Honors Experiences
Throughout my years in the University Honors Program (UHP), I have to complete five honors experiences. These can be courses, programs, trips or self-designed. Every honors student is expected to complete these, and the below are the experiences I decided to complete. Each one teaches different aspects of the world and how we as students can change it for the better. They also help us reflect upon ourselves to become a better person.
Gateway to University Honors
This course introduces the first year honors students into the UHP. It teaches UHP students important life lessons on how to improve one's self in order to benefit the world through self-reflection. By looking at my individual strengths, I am able to focus my time more on those strengths rather than my weaknesses to improve myself and, in turn, the world. The self-reflection enables the students to think about their life goals and how they will get there.
Gateway to University Honors also informs the students about the benefits of being in the UHP and how to succeed in it and at UC. Benefits include priority housing and scheduling, specialized courses and possible grants for international studying to name a few. This course shows the students how to complete the necessary prerequisites for some of these and who to ask at UC in order to acquire these perks.
I have learned a lot from this course, and I will remember this information while I am at UC. Along with the benefits of being an Honors Student, I will use the life lessons I have learned and apply it to my future co-ops and professions. It teaches to think about how my actions effect the world rather than just me, or those directly next to me, which seems overwhelming but at the same time brings about a greater sense of pride and accomplishment. Thinking globally brings about a greater effect, more positive effect on the world.
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Big Data, Bigger Questions
Big Data, Bigger Questions was a philosophy course I attended spring of 2018. The overall goal of the semester was to approach different ways of acquiring data and using that data to improve the University Honors Program. Before starting the program, we learned about the background of data and whether or not it is trustworthy or not as a basis for understanding. Once we started the project, we learned not only much about what it was we were part of, but also how group projects were conducted in the real world, which can translate to real work experience. This experience was very fulfilling because of all the hard work put into it from all of us students and to see the change brought on in the honors program to better improve what they were already doing. Shown below is the final report written by us, which includes all the work and results we found from the data. This was easily the best document to express how many hours were poured into this project and also illustrates the results through many charts and recommendations. Though the project was hard work and frustrating at times because of the time constraints, the outcome could not have been more satisfying.
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*Because of the size of the report, it is best to view as a word document.
Sticky Innovation
Sticky Innovation was a course I took fall of 2018. The purpose of this class was to study Arts Based Research through the context of the bumble bees. Throughout the course, we created pieces of art that could help us study the bees through a different scope. For example, we were given the task of creating a 3D model of a bee, however we needed to reimagine a part of the bee so it was better suited in the environment. Our group decided to target the wings of the bee because they were the most susceptible part to pesticides. We laser printed detailed bee wings and added small pores to the wings so that the bees could sweat off the pesticides. The final project for the course was a research proposal. The research would not be carried out, however we had to present to a board our ideas for research. Our group focused on educating the public about bees and their importance to our society. Through a combination of social media and entertainment we created a satirical video, video game and website. These projects helped us tackle the problem with the bees while also approaching research in a different aspect.
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