I ending up deciding to do the scholars Earth, Life and Time program (ELT) over the summer before freshman year. It was one of the most important decisions I have made so far. ELT provided a structured place for me to learn and meet new people, which made college much more manageable. Through ELT I learned to look at the world a different way and I made friends that I know I will keep for the rest of my life.
I learned to take everything from an objective angle and exactly how evolution has shaped and effected our society through some of the readings we did second semester freshman year such as Jared Diamond‘s The Third Chimpanzee. Time is a major factor in evolution and I had learned about it previous classes, however, reading an interesting book really helped me understand the material. Diamond explained why we reproduce the way we do and how we branched out from other chimps yet we are still similar.
I have also learned that sometimes there is not a right answer when we did a group project this semester where we were asked to look at disaster situations. I was able to bring prior knowledge to the discussion from a biology class where we learned about circle quarantine. I participated in the class discussion which reinforced the lesson; at any point in time there could be no right or wrong way to go about fixing a situation.
My friends in ELT have helped me learn and retain information and the New York City Field trip provided a truly memorable bonding experience. We went to the National History Museum and had a tour around the dinosaur exhibit with Dr. Holtz, which was once of my favorite parts of the field trip. I really enjoyed learning about the time period of those animals and about the earth back then. The field trip also gave me an opportunity to become better friends with people that I already knew.
For one of my supporting classes I took History of Science, please keep in mind that I usually hate history. I would not taken this class had it not been for ELT, but I enjoyed learning about the different scientific fields of thought. I had not previously taken a class that went in-depth into different, philosophical and scientific figures and this challenged my pervious opinions on history classes.
I also took biology for a supporting class, I liked this class because it covered things that are going on all around us but that we can not see. In biology, time can be measured in nanoseconds such as with cellular functions or in millions of years such as with evolution. Therefore, time is a factor that must be considered when dealing with biology and I had not previously thought about it in that way.
Living with other ELT students helped me make new friends and it was really convenient when I had a homework question because there were usually about five people with the same class. For help with my OWL chemistry homework, I usually just walked down the hall. Most people in ELT have majors in the science field, but not everyone. My roommate freshman year was an Anthropology major and I really enjoyed living with someone who looked at the world from a different perspective. I do not think that college would have opened up my mind as much, had I not lived with people that I did have something in common with but that were very different in their opinions about politics and science. I could relate to them, however, they taught me new things because of their different backgrounds and religions.
Part of scholars is giving back to society through community service. Through service day, I felt like I personally contributed to ELT. Freshman year I went out and helped clean up the gardens by removing hydrilla from the pond. We waded into the pond and had a lot of fun. Sophomore year I helped by handing out lunches to the freshman as they were preparing to head out to their service day. Assisting with administrative tasks on one of our most important days made me feel like I was personally contributing to the larger scholars community.
Living with my scholars classmates did bring me into contact with people that I might not have ever met otherwise. These people challenged my beliefs on topics such as politics. I grew up in a very liberal area and had never really had a conversation on politics with someone who was conservative. As a sophomore, I am living and getting along with a conservative. If in high school someone had told me that this would happen I would have never believed them. Some of my scholars classmates also made me rethink what was right and wrong and made me realize that my life had been pretty sheltered. College was a big wake up call that there is a real world out there and that horrible things can happen to anyone. In college, friends become a second family and they provide an amazing support system, I feel that scholars reinforced that sense of family. I responded by changing my mind set and learning to be open to new ideas.
I will keep in touch with the friends that I have made through scholars, which I feel is one of the most important things. However, I feel that the most important lesson I have learned through scholars is to always keep an open mind. The practicum that we did for scholars really opened doors for me and helped me fully decide that I did not want to be a doctor or a nurse. I learned how to make a website and how to better work with Photoshop and PowerPoint which will definitely be useful in the future. I am very happy that I decided to participate in the Earth, Life and Time scholars program because it has positively influenced my time at the University of Maryland.