Before I got into the first semester, I was not in the Science & Global Change Program. I was originally in the Life Science scholars program. However, I was accepted to the Clark Scholars Program and was required to take a class called Grand Challenges of Engineering, which had a conflicting schedule with the life science colloquium. I had to switch out of Life Science to another scholars program, and I chose Science & Global Change because I was always interested in learning more about what is currently happening and what is impacting the world in terms of climate change. At that time, I did not expect this class would be my favorite class out of all the classes I took in the first semester of college. Here are some reflections of my first semester:
CPSG 100 CPSG100, College Park Scholars: Science & Global Change First-Year Colloquium, was a class that was little different from the other classes. We have a few big components of this class. My favorites, and the ones that were different from the other classes were service day and metro scavenger hunt, and academic portfolio. First one, service day. The service day was the first thing the class did as a whole, and we went to a park to help the park service maintain the pond. It was hard, physical work, but I still really appreciate the experience, since I never had any experience like that as a person raised in the city. The second one was the metro scavenger hunt. We were assigned to a group of three to four people, and we had to do a scavenger hunt at a few museums in DC. The main point of this assignment was to experience the DC metro system to get to DC, and figure out how to use it in the future. I loved this assignment, because I was the only one from the friend group outside of SGC who knew how to get to the National Mall using the metro system. I still really appreciate this assignment, not only because I got familiar with the metro system but also because I was able to meet some of the best people through the assignment. The last one was the academic portfolio utilizing HTML. I thought I was familiar with HTML because of the Computer Science Principles AP I took from sophomore year of high school, which was proven as I forgot everything. I loved the time to discuss things with the peers regarding the assignment. On top of that, I was able to help someone on the project with the baseline when she reached out to me through the GroupMe I created. It took me a while to understand the project and actually get it. It made me feel great after helping her especially because of the fact that I was able to give someone something they needed after I also struggled.
The class composition was also something I liked about this class. We had weekly colloquium, where our fantastic professor Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck will lead us to learn more about what is basic information about global climate change. My favorite part of the class was the student generated questions, where we submitted questions for the week and post on discussion boards, and Dr. Merck would pick a few of the questions and ask the class in the beginning of colloquium.
Before getting into the class, I expected this class to be majorly discussing information specific to climate change. However, we discussed topics such as logical fallacies, how to read rocks, pseudoscience, etc. Even though the information was the information I already have been exposed throughout high school, it was nice to refresh in a way of communicating with peers in small groups, which indeed allowed me to get to know a few fellow classmates even outside of the classroom.
Non CPSG100 classes A lot of people say how the first semester of college is the worst semester of the rest of the time at the college. Well, I think it was true at least for me. My worst class was ENES 102, the engineering mechanics class. I got the worst exam scores I never expected me to get. However, I learned a lot from talking to the professor of the class, and I loved building class for the final project. For the other classes, since I do not have any general education classes, I had to push myself a little more. However, I enjoyed the process of studying, getting through with friends, and I cannot wait for the next semester to come!
University Life In terms of student life, I am involved in a lot of organizations, which is keeping me up, giving positive energy in my life. I was able to get a freshman representative position for SGC, student ambassador position for Student Alumni Leadership Council. Aside from that, I was able to be part of the Society of Women Engineers and Biomedical Engineering Society. I love getting involved in student organizations, and I also really appreciate how well-supported those are from UMD compared to those supports I got from high school. Yes, it is a big difference from high school, but I am enjoying college so much!
Advice for Upcoming Students I think it is important to go out and make friends, get involved in student organizations as much as academics are. Few of my best friends are from SGC, and I would love to suggest that you also make some friends from SGC. You will be spending two years with the same people, and it is so nice to be friends who share similar interests as you. Aside from SGC, the most important advice is to go and try Mongolian grill at the south diner - it is the best.