During my time in Scholars, I was able to build deep relationships with my peers and add an incredibly valuable set of skills to my resume from the course itself. I am now equipped with coding skills and well versed in the anthropogenic influence on the climate change we are currently experiencing.
How climate change impacts animal life has been a big help in determining what I would like to do after I graduate. I know that I have a passion for vector borne diseases and would like to investigate how climate change impacts their distribution. Being able to do a project that covers this topic has helped me deepen my understanding of the global change aspect of disease distribution. Up until then, my primary focus had been on how the diseases specifically impacted communities so it was nice to take a different perspective on it.
I’ve employed the hypothetico-deductive method in my SPHL100 class on a paper where I researched why Prince George’s county was more affected by the removal of the Bridge Project for COVID vaccinations. I theorized that because of the history of redlining in our county , a topic covered in Scholars, there were worse health outcomes in the community which means that there is a higher population of uninsured individuals in Prince George’s county that cannot get the vaccinations. In a similar strain, I have done projects in my EPIB301 class that use the concepts of logical fallacies to claim the ineffectiveness of certain public health policies.
I also took BSCI207 where we discussed evolution and how animals have adapted to different climates. Knowing what I already knew about the major changes in the climate, I was able to relate what I was learning then to another class. We were discussing the size of bugs in other eras compared to now and this was primarily due to the difference in oxygen concentration. This mirrors what we discussed in scholars with the changing oxygen concentration in the air. Later on in scholars, we would talk about fossils which mirrored what I talked about in BSCI207. It was nice to have a class that covered such a variety of topics in one curriculum.
My learning was exponentially enhanced by living in the scholars community. Being a Public Health Science major, I usually interact with people outside of my major in class and when engaging in discussions around the subject. From talking with the people in environmental science, it has helped me reflect more on the One Health model that is used when examining public health problems. A key example of this was the visions of the future project as it allowed me to gain a broader perspective of where there are problems in the public transportation system. This opened the door for me and my roommate to talk about her experiences as a bus driver and how she believes that the system can improve. Another example of this is talking about the tick borne diseases from the projects that we did last year. I found myself talking with my teammates about what I knew about the diseases.
I feel that I have made a significant impact on the scholars community. As a peer mentor and the captain, I believe that I have allowed for big improvements within the peer mentor program and SGC as a whole. During my time so far, I have held several events that contribute to community building and assist my program leaders. At the beginning of the year, the peer mentor team visited the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens to assist the freshmen with their service day. We helped create base level relationships among our groups and I frequently see them hanging out now. The peer mentors have also run several coding events that help the freshmen and our program directors. This has helped the freshmen feel more comfortable reaching out to their mentors as they get more face to face time with them than the peer mentors last year. Recently, I have been looking forward to the spring semester where I am attempting to plan service opportunities around campus for them to get involved in. In addition to this, I would also like to run several academic based events where we talk with the freshmen about our practicum projects and potentially what they have to look forward to next year. I know I had a lot of difficulty deciding on what I would do my practicum project on and felt uncomfortable asking my peer mentor. I have also been collecting all of my resources and templates in a folder to share with the future Science and Global Change peer mentor captain.
My opinions were challenged when it came to group projects. I had a view that people would be as passionate about the topics as me and put in an equal amount of effort. However, there were often times when I found that some people were not as invested as I was.This challenged me to find ways to get my groupmates invested in a project or feel comfortable changing groups if behaviors stayed the same. I have learned how to be more outspoken and direct about my goals for group projects from these experiences.
My Scholars experience will allow me to think more critically about the information I consume and what information others present me with. Knowing that propaganda gets less effective if you are able to recognize it means I will be more critical of the information I consume and think about the motivations behind why and how it was produced. It also means I can pass on my knowledge to others and help them to think more critically, particularly older family members.
As I close the book on my Scholars experience, I have incredibly fond memories from both my peers and my education. I have solid relationships with other members of the community and believe that this has been a core part of my education. Entering my last semester, I hope to spark the same love that I have for this program in the freshmen to encourage them to become active participants in the community as well.