Month: November 2018

Personal Development

In this past semester I have grown tremendously in time management, eating healthier, and learning proper sleep schedules but where I feel like a have grown the most would be in my personality and confidence. Before starting I was very shy and introverted and I did not feel confident to speak up in class or other situations. But since coming to college I have came out of my shell and I am not as shy as I once was. I feel that my confidence in myself has grown where I do not have the nerves that I once had about speaking in class. I was so afraid of getting an