Talk about joining the EPE, learning programming, reproducing results for the first time, learning to work with graduate students, learning to do research at a graduate level, joining the atlas experiment, etc. etc.
Golden TimeI believe in myself
I love myself And I will never give up on myself For as the golden flower stoops to kiss the surface of the lake So, too, will the sun rise to meet the horizon Amidst that pale blue, purple-pink sky I wrote this poem fall quarter of my Sophomore year while in the shower during a particularly stressful week. While I’ll sometimes use writing and poetry to store thoughts away so I won’t forget about them or so I won’t have to think about them, this poem was more about envisioning what the idealist in me would think, and expressing that to myself as a form of encouragement. Though it’s very simple, this poem marks my a shift in my use of writing from a tool to a form of expression, and is thus my favorite piece of anything I’ve written.
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Evaluating LGBTI Rights in Foreign Affairs: The Libyan Case
This paper on the state of LGBTI rights in Libya was the Fall quarter assignment I was simultaneously most proud of and most confounded by. Given that my professor for the course, was an incredibly professional, empowering, and effective teacher, I wanted to make a great impression. While I felt my research was strong and I felt like I made great points, I had little time to spend on the paper and bibliography, causing me to fear that my claims might have appeared illogical and unsubstantiated. However, when my professor returned it, she described in detail its many strengths, and offered praise for the clarity and depth of my points. As I am frequently my own greatest critic, this experience helped me to realize that the standards I set for myself are often much higher than the standards set by those I respect the most, and finally solidified the fact that I am more than capable of achieving most anything I set my mind to.
Husky Running ClubThe Husky Running Club is a casual running group for all abilities, where I found some of my first friends outside of my academic interests. There, I have been able to meet people interested in subjects ranging from sports medicine to neurobiology to law, and through those connections, push myself both physically and academically.
I recently ran the Dawg Dash 10k with one of those friends, and instead of each going at our own race-pace, we stuck together and made it a fun, casual run where we could joke around and encourage each other. These are the type of connections that I relish, and hope to find more of through expression of my non-academic passions at UW. |
Autumn Quarter Reflection
How have your goals and expectations for yourself changed since the start of Autumn quarter?
During this quarter, my interests almost shifted to mechanical engineering over aeronautics and astronautics due to complaints I have heard since my freshman year regarding the AA department. However, after questioning the accuracy and validity of the testimony offered by peers, an informational interview with a grad student in AA, and an extensive brainstorm about what jobs I wanted to go into and what degree/classes would best help me succeed in those positions, I found that despite its flaws, AA is still the degree for me. Though I still have steps to take to ensure my happiness with the program, such as talking to advisors about optimising my college experience and mobilizing credentials for future use, I now feel more confident moving forwards about what I want and how I aim to achieve it.
What is something that has surprised you about yourself in your first quarter of Honors?
As I had taken an Honors course before joining the Honors program, nothing was exceptionally surprising. However, as I’m taking two radically different Honors-prefix courses right now, I’ve been able to compare how different professors interpret the mission of the Honors program. In one class, I’ve loved the seminar-style focus on discussion and classroom engagement with new and challenging concepts, while in the other, I’ve been more surprised by the curriculum that feels exceptionally similar to unproblematic, unanalytic humanities classes I’ve taken. Overall, the experience has shown me how disciplinary norms define discussions, no matter the level they’re taught at, and helped me to gain a better understanding of the active learning I want to engage with in a field I go into.
What at UW is not what you expected?
Since this is my sophomore year, my experience has been very similar to last year. However, I’ve been able to surprise myself by continually improving my ability to react to stressful situations through self reflection in the form of comparison and analysis of my present experience with other experiences I’ve had. Moving forwards, I hope to build my mindfulness practices and my ability to manage lots of different activities so that when surprises do pop up, I can deal with them calmly and efficiently, treating them as learning opportunities, rather than stressors or detriments.
What have you learned about in Honors 100 that you would like to investigate further?
Through the discussions in Honors 100 and the Global Challenges event, I have learned about the ways in which technology constitutes a structural barrier or enabler of certain norms. Under this model, I have been able to use some of the same analyses to think about university bureaucracy and hierarchies within clubs and research groups, and would be interested in learning more about how I can work to ensure equitable advancement within each of these groups that I engage with.
What do you hope to achieve by the end of your first year in Honors? By the end of your time at UW?
Within my sophomore year, I hope to have gained a sense of what my exact path through the next two years of my university experience will look like, and identified the key study abroad/fellowship/research opportunities I want to take advantage of before I graduate. By the time I graduate, I want to define my key areas of interest within my major and within my extracurriculars/secondary interests, and have defined steps for moving forwards in each of my areas of interest after graduation.
Word Count Including Headers: 593
During this quarter, my interests almost shifted to mechanical engineering over aeronautics and astronautics due to complaints I have heard since my freshman year regarding the AA department. However, after questioning the accuracy and validity of the testimony offered by peers, an informational interview with a grad student in AA, and an extensive brainstorm about what jobs I wanted to go into and what degree/classes would best help me succeed in those positions, I found that despite its flaws, AA is still the degree for me. Though I still have steps to take to ensure my happiness with the program, such as talking to advisors about optimising my college experience and mobilizing credentials for future use, I now feel more confident moving forwards about what I want and how I aim to achieve it.
What is something that has surprised you about yourself in your first quarter of Honors?
As I had taken an Honors course before joining the Honors program, nothing was exceptionally surprising. However, as I’m taking two radically different Honors-prefix courses right now, I’ve been able to compare how different professors interpret the mission of the Honors program. In one class, I’ve loved the seminar-style focus on discussion and classroom engagement with new and challenging concepts, while in the other, I’ve been more surprised by the curriculum that feels exceptionally similar to unproblematic, unanalytic humanities classes I’ve taken. Overall, the experience has shown me how disciplinary norms define discussions, no matter the level they’re taught at, and helped me to gain a better understanding of the active learning I want to engage with in a field I go into.
What at UW is not what you expected?
Since this is my sophomore year, my experience has been very similar to last year. However, I’ve been able to surprise myself by continually improving my ability to react to stressful situations through self reflection in the form of comparison and analysis of my present experience with other experiences I’ve had. Moving forwards, I hope to build my mindfulness practices and my ability to manage lots of different activities so that when surprises do pop up, I can deal with them calmly and efficiently, treating them as learning opportunities, rather than stressors or detriments.
What have you learned about in Honors 100 that you would like to investigate further?
Through the discussions in Honors 100 and the Global Challenges event, I have learned about the ways in which technology constitutes a structural barrier or enabler of certain norms. Under this model, I have been able to use some of the same analyses to think about university bureaucracy and hierarchies within clubs and research groups, and would be interested in learning more about how I can work to ensure equitable advancement within each of these groups that I engage with.
What do you hope to achieve by the end of your first year in Honors? By the end of your time at UW?
Within my sophomore year, I hope to have gained a sense of what my exact path through the next two years of my university experience will look like, and identified the key study abroad/fellowship/research opportunities I want to take advantage of before I graduate. By the time I graduate, I want to define my key areas of interest within my major and within my extracurriculars/secondary interests, and have defined steps for moving forwards in each of my areas of interest after graduation.
Word Count Including Headers: 593