Throughout the past few years, I have been very indecisive about which career path I wanted to pursue. At the start of high school, I found a passion for designing things and turning them into a reality. From this I became drawn to the field of architecture, however soon found it too tedious for my attention span. I then turned to engineering, which I absolutely loved and took every engineering principles and engineering design course my high school had to offer. Despite my strength in and likeness for engineering, I applied to colleges with the intended major of environmental science and policy. This was largely due to my enrollment in AP Environmental Science my senior year of high school. I became infuriated with how our society was treating our world and the laid back reaction to the urgent and devastating impacts climate change brings. I knew I wanted to work throughout my career to help make change to mitigate climate change; I just did not know exactly how I would do that.
The Science and Global Change College Park Scholars program changed that for me. Through our weekly lectures ranging from topics such as logical fallacies and how to read a scientific paper, to topics such as planetary climatology, paleoclimatology, and the current specific solutions to mitigate climate change found in the Drawdown journal, I was granted a wealth of information regarding all of the topics and fields surrounding the issue of climate change. After finishing all three semesters of SGC, I became most passionate for atmospheric and oceanic sciences and the relationship they have with global climate systems. Furthermore, I realized I want to tackle climate change through engineering more than anything else. I am currently in the process of switching my major to mechanical engineering, and I am looking to pursue minors in sustainability as well as atmospheric science to complement my undergraduate degree. I have even began looking at potential graduate programs which I perfect for what I want to do in life, such as the programs offered by the Department of Climate, Atmospheric, Space Sciences, and Engineering, housed in the Engineering School at the University of Michigan. I feel confident with my decision of my future career path and that can be largely credited to the information and experiences I have gained through SGC.
The Science and Global Change community was integral to my academic success, not only within the weekly SGC lectures and colloquiums, but also in other courses. By fostering a strong relationship to my peers within my scholars program through our weekly colloquiums as well as being dormmates and even floormates, I was able to always find familiar faces around campus. There were approximately 90 students in my graduating class in my College Park Scholars program. By having the same class with them for three semesters in a row, in addition to going on excursions and Service Day trips with them, I was able to grow close to many of my peers.
I strongly remember that during my very first day of college, while moving in, I started talking to some of my hallmates about ourselves, where we were from, and what our majors were, etc. Furthermore, that same day I remember Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck coming to my room to introduce themselves and ask a little about myself. I did not know who they were at first, but they seemed like very friendly and outgoing people. While this was simply small talk, it made me feel much more comfortable throughout the following days. Similar events in which I was pushed into talking to new people and eventually befriending them occurred over the following few days. During the icebreaker activities on the field the first night and during Service Day, I met quite a lot of different people who I am close enough to, to recognize them as familiar faces around campus. During Service Day, in particular, I actually became so close with a couple of the people in my group that I text them regularly to this day, and consider them some of my closest friends at the University of Maryland.
This relationship and connection I had with many of my fellow SGC Scholars was even further strengthened by all living in Centreville Hall together. I was fortunate enough to live on the 3rd floor, which included a lounge. Oftentimes, people from other floors would come to my lounge to do homework or just to chill. I did homework alongside people here often, which greatly helped my studying and made studying more enjoyable. One of my floor mates even introduced me to one of my favorite programs, the Freshman Fellowship through MEOR.
By doing many of the same activities, having many of the same classes, and living in the same building as all of my SGC peers, the connections I made with them were strengthened tremendously. I believe I can recognize all 80 or 90 of peers around campus as familiar faces, and have a large number of them who I believe I can talk to or work alongside whenever I would like to. The community of Science and Global Change has been great to me and has given me connections to many great individuals.
Science and Global Change is a truly great program which fosters active student contribution and student involvement. I am proud to say that I have been given the opportunity to give back to my scholars community through the student run Scholars Peer Mentor program. I applied to become a peer mentor early on during my sophomore spring semester with the intention of being able to contribute to and become involved with Service Day. Additionally, I planned on to getting to know my mentees through fun events I would create such as tours around campus, trips to DC to better learn the Metro system and the DOT shuttle system, and chill study sessions in the lounge or study rooms in Centreville Hall. This plan was clearly altered drastically once we transitioned to fully virtual courses and online college, but I still made the best of the peer mentor program. I held information sessions and Q+As regarding ELMS and Testudo over Zoom meetings, hosted Among Us games over Discord, and study sessions over Discord to bring us all closer together. I believe I was able to help out my mentees, and created a small group of people who could feel comfortable asking one another any questions they may have or for any advice they may need.
The College Park Scholars program was the primary reason I committed to the University of Maryland, and the Science and Global Change program has somehow exceeded my initial expectations. I am very grateful for the SGC College Park Scholars staff, directors- Holtz and Merck, TAs, peer mentors, and the rest of the community as a whole for everything I have gained from the SGC program and positively contributing to my time here at the University of Maryland.