Semester Reflection Part One

Sorry this didn't post, I had it saved as a draft and not published! D:

• Describe in detail one significant academic challenge you faced this year. Why was it a challenge for you? Go in depth, use specific experiences, and explain how they contrast with a less challenging experience.

One challenge I faced during this year was channeling my emotions. I had some issues where I didn't channel my feelings "the right way" and got sent to the Dean's office. Working with such partners on projects made me feel run down and stressed out on the inside. It was challenging to work with such people because of the emotions I had felt with them in particular. A less challenging experience would be the projects I worked on with my best friend Emilie. We make a really nice pair and we get our work done, and I think it looks great, like our Slaughterhouse Five project, it got done a day early too! We finished with time to spare and it was super easy and nice to do.

• Describe one valuable mistake you made this year.

One valuable mistake I made this year was not going to office hours and caring about my math grade enough. I took initiative at the end of the year for the final but still didn't care enough for the quizzes before it. I would have passed with probably a low B or a mid B and wouldn't have to be praying for a 3% increase so I can pass with an 80%.

• What is your greatest strength as a student in a project-based learning environment?

My greatest strength probably would be my leadership abilities. I can take the lead at any given time with limited resources, I'm good at pulling things together at the last minute. I love taking the lead with things and helping manage projects. Such as Ampersand, I definitely had to butt my way into the group, but I'm glad I did, I helped take on tasks as a managing editor and I feel like my contributions helped the book in a lot of different ways.

Semester Reflection Part Two

• What is the greatest challenge facing your generation? What will be necessary to address it?

  I think that one of the greatest challenges facing my generation is the state of the country, and the world. Not only is our climate temperature rising, we’re in a recession, BP has spilled over 125 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and my generation cannot get jobs. You need a previous job to get a current job. How could we do so when everyone denies you? There’s a surplus of people working their 50^th year instead of their 40^th year. Aside from jobs, the plastic consumption of America’s buyers has gotten too far out of hand. Water bottles have cut down on their cap sizes to save plastic, but so far those are just small steps. We need more promotions of BYOBag and getting reusable water bottles. We all have one thing in common, we all live on Earth, so why has everyone been treating it like dirt? “An Inconvenient Truth” helped, but that seemed to have brushed past everyone’s shoulders. People need to understand that how we’re living is only making it worse.

  Describe your vision for yourself in pursuing higher education.

  Pursuing a higher education beyond high school has always been the only option for me. My mother’s side of her family didn’t go to college. My mom got her GED in 2003 when she was 31 years old and I was in elementary school. Seeing that amount of dedication made me not want to give up. I want to create a new tradition in my family. Not dropping out, but going to a University and graduating, something that I hope will continue on after me. I imagine going to San Francisco and starting my life from scratch there. I imagine myself growing up and understanding from a 17 year old’s perspective how it is to live on your own. Not only will I continue my passion for Fine Arts and Art History, but I will grow up. I will grow up to become someone I have always dreamed of becoming, doing something that I love and can support myself off of.

  
  

  What in the world do you care about and what are you doing about it?

  I care mostly about the environment and our wastefulness. My Media Saves the Beach final product and my Ampersand final product both were on how we can all save the environment together. So far I have made a video about Bringing Your Own Bag to the supermarket, and how plastic can stay in your body. It’s a video that entices people to stop being so wasteful with plastic because it ends up hurting you in the end. My Ampersand piece was 5 steps you can do to “think locally and act globally.” It offers facts about reducing your carbon footprint and things like taking the bus places instead of driving and emitting more greenhouse gases.

  What four-year college/s are you interested in and why?

  Currently, I am interested in colleges in Northern California. More so like Berkeley, The Academy of Art University and San Francisco State University. Out of state I’ve been considering Cornish College up in Seattle, and I’ve been looking up traveling to British Columbia. I’ve always wanted to pursue some form of art because both of my parents are artists. My mom is a hairdresser and my dad is an interior/exterior designer, and I want to be a Photographer or an Art Teacher. Something like how Joshua Krause has his class. I’d love to immerse myself in my work, that’s mostly why I’m so excited for college.

