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Being a part of the University of Maryland College Park's Scholars Program specially Earth, Life, and Time, has had a great influence on my character and my involvement on campus. The Scholars program allows students to have Professors who they can get to know one on one. In my case, that was Dr. John Merck and Dr. Thomas Holtz. My freshman year of ELT I was a Cell Biology and Genetics major and I always thought that geology was just about boring old rocks. But by listening in lecture I learned that all science classes overlapped. One of the lectures that I really enjoyed freshman year was What is Science?. I really enjoyed and treasured this lecture because It helped me to understand the basics of science. I believe that something that most science related courses fail to discuss is the scientific method and its components. In most science classes it is assumed that each student thoroughly understands the scientific method but that is not true. Prior to taking CPSP218G I barely had an idea of what the scientific method was but after I understood the difference between a theory and a hypothesis and how the way that they can be falsified differs. This lecture and others combined helped me to grasp ideas that I needed to understand in order to be successful in several of my courses.
It is an innate attribute of humans to want to feel as if they belong somewhere and I’m not any different. As a kid I always enjoyed my grandmother’s stories of life in Africa. She told me stories ranging from her growing up with her siblings to her raising eight children. Listening to her stories always made me wonder about the past and caused me to want to know more about myself so when I got the opportunity to trace my family to year 1 CE using history I was very excited. I believe that it was one of the most interesting projects that we did. The family project had two phases. For phase I we had to talk to one or more of our family member who would tell us as much about our family history as possible. For phase two we used the gathered information from phase I and history to trace the whereabouts of our ancestors in 1900 CE, 1800 CE, 1490 CE, 1000 CE, 500 CE, and 1 CE. The information was then transferred to a map that was presented in class. Through this project, I learned that I had possible Mongolian ancestors because my great great grandmother is Lebanese and the Mongolian Empire had taken over that area. On the day of class that the family project was due everyone plotted themselves on huge maps and I felt as if it was a great way to get to know one another more. I really enjoyed this project because College Park Scholars is focused on the idea of a live and learn community and through this project we were able to learn things about each other and ourselves that we would have never gotten to do otherwise. Through our family history project learned how to use history to trace human interactions and create a map of my possible ancestors. For my wonderful third semester in Earth, Life, and Time we read Pulitzer Prize and Aventis Prize for Best Science Book winner, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. It is a book with a very strong title and offers a lot of interesting information about the world around us. The book focuses on the central question of why Eurasians dominated over other cultures due to superior guns, germs, steel, and their food producing capabilities? Diamond answers this question by stating the Eurasians had an environmental advantage over other cultures such as New Guinea. In the book Diamond discusses how Eurasia went from a hunter-gather society, to the domestication of plants and animals, and a more civilized agricultural society. Agricultural society offered new possibilities. This is because with more food available, the population increased, this increase in population caused there to be people who specialized in different fields. The economy of Eurasia flourished because with many people specializing in a certain field it creates a trading opportunity which has a great affect on the economy. I’m not going to tell you all about the book but it also discussed diseases and the idea of Eurasian superiority, which is a great debate topic. At first I really enjoyed this book simply because it wasn’t a textbook but as I read I realized that it was a very intriguing book. I believe that my experiences in College Park Scholars will always be a part of my life. I have become aware of the world around me. Being in Earth, Life, and Time made me feel as if I would always have a support system in the people that I befriended. I plan to still be active in Scholars by being a Service Day Team Leader my junior and senior year. By being in Scholars I have become a very outgoing person and the practicum was a big push towards my being more active towards my future goals because it is a great opportunity as an undergraduate that I can grow from and add my experience to my resume. Through Earth, Life, and Time, I’ve learned that being an open-minded person allows me to gain more from my experiences and I hope to keep that kind of mindset even after I graduate from Scholars. In my heart I will always be a College Park Scholars!!!!! Through my many experiences in ELT I have been able to learn a lot about my character and grow as an individual. Service Day helped me to realize that I enjoy meeting new people and giving back to my community. My time at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens made me feel as if I was a part of something great and that was why sophomore year I volunteered as a Service day team leader. One of the main aspects of the scholars program was to create a live and learn community and I think that the program has been very successful because a majority of people in ELT are in similar classes with me and we are able to for study groups and assist on another when necessary I never thought that I would find geology interesting because I never thought that rocks offered anything intriguing to learn about and I doubt that I’m the only one. But thought ELT field trips to West Virginia for fossil hunting, Sideling Hills, and the Smithsonian I realized that through geology one could learn how new islands form, through analyzing different strata a lot can be learned about evolution and the diversification of organisms. Through our family history project where we traced ourselves back to the year 1 CE, during this time I learned how to use history to trace human interactions. Most importantly ELT has given me the opportunity to meet and interact with the wonderful Dr. John Merck and Dr. Thomas Holtz, who have made colloquium very entertaining. |
