My experience being a Science and Global Change Scholar helped shape my experiences as a Freshman/Sophomore in many ways and has made me look at the world in different eyes. One such example was when I read a news related item about how Climate change was a natural process and that it currently is “leftist lies”. This article stuck out to me mainly because it seemed ridiculous, but I decided to entertain the article anyway and read through it. Now had I not taken SGC, I may have started to think about this article a lot more and been more accepting of it. However, SGC taught me that one, to check the source of the article and two, about global warming and climate change. Upon reading into the source, I realized that it was a common right wing news page that was funded by the Koch brothers. If that was not enough, reading the article, it talked about how climate change was a natural process and the human impact of it was next to nothing. After taking SGC I could easily disprove this article as I learned about how, yes climate change is a natural process, but humans are accelerating it by tens of thousands of years. One topic in SGC colloquium that has been very effective in helping me connect to my major is the idea of how information is spread. In the computer science major, data is a big part of it and collection and analysis of data plays an integral role in it. However, in my computing classes we barely/rarely ever touch upon the ethics behind the data collected or who is doing the collected. In my classes we only focus on the using/converting part of the data. So, it has been quite a pleasure to learn about a side of my major that I would have never been exposed to.
One SGC supporting class I took was GEOL204, which was essentially a crash course in Paleontology. This class was also ironically taught by Professor Holtz. In this class, Professor Holtz also went over misinformation around dinosaurs that has been spread by movies, tv shows, and general fake media. This connected to the idea of how we analyzed fake news and misinformation in CPSG. Another supporting class I took was GEOG330, which was a course on sustainability and infrastructure. This related very heavily to science and global change due to the basis of the class being focused on global change. Both courses connected heavily, and a lot of information I learned in both classes was information I learned in the other class as well. One example of this was when we covered sustainable infrastructure or green infrastructure. In geog330 we had to do a project analyzing a country plan for sustainability in terms of infrastructure such as Japan. In CPSG we looked at the various methods of green technology in various countries (in a broader perspective). In Geog330 we also analyzed the pros and cons of all the forms of clean energy such as Wind, Nuclear, Solar, and Hydro. In CPSG we did a project analyzing all the forms of clean energy, my group covered the pros and cons of Wind Turbines. My experience in CPSG has allowed me to gain a greater and broader understanding of various topics across all the other classes I have taken.
Interacting with fellow SGC Scholars outside of class was a major experience. I have made a lot of great friends through the scholar’s program and hang out with a lot of them outside of class quite often. Scholars has allowed me to continue to build my network of friends and they in turn introduce me to more people. Scholars also brings together tons of people from all sorts of majors. As a Computer Science major, I am naturally bounded usually to interactions only with other Computer Science majors. However, through scholars I have met people in Engineering, Politics, Physics, and tons of other majors. If I had not been in Scholars, I would have never met such amazing people.
I believe I contributed a good amount to Scholars in the sense that I was a Scholars Peer Mentor. Being a mentor gave me the opportunity to work on my leadership skills and be a leader to new freshman. It was a great time and I look forward to continuing being a peer mentor. In terms of the class itself, I will honestly say that I could have contributed more in in-class discussions, but then again two-thirds of the scholars’ experience was online (was nothing compared to in person class). I did not get the opportunity to go on any of the field trips however, but I hope that I may get that option in the spring.
I do not know about any of my beliefs really being challenged or changed from Scholars. However, I will say that the Scholars environment did allow me to meet tons of new people from different cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. These interactions allowed me to open and learn a great deal about others. I do believe through these interactions I have been changed and matured. Going from the High school’s world to the College world is a massive step and the connections made during scholars only helped build the bridge between the two worlds. I think that my scholars experience has impacted my future, but obviously one can only speculate to the scope of what I know now. I have met a ton of new people, and I am sure the connections I have made through this program will trickle down along the line and end up helping me out with job opportunities or other social benefits. The variety of projects and assignments in scholars has helped strengthen me as an academic and an overall communicator. Finally, the brunt of the class, the Science and Global change part of the program. The content in the class has taught me to question everything in an analytical and proper way. I have learned a great deal about research and how science is conducted. I have also learned a lot of global warming, the processes to combat it, and the way to successfully talk about it. Global warming will remain a giant threat that my generation will inevitably have to deal with, but at least I can safely say there is one more person who knows what is necessary to deal with it.
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