Writing Reflection

During Semester One I made a video called ‘Who Cares?’ for Media Saves the Beach. My script went through at least 5 revisions in the 2 weeks before the video was made. It was constantly revised also, during the making of the video. ‘Who Cares’ was a video that featured multiple people repeating one or more phrases. It would have been a train wreck if I hadn’t used a script that was well rehearsed.

The Writing Tips we learned over the year were really helpful for structuring essays. Concerts not Pancakes was my personal favorite and it helped me create a strong ending and a strong finish and leave the stuff I’m not so sure about in the middle of it. One piece of writing this applied to was my Ampersand Piece. In the middle I have strong phrases but, the majority of it isn’t super articulate, so I left my essay up to the intro and the conclusion to kind of buoy it up to the surface of good writing.

The 2009-2010 school year has taught me strategies to writing a good piece of work. I learned to always overwrite, because you can just cut stuff out at the end. It’s always good to have extra things, and I learned firsthand how much easier it is to write more than necessary, because it’s harder to write a piece, and add more later. I’m definitely going to carry on these writing tips for all of senior year and through college.

My main goal for future writing would be to get to the point where I don’t ramble on forever about one thing. Even in this reflection I rambled! “. I learned to always overwrite, because you can just cut stuff out at the end. It’s always good to have extra things, and I learned firsthand how much easier it is to write more than necessary, because it’s harder to write a piece, and add more later” and I need to stop being so repetitive.

Some of my writing strategies I have now I have had since I was a middle school-er. I wrote a detailed outline with the thesis and words I wanted to mention, or quotes, facts or stories and then worked it into my writing. I still do this even for my Ampersand piece. I wrote what things I wanted mentioned, who I wanted to mention and how I wanted to mention them. Doing so, you can get the meat of the paragraph done with, and so you just need to worry about the fillings around it. It’s a much easier way for me to structure an essay, so I will definitely keep on doing that.

Bring a President to College!

I personally think it'd be pretty cool to run into Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was the 32nd president of the United States of America and was an all around people person. Not only was he diagnosed with polio at a young age, but he married his fifth cousin's daughter, Eleanor Roosevelt! I think he would be a professor at my University because of his insight on things. He approached things without haste and realistically. "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" is one of FDR's most famous quotes from his 1933 Inaugural Speech to becoming the President. There is truth to that statement, we tell ourselves to be afraid of things, it's programmed into us and we are afraid of being afraid. FDR would be an amazing teacher, and he could not only approach things in a new light, but he could provide political anecdotes and insight, which is very interesting!

FDR was and still is one of the most interesting and helpful presidents the USA has seen, he worked forwards in his efforts to help our nation and not completely 'bass ackwards' like his preceding president, Herbert Hoover. Not only can Roosevelt provide us with wisdom and help us imagine what it's like to control a whole country, but he can tell us how to approach situations with the most logic. In his famous "Day of Infamy" Speech, he says "As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense." This was after Japan unexpectedly bombed Oahu and the US decided to bomb them. I believe that the president did what was in our best interest and that he reassured the people of the United States. So I really do think that FDR would be an amazing Politics or Public Speaking teacher!

Bring a Character to College!

If I had to choose any character from a book that we've read this semester to travel to college with me, it would be Bill Bryson and he would be a Professor at my school who teaches Environmental things! My main reasons for picking Bill Bryson for this trip to art school are the fact that he's funny and super sarcastic, which I am as well. He's knowledgeable and likes the outdoors and because he's very dedicated and hardworking. I think that one of the biggest reasons I picked Bill Bryson is because we are a lot alike. While reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, I noticed that most of the things that he would say, I would say in that specific situation as well! In a way I also would like to meet him and have him be my professor because I am jealous about what he has accomplished. He hiked a huge portion of the Appalachian Trail and has great stories to tell about it as well.

Bill Bryson did two of some of my favorite things, wrote and hiked a trail. Well, on a much larger scale, but I do love to do both of those things. I feel like he would provide satirical insight about any sort of problem, and his humor reminds me of my late grandpa's, very dry and quick on his feet. I admire what Bill Bryson has done and what he pushed himself to do. So, all in all I would be excited beyond belief to have him as my college professor!