Autumn Quarter Reflection

Assignment/Project Summary:

Write an autumn quarter reflection and use some of the following prompts as guides:

• How have your goals and expectations for yourself changed since the start of Autumn quarter? (use your first HONORS 100 assignment as a reference point)

• What is something that has surprised you about yourself in your first quarter in Honors?

• What at UW is not what you expected?

• What have you learned about in HONORS 100 that you would like to investigate further?

• Who have you met this year, or what resources have you learned about, that you want to further explore?

• What do you hope to achieve by the end of your first year in Honors? By the end of your time at UW?

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Reflections and Comments:

N/A This assignment will be the reflection.

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Reflection Paper:

I think that my expectations for myself have become both more lenient and stricter in different areas of my life. I’m not as strictly pushing myself to focus on my grades and get the highest grades possible, rather I’ve shifted my focus to learning more and making sure I understand the content of each lesson. In that regard, my goals for the quarter have not changed, instead, they’ve been reinforced based off of my college experience thus far.

In terms of developing a routine and being more disciplined, I have begun to push myself more and practice self-control and to finish my work before relaxing if I have assignments that I need to do. I didn’t list this particular goal in my beginning of autumn quarter reflection, but this has become a goal I’m working on more actively as of late.

I’m surprised at how I’m able to work at my pace and not feel pressured to push myself too far with joining many extracurriculars and spending a lot of time socializing. There is a pressure to do as much as possible while I am in college, but being that we’re in a pandemic and I’m already having some trouble balancing school, family obligations, and my part-time jobs, I’m glad that I stopped myself from diving headfirst into another responsibility.

One thing I was surprised about is how caring my professors have been thus far. Being that UW is a large school, I didn’t really expect for there to be a lot of focus on communication with students from teachers but I’ve had a really positive experience so far. My professors and student teachers have all been very kind and really open to helping me get to where I need to be assignment-wise. The line of communication is open and I appreciate it a lot.

In Honors 100, I learned a bit more about how people from different fields can look at the same situation (primarily with the Global Challenges Discussion and follow-up in class). I learned a lot in terms of interdisciplinary discussion and learning to truly keep an open mind to have a conducive discussion about different perspectives. It has definitely peaked my interest in the multiple interdisciplinary courses that are offered to have more of those conversations and learn from them.

This year, I’ve met a lot of new people (students, staff) from the Honors program,

my courses, and my major. I don’t think I’ll become good friends with every single person, but I’ve definitely had a lot of interesting conversations and learned a lot from different people. I hope to continue meeting more people who I can connect with and learn from throughout my time at UW and in the Honors program.