"Who Are You?"

Assignment/Project Summary:

This is the first assignment for the Honors 100 course. It is meant to encourage using self-reflection as a tool for assessing personal growth and articulating lived experiences. In this assignments students reflect on experiences that lead to where they are currently as well as articulating hopes for the future.

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Reflections and Comments:

At this point in time, I hadn't done any written reflection pieces for a while. I mostly did that through talking with friends to get my thoughts out verbally. Writing the reflection piece took a bit more time than I expected since I had to really think about what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. That being said, I think having this reflection piece written at the beginning of the year would be something useful and fun to look at once I'm further along in my college career. I'm sure it will give me some insight as to how much I've changed or stayed the same (with my goals, thought processes, perspective) since writing it.

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Honors 100B

10/12/2020

“Who Are You?” Reflection

What was your personal path to the UW and to Honors?

I think that my path to attending UW was quite straightforward. In early high school, I

knew that I wanted to go to college, but I didn’t know how to explore different options for

college. So, I joined a college preparation program in hopes of getting guidance through the college exploration and application process. Through that program, I was able to learn about and apply to numerous colleges with a more concrete idea of my goals going into college. It was also because of the college preparation program that I was able to learn about college honors programs and the benefits of being part of one. After applying to numerous colleges and receiving my admissions information from all of them, I ended up being stuck between deciding to attend UW or UMich. I chose UW in the end because I felt that was UW a better choice in light of the pandemic (primarily financially and location-wise so I can be within reach of my family).

What or who has had a significant influence on your journey and why?

I think that my mentors, friends, and family members all had a significant influence on my

journey because they all contributed to my decision-making process from school hunting to

applications and final decisions.

My family had significant influence on my journey because I want to make a decision that is

good for me and them in the long run. So in considering different schools and programs, I also thought about the impact it would have on my family when I go to college.

My friends influenced me on my journey by being available to help me work through my

thoughts for what I wanted to do in college and how I could get there.

My mentors had a significant influence on my journey by exposing me to different options for college that I hadn’t considered before. They pushed me to genuinely find a school that would fit me, rather than just fit my financial situation and family obligations.

What do you hope to learn and explore with your time at UW and in the Honors program?

I hope to learn more about STEM fields to better balance my perspective. I am not the most

STEM-inclined person, so I want to have a more thorough understanding of what the fields may entail and what it means to be part of the field. In addition to that, I want to explore different fields relating to language, culture, and communication as it is both an interest of mine and of interest to my future regardless of where I end up. I would like to explore how different fields can impact parts of people’s lives and careers in obvious and subtle ways. In learning all that, I think I would have more appreciation for the different fields and understand why it’s relevant to me, even if I’m not directly involved. The more I learn about different subjects, the more I understand how interconnected they are, so I want to make those mental connections throughout my time at UW in the Honors program.

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