Ritika's 3-Semester Review

• The hypothetico-deductive method of science has helped me in my algorithms class. When coming up with algorithms I focus on the runtime and work with that to create efficient algorithms that can be completed in the least possible time and occupy the least possible space.
• As a college student, I have interacted with several students with varying beliefs in God. In particular, I had a conversation with a few friends saying that since one of my friends doesn’t worship a particular God, he is an atheist. This is a logical fallacy.
• Last year, the wildfires in California were intense and the sky was orange due to ashes. Due to my SGC experience, I was able to understand this is due to climate change and the drier conditions it results in.
• I encountered the misapplication of the scientific method while reading opinion pieces on climate change. Some of these included dismissing climate change without properly collecting data through observation and experiment and testing their hypothesis. My experience in SGC helped me identify it as I was able to notice the missing depth of data collection and data analysis required for such topics.
• The math requirement of SGC helped me further my interest in math and gain passion for it. I have now decided to minor in math. In addition the computer science requirement helped me choose computer science as my major as it really interests me.
• Although I did not live with fellow scholars students, I had a great time interacting with them in class. It helped me gain perspective on various topics and broaden my understanding of pressing climate change issues. For example, doing in class assignments with a random group helped me understand others’ takes on the problems we were given.
• Being in scholars made me really passionate about climate change. Before, I was quite indifferent to it and didn’t engage in much debate about it. However, now, I am usually the first to initiate conversation about climate change and spread awareness of its urgency.
• I believe I contributed in colloquium discussions by engaging with my peers and having important conversations about climate change. In addition, as a peer mentor I engaged with freshman scholar students where I interacted with them and we shared our experiences. I also interacted with other peer mentors.

Last modified: 13 December 2021