In the past three semesters, being a Science and Global Change scholar has helped me take an active role in understanding global climate change and advocating for resolutions. Since global change is a very large issue in the modern world, I constantly hear about the problems at hand, and now I feel like I can contribute to the conversation with an adequate amount of knowledge. For example, in the news lately, I have been hearing a lot of talk about how the rising sea levels are affecting the stability of Venice. Rising sea levels is an issue we talked about in lecture and is a very real problem especially for the people of Venice. As the sea levels rise each year, the city encounters tons of damage to homes and businesses. People have adjusted to the sea levels and now sit outside and eat in a flooded city like it is normal, but soon enough, the city will become inhabitable if there is no change. By learning about rising sea levels in SGC colloquium, I feel more confident in my understanding of how this affects Venice. Many scientists feel concerned about rising sea levels, but Venice is an obvious presentation of what is really happening. Like we have discussed in SGC, many people do not want to make a change because they are not currently seeing the issues before their eyes, but Venice is a very eye-opening situation.
One of the most recent lectures about mad scientists really connected with me and enhanced my approach towards my major in science. I am a Neurobiology and Physiology major and want to pursue a career in medicine. This lecture really stuck out to me because it laid out all of the misconceptions people have about science. This furthered my interest in my major because I realized that I not only want to pursue medicine to help people but to convince people that science is real and is necessary to our understanding of life. The idea that people do not want to believe in science because it discusses “unpleasant realities” is something I want to address in my future. Yes not everything in science and medicine is pleasant, but it is real and it is crucial to our understanding of humans. This lecture made me more excited about my biological major because it gave me another reason for wanting to follow this path. It enhanced my understanding of the importance of my major.
In my BSCI207 (Organismal Biology) course, we learned about the evolution of species and how groups of species differed from one another based on the characteristics they developed. The understanding of how these species evolved was aided by SGC because SGC helped build a solid foundation for my understanding of evolution. BSCI207 also discussed the migration of species which was touched upon in SGC when talking about habitat changes. The change in climate in certain habitats we learned in SGC helped me better understand the migration patterns of different species in BSCI207.
Additionally, in BSCI222 (Genetics) we have learned about population genetics and how allele frequencies in the population change based on the environment. In certain climates, some alleles are more abundant than others because humans have to adapt to a particular environment. This connects to what we learned in SGC because population genetics can change overtime due to climate change. When a climate is affected, the alleles used in the original climate are no longer as useful. This often leads to mutations and the abundance of new allele frequencies overtime. SGC helped me understand how climate can have such a large impact on the traits people in different climates have. It also helped me understand that over time population genetics will change because populations will mutate to fit the environment as it evolves, resulting in a long term effect.
My learning was enhanced by interacting with other SGC scholars because many of them have similar interests and majors as I do, and they are helpful to work with. Interacting with other scholars has given me some amazing friendships and has also helped me succeed in some classes I was struggling in. My freshman year I lived with many other SGC scholars, and it provided me a sense of belonging in such a lonely time in the middle of the pandemic. The other SGC scholars on my dorm floor both helped me in my classes and helped me adjust to college life. I wish there was more time to interact with these people during class since many of us do not live together anymore.
I believe I have contributed to Scholars a good amount because I participate in all colloquium projects, I joined SGC and SDU on the trip to AMNH, and I am a Scholars Peer Mentor. Each time there is a colloquium project, I try my best to do my part as best I can. I also enjoyed going on the field trip to AMNH in NYC, and I found the tours to be very interesting and informative. Lastly, I have planned events for my mentees to attend as a Scholars Peer Mentor, and I hope they are enjoying their time in Scholars as well.
Being in Scholars, I have never had anyone in SGC or another program actively challenge any academically related beliefs or opinions. I have disagreed with some friends over random things, but I have never had a real issue with any other Scholars students. I do believe that being in SGC colloquium altered my opinion on the urgency of climate change. I now have a much firmer belief that we as a planet need to do better in order to cope with climate change. My eyes have also been opened to the cruel reality that in our current society, it is unlikely we will ever be able to get people to agree on an approach to cope with climate change.
Lastly, my experience in Scholars will affect my future because I am now more aware of the urgency of climate change. I have also become more aware of the reasons why many people are against scientific ideas, such as climate change. This will change my future approach as a scientist because I want to urge people to learn about science in order to believe in science. I think believing in science is the first step in combating climate change.