During the fall semester I was able to take a philosophy class called the Ethics of Sports. Growing up I was always into sports and have played a variety of sports all my life. Never once had I stepped back and considered, is this ethical? Even in football, where intense collisions occur on every play, I had never considered if it was ethical. This class as a whole helped to widen my perspective on sports and help me to think outside of the box on everyday actions that are socially acceptable but may not be entirely ethical. I would encourage students to take advantage of your gen ed opportunities. Instead of taking something that looks easy, take a class that you think you may actually be interested in. Gen eds are there so that you can obtain a breadth of knowledge and expand your education and perspectives. In CPSG we covered a lot of entry level science topics that I did not expect. I did not think that we would cover logical fallacies, pseudoscience, and what real science is. I was excited to dive right into climate change issues, but we had to cover other basic science topics first. Hopefully, next semester we will be able to cover more climate change issues. It felt like a lot of the early topics were middle/high school level and could have been sped through faster. However, I thought that all three books were very interesting and was not expecting to enjoy them as much as I did. Due to the coronavirus, we were not able to have any outside-of-classroom activities and I was very disappointed. I was looking forward to the scholars serves day to start the semester, go to various museums, and other events. I did get to join a virtual presentation about the OSIRIS-REx mission from NASA for my excursion. It was interesting to learn about the OSIRIS-REx mission and the asteroid named Bennu that NASA is interested in. I have always been interested in space, so it was really neat to learn about the current things that NASA is doing and Bennu may be a breakthrough for NASA, where they may find organic material and water on this near Earth asteroid. I also did not expect to make an eportfolio but I was very proud of mine. I had taken some coding classes in high school and had some experience in html coding, so completing the eportfolio was not very challenging, but instead was still very rewarding. It was nice to customize my own webpage and have a space to show off all of my achievements that I will be having during my time at Maryland. Finally, although we did not get to complete the annual scholars serves event at the beginning of the semester, I was able to complete an online scholars serves activity specifically regarding climate change. For my scholars serves activity, I wrote letters to the adults in my life that do not think climate change is a critical threat, as well as to my local, state, and federal representat
In order to develop strong mentoring relationships with faculty, it begins with putting yourself out there. The biggest way to pursue relationships is to go to office hours. Even if you are not struggling in the class, go to office hours and ask them about their research. Especially if it is a professor in your major, be curious and ask them about what they have done in their past and what they are doing now. My biggest success in developing a strong relationship with a faculty member happened with my advisor. Before having my advising meeting, I researched all of the bioengineering professors and what research their labs did on campus. I had been particularly interested in one professors work specifically, and it turned out that she was my advisor! During our meeting, I let her know that I was interested in her research and was asking her questions about her research. This connection provided me with the chance opportunity to potentially complete research in her lab next semester.
Having relationships with fellow students helps tremendously to get adjusted to the university. My biggest advice is to be outgoing. Be friendly to everyone in your buildings and everyone in your classes. Stepping out of your comfort zone is important. For example, do homework in the lounge instead of in your room. Go on adventures with your peers to lake Artemisia or walk to Marathon late at night. Next year when there are sporting events, go to these with people and have fun making new friends. Join clubs and organizations to meet new people and you may even find a club that you are very passionate about.
I was the least prepared for the format of college classes. Content wise, I was very prepared for college, but when it comes to the organization of a college class, it takes a lot to get used to. In high school, I was used to having one-on-one learning with teachers and being able to ask questions in class. In college, it feels like you are cutoff from the professors during class, but you can get that one-on-one feeling during office hours. Another thing that was very useful was TA office hours. Your TAs are there to help, so feel free to reach out and ask questions. Also, the big change in college is that now your grades are more test based. In most engineering classes, the tests consist of usually only three questions, so if you get one wrong you are already at a 66%. This was very foreign, as in high school the tests consisted of a larger number of questions and actually tested your knowledge of the subject. In college it feels like the tests are usually foreign compared to what the professors are teaching. To combat this, I recommend to plenty of practice problems and studying with your peers.