When I first received the letter of acceptance to Earth Life and Time before coming to Maryland, I was a little hesitant to join. I was scared that the classes would be uninteresting or that I would have nothing in common with my fellow scholars. Looking back a year and a half later I realize I was wrong on both accounts. ELT helped introduce me to people that had similar goals. Many Earth Life and Time scholars were in the same classes as me, helping to form study groups. Many of my friends in ELT are pre-med so we related on many levels.
My most memorable experience was my second day in College Park, Maryland. I will never forget getting in the swamp with other new students to help save the environment. At first I could not help but think ÒWhat have I gotten myself into,Ó but as it turns out it was a great first experience for me in ELT. The second I got home, I called my best friend and parents to brag about the experience. Never in a million years would I have gotten the opportunity to do something as different as getting leg-deep into a swamp to serve the environment. Volunteering and serving others has always been my biggest passion and I was relieved to know that this was a core value in the scholars department. I had never volunteered for the environment before and it was a great opportunity to really get my hands dirty in an unfamiliar location.
One of my favorite parts about ELT is that the group of students is extremely diverse. Meeting students from different backgrounds has opened my eyes to new cultures and even ideas. I liked how we were always assigned different groups because it gave me a chance to meet almost everyone in ELT. I did not live in Centerville with everyone else, so it was always intimidating to talk to students in colloquium. Having group project and especially field trips gave me a chance to bond with students. Earth Life and Time scholars always reached out to me knowing that I did not have the opportunity to live with them. Many of them broadened my horizons especially with the group projects. My favorite in-class project was ÒThe End of the World as We Know It.Ó It was weird to imagine life in the different scenarios and I loved hearing everyoneÕs opinion when we discussed options as a class. I always wonder what our country would do if something as crazy as a major asteroid hit our planet or if nuclear war broke out. It scares me to think that either are possibilities.
If it was not for Earth Life and Time, I would never have ventured to Washington DC as much as I have. Earth Life and Time has helped me feel comfortable riding the metro into DC. Being from Texas, I felt uncomfortable exploring the area because it was so unfamiliar. Now it is a breeze to hop on the metro to spend the day exploring the Natural History Museum or even just eat at a nice restaurant with my friends. The scavenger hunt in DC the first week of college was a great opportunity to get used to the capital. To this day, I am still friends with the people in my first scholars group. We have both contributed to Earth Life and Time by helping each other out with assignments and gaining a better understanding of the lectures. When actually talking out loud with someone about ideas brought up in lecture, it creates better understanding and even creates new ideas. My beliefs were often challenged during discussion. In high school, teachers never discussed Darwin in as much detail as Professor Holtz and Merck did. It seems that we spent a great portion of lecture talking about his research which helped me with the other science classes I was taking. Earth Life and Time helped broaden my knowledge about Darwinism and evolution. Many people had told me that you can not be Christian and believe in evolution, but I learned through scholars that this was incorrect.
I probably would have never looked for an internship this winter if it was not for Earth Life and Time. I probably would have waited to get an internship until junior or senior year. My parents were even impressed that I was putting in effort to receive an internship as well as a job over winter. The assignment has presented me with a great opportunity to work under a doctor whose job is similar to what I would like to pursue. I am nervous but excited to watch this doctor perform surgeries on women with cancer. Oncology and gynecology are the areas of medicine that I am most interested in and this doctor deals with both. He is also the head of the gynecology department at a major hospital in Dallas, which means he could be a great potential reference.
Earth Life and Time also helped me to decide my major. I decided to take intro biology and chemistry courses to fulfill the requirement. Though they were both hard classes, I realized that I enjoyed the science department. I decided to concentrate on pre-med because I loved the classes. I probably would not have taken those classes if it was not for Earth Life and Time.
Though Earth Life and Time is only two years of my college experience the lessons I have learned will help me with my future education and career. It has given me the opportunity to attend lectures that I would never have heard otherwise. Earth Life and Time was more than learning about geology, but also reinforced my science classes that I was currently taking. Overall the diversity of the students and lectures has helped broaden my horizons. Being far away from home, I have learned how to branch out to new ideas and people. Earth Life and Time exposed me to all these things and I am thankful that I joined such a prestigious group.
Rachel Redfield's ELT3-Semester Review
Last modified: 8 December 2008
