Over the past three semesters of the Science and Global Change Scholars program, I have deepened my understanding of global perspectives towards climate change and have made friendships that I wouldn't have otherwise. It has allowed me to connect with others which has benefited me within scholars and in my other major classes. I am very grateful for the program as it brought together a lot of similar-minded people who shared interests whether that was in their major or outside of class. I chose to dorm my freshman year with someone I knew instead of taking the risk of rooming with another SGC Scholar. While I don't regret my decision as I am still rooming with that same roommate today, I found that I did miss out on some opportunities presented by the Scholars living-learning program. Despite this, I found that the field trips and scavenger hunts to the Museums in DC as well as the service day more than made up for this decision as I got the opportunity to make connections with other scholars who I could connect with outside of class. In fact, I made a friend through scholars who happened to be in my Differential Equations class, and without scholars, I would have had one less person to study with. Through the various activities within scholars, from service days to the various excursions, I think I have personally contributed to scholars. The cumulative presentations in our second and third semesters showed just how much we have to offer society and how far our creativity toward climate change can go.
As a computer science and mathematics major, I thought that there would be no relation between my major classes and what we learned in scholars. However, I found that there were a lot of interesting ideas that connected to my problem-solving and analytical skills which were central to my field. This class helped broaden my understanding of the real world and gave me a new perspective on global challenges. In our first semester, CPSG100, we learned about logical fallacies and how science can be misrepresented in society due to oversimplified arguments. Similarly, in CMSC250, Discrete Structures, while a computer science class, this class was really a math class that required a lot of reasoning and the techniques used to identify misinformation were helpful in carefully working out application problems. In our second semester, CPSG101, we were introduced to how science, policy, and society are all connected and how global change requires solutions that take everything into account. In this class, we got to observe various anthropogenic climate drivers such as greenhouse gas emissions among others. SGC helped me analyze these drivers and representations through different computational techniques as shown in the various exercises. One such example of this was the Carbon Footprint Infographic assignment which helped us analyze how our carbon footprint compares with the average person and allowed us to picture a future in which our carbon footprint either improved or worsened as a result of our new lifestyle choices.
One example of failure in critical thinking skills came during a group project in CMSC216 in which I was in a group project. We were working through different problems and came across a few problems which we couldn’t figure out. The methods were written assembly which is the lowest level language which made it very difficult to understand. In CPSG101 we learned about how it was flawed to rely on one strategy to mitigate climate change and how it was more effective to rely on a variety of strategies that addressed different issues regarding climate change. Going back to my computer science project, my classmates suggested that we brute force our way through the problem. However, SGC gave me the insight that this would take a lot longer than properly diagnosing the problem. Instead of using trial and error like my group mates did, I tried to break down the difficult methods into smaller parts that were more manageable to understand and work through by using methods that targeted the specific problems. While my classmates were able to get the correct answer eventually, not only did it take significantly longer, but it was a lot less beneficial for them when it came to the exams. Especially since in our second exam, our professor decided to test us on how to properly debug a similar problem and describe how we would breakdown the method.
One example of a misunderstanding of science happened during a conversation with my dad about electric vehicles. We were casually talking about the new Tesla cyber truck and how even though it looked incredibly ugly, it was better for the environment. My dad argued that electric vehicles are worse for the environment than gas-powered cars due to the emissions generated through battery production. 2 years ago, I would have agreed with him as the argument made sense and he represented a trusted influence in my life. However, while battery production may have a larger impact in terms of carbon emissions compared to the production of a gas-powered car, SGC has taught me that this is an oversimplification of the story. After taking CPSG101 and CPSG200, I was able to argue that while the upfront cost of emissions is present for EVs, the long-term benefit is found in the fact that EVs have zero emissions. I was also able to argue that since we have solar panels installed at home, the carbon output is even lower when charging the car as we are partially using a renewable energy source that connects back to the grid. Scholars gave me context on which to argue for/against the impact of different solutions to climate change. It also gave me the critical thinking skills to evaluate claims made against climate models and make clear points from my own perspective. While I still agree that my dad is a trusted influence in my life, scholars gave me the ability to falsify claims and back up my arguments.
It's difficult to look into the future and say, "This is where I’m gonna be in 5 years." It's almost impossible to analyze what experiences will shape where you end up before you actually get there. However, SGC provided a foundation of knowledge on which to build. It gave us the perspective to properly analyze solutions. Say in 5 years, I do end up working towards impacts of climate policies or helping to visualize and interpret datasets to properly understand climate change. In this case, I would have this scholars program to thank for widening my perspective and pushing me to broaden my ideas. Regardless of where my future takes me, I know that the lessons I learned through scholars will have a way of coming back to influence my thinking.