My experience as a Science and Global Change Scholar has helped me plan for resilience in a future of global change. In particular, it has given me a better outlet in the hypothetic-deductive method of science. Hypothetic-deduction was useful in debugging the programs I write in my computer science classes. I have become better at refining a falsifiable hypothesis (the student tests) and deriving a conclusion from that hypothesis (where there's an error). Thus, I improved my ability to write and debug code. Frankly, I can't recall many specific instances of using the hypothetic-deductive method of science in SGC. However, I recall it introduced and discussed, albeit not explicitly. I remember using the hypothetic-deductive method in a recent project. The project was titled Search for Solutions. We were to find where a specific element had the most impact on the environment. Then, we were to conclude what we could do to reduce that impact. I had used the process of developing a hypothesis and conclusion in that instance. I was just not aware of the actual name of the method. The method's application in certain classes has strengthened my ability to employ it. I recall another time I encountered something that I had learned previously in SGC in another course. The Tragedy of the Commons featured in a lecture. It used the example of a farmer buying too many cows and overgrazing the land to explain the concept. In ENST223, we covered the topic more in-depth by creating an interactive debate on the Maryland crabbing industry. Oddly enough, I believe that the website portfolio has been the most inspiring in connecting me to my major. A good number of people dislike HTML and CSS for indiscernible reasons. Nevertheless, I can't find anything to truly hate about something that can produce such astounding visual results with just a little research. Whenever I get fed up with assignments in classes that I don't care about, I can channel my desire for visual perfectionism and creativity through this website. Working on the website gives me the same variety of fulfillment that I get from spending time and effort on a presentation I know will be worth it. It's a form of stress relief by knowing how I will always get back what I put in. Obsessing the details also helps me concentrate on my goals for the future, and it lets me narrow down my interests based on my reception of various classes in the past. I don't interact much with the people at Centreville, even those in my classes. The last time I willingly talked to someone in the dorms was with people I met by chance on the floor lounge. Currently, I'm planning on switching to an apartment next year. The door slamming is getting out of control (kept me up until 3 in the morning). Some of the residents are also much too noisy for comfort. I could switch rooms or report people for the noise, but switching to an apartment is more effective to ensure there won't be any repeats. As for fellow SGC Scholars, the ones I usually interact with in class are those I interact with in other subjects. I tend to hang around those in a Computer Science major like me. Like last year, I stay in my bubble and don't go out of my way to meet people in other majors. I don't interact with anyone from SGC outside of class, but learning similar things and having the same assignments is helpful for a better understanding of class material, as it means I can ask about things I'm unsure about in other classes. I know for a fact that I have contributed more in specific academic situations than I have as part of the larger Scholars community. I'm not a very social person, so I struggle with bringing people together, but I am, for the most part, able to organize and do my side of the job well enough to not drag the whole group down with me. When necessary, I can act as a leader to ensure that the project gets done, although these instances have become rare. There are many people more suited to a leadership role than I am. I believe I do best in large-scale projects, like the ones in SGC, with the editing role. I edit everything and bring it all together so that the information flows cohesively. Besides assignments, I'm disappointed to say that I haven't taken the opportunity to go on a scholars field trip. This semester has been much too busy for me to participate in such an activity. I was looking forward to it in the previous semesters, but the timing is not ideal. Before being in the scholar's program, I was used to being a control freak when it came to projects. I was under the impression that if I wanted the project to be a specific way, I could take it into my own hands and form that ideal by myself without relying on others because no one else would care beyond getting a passing grade. As semesters got busier and I encountered others who had their specific vision for the project, I started learning to compromise, or in some extreme cases, leave everything up for them to decide how to do things because it was easier that way. I learned to stop caring as much. In the end, as long as everything still looked nice, it was fine. In peculiar ways, I became more agreeable and relaxed with the project. Despite this, I was still doing my part to ensure that it wouldn't be a disaster. The aspects of my time in SGC I expect to draw upon as a junior and senior will most likely be the rhetorical techniques we used to develop sound arguments. I also predict the ability to evaluate sources for any sign of logical fallacy to be valuable. As I have yet to take technical writing, a required class, I believe it would be most helpful to fully understand the basics of finding reliable sources and going beyond that in writing technical papers. In general, if I want to do research, the two fundamentals I need to keep in mind are finding unbiased sources and summarizing the information they provide, both skills that I have practiced in SGC with the projects and other assignments. In the future, I believe I will draw the most from what those experiences taught me in research and analysis. Click Here to go Back to Home