SCHOOL - JUNIOR YEAR
NEUSCI 301: Intro to Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
The first course in the Neuroscience sequence was everything I expected it to be and quite a bit more. I was expecting it to be challenging (it was, very) and stimulating (no pun intended) but I didn't anticipate it to be filled with dark humor, existential questions, meme-based cohort bonding, and a lengthy intermission thanks to Seattle's very own Snowmageddon. This course really set the tone for the rest of the program and made it clear that although our journey wasn't going to be easy, it was certainly going to be worthwhile. Since there were only about 60 people in our cohort, the classes felt much more personal and meaningful than the 400+ person lectures of the introductory STEM classes. Dr. Moody's lectures were full of punny witticisms and captivating anecdotes, and although the exams were difficult, we were given so much support to succeed. There was a sense community right off the bat, and we all got to know each other even better through the shared experience of surviving the laboratory sections. I think we all struggled to find our footing in lab at the beginning, and the first few sections hit us hard. To be completely honest, they never stopped hitting me hard. But we bonded over our collective mistakes, broken micro-electrodes, last-minute lab reports, and the pity of our TAs, and by the end we all realized that somewhere along the way we had turned into more thoughtful and capable scientists. I realized that I had found a community of incredible peers, who could push each other and help each other but still laugh together at the end of the day. Ultimately, this course taught me how to think like a neuroscientist and introduced me to a community that I have been so proud to be a part of ever since. And although I didn't fully get over my fear of lab section until NEUSCI 302, I'll never forget the satisfaction of turning in my first 12+ page lab report and seeing my name on the cover knowing that I made it all from nothing but raw data and caffeine.
The crayfish lab was one of the last lab reports we turned in for the NEUCSI 301 lab section. The figures for this lab took me SO LONG (seriously, I still think about it sometimes) but the process of making them helped me gain a better understanding of the lab concepts, and I think taking that extra time to be meticulous made me feel even more proud when it was finally finished.
Peer Educator - Spring Seminar
Honors 397A – Final Reflection
It is hard to wrap my head around the fact that I am already finishing up my third year here at the UW. Seriously, where did the time go?? I can say without hesitation that this school year has been the most transformative year of my life so far, and I have experienced some exceptional highs and lows over the past ten months. In this past year alone, I studied abroad in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, was accepted to my dream major of Neuroscience, found the courage to quit a laboratory position that was holding me back, found a new research mentor who has inspired me tremendously, navigated mental health and self-care during a month of intense emotional hardship, blasted through personal goals in snowboarding and mountain biking, discovered a love for poetry, and learned how to be a stronger leader and mentor in Honors 397A. These might all seem like unrelated experiences, but I believe they all fit together in reflecting what a wild journey of personal growth this year has been for me. Concluding this packed school year with Honors 397A seems appropriate, because in many ways my growth as a leader in this class reflects everything I have learned about myself this year.
Prior to this quarter, although I had held a few leadership positions before (mostly in high school), I always struggled with calling myself a "leader" and it was not a title that I readily identified with. I think I had some fixed notions in my head of what a leader looks like (high energy, loud and proud, oozing charisma!) and these images did not line up with my reserved, often introverted personality. On my first day of Honors 397A, I remember sitting down and suddenly worrying that I had maybe made a mistake. Everyone seemed so lively and outgoing, and right off the bat we were told that we would be doing icebreakers every week, which instantly conjured up memories of traumatic name-games that I had always been so bad at. Luckily, my nerves didn’t last long, and by the second week I was already starting to feel more at ease. As I got to know more of my classmates, I realized what a wide range of personality types and backgrounds there were in our group, and I was far from the only introvert. I began to let go of the expectation that I had to be loud and assertive to fit in, and instead began to embrace the idea that each of us could be a different type of leader, confident in their own right. Even the icebreakers turned out to be creative and fun, focused on building community rather than putting people on the spot like the icebreakers I was used to, and I learned to love how these short activities set the tone for the class and helped us all get to know each other better.
Reflecting on this past year, I am proud to see how far I have come in being comfortable in my own skin and valuing my strengths and weaknesses alike. I have found that I am stronger and more capable than I ever realized, and that I can learn so much from mistakes and imperfections. My experience at the Honors 397A retreat reinforced many of these lessons. It was empowering to learn about all the different leadership styles, and how each one has both pros and cons. There is no such thing as a “perfect” leader, but every leader can improve by identifying their strengths and weaknesses and finding the balance between the two. This activity helped me build more realistic expectations of who I am as a leader, and recognize the advantages of being a more calm, relationship-oriented leader. The Dependable Strengths activity was also influential in helping me realize that I already have many Good Experiences that I can draw from to be a strong mentor. Ultimately, I realized that I already have what it takes to succeed as a Peer Educator. Through all the discussions, activities, and preparations in Honors 397A, I have learned that the most important strategy for being a strong leader is to build on my own life experiences: strengths, weaknesses, successes, failures, and all! When I reflect on how much I have accomplished in this past year alone, I know that I am well-prepared for this next step in my journey towards personal growth. With that in mind, I can't wait to see what accomplishments and challenges Fall quarter will bring!
It is hard to wrap my head around the fact that I am already finishing up my third year here at the UW. Seriously, where did the time go?? I can say without hesitation that this school year has been the most transformative year of my life so far, and I have experienced some exceptional highs and lows over the past ten months. In this past year alone, I studied abroad in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, was accepted to my dream major of Neuroscience, found the courage to quit a laboratory position that was holding me back, found a new research mentor who has inspired me tremendously, navigated mental health and self-care during a month of intense emotional hardship, blasted through personal goals in snowboarding and mountain biking, discovered a love for poetry, and learned how to be a stronger leader and mentor in Honors 397A. These might all seem like unrelated experiences, but I believe they all fit together in reflecting what a wild journey of personal growth this year has been for me. Concluding this packed school year with Honors 397A seems appropriate, because in many ways my growth as a leader in this class reflects everything I have learned about myself this year.
Prior to this quarter, although I had held a few leadership positions before (mostly in high school), I always struggled with calling myself a "leader" and it was not a title that I readily identified with. I think I had some fixed notions in my head of what a leader looks like (high energy, loud and proud, oozing charisma!) and these images did not line up with my reserved, often introverted personality. On my first day of Honors 397A, I remember sitting down and suddenly worrying that I had maybe made a mistake. Everyone seemed so lively and outgoing, and right off the bat we were told that we would be doing icebreakers every week, which instantly conjured up memories of traumatic name-games that I had always been so bad at. Luckily, my nerves didn’t last long, and by the second week I was already starting to feel more at ease. As I got to know more of my classmates, I realized what a wide range of personality types and backgrounds there were in our group, and I was far from the only introvert. I began to let go of the expectation that I had to be loud and assertive to fit in, and instead began to embrace the idea that each of us could be a different type of leader, confident in their own right. Even the icebreakers turned out to be creative and fun, focused on building community rather than putting people on the spot like the icebreakers I was used to, and I learned to love how these short activities set the tone for the class and helped us all get to know each other better.
Reflecting on this past year, I am proud to see how far I have come in being comfortable in my own skin and valuing my strengths and weaknesses alike. I have found that I am stronger and more capable than I ever realized, and that I can learn so much from mistakes and imperfections. My experience at the Honors 397A retreat reinforced many of these lessons. It was empowering to learn about all the different leadership styles, and how each one has both pros and cons. There is no such thing as a “perfect” leader, but every leader can improve by identifying their strengths and weaknesses and finding the balance between the two. This activity helped me build more realistic expectations of who I am as a leader, and recognize the advantages of being a more calm, relationship-oriented leader. The Dependable Strengths activity was also influential in helping me realize that I already have many Good Experiences that I can draw from to be a strong mentor. Ultimately, I realized that I already have what it takes to succeed as a Peer Educator. Through all the discussions, activities, and preparations in Honors 397A, I have learned that the most important strategy for being a strong leader is to build on my own life experiences: strengths, weaknesses, successes, failures, and all! When I reflect on how much I have accomplished in this past year alone, I know that I am well-prepared for this next step in my journey towards personal growth. With that in mind, I can't wait to see what accomplishments and challenges Fall quarter will bring!
Below is an example lesson plan that I created for my Honors 100 class.