I am planning to get a JD as well as a PhD. I want to go into humanitarian work on the macro level. That means working for the UN - I want to be the one coordinating Humanitarian aid and crises, negotiating, and implementing de-escalation tactics. It’s gonna take a lot of work to get there but I hoping that I’ll retire early, that we wont need someone to constantly be coordinating crisis relief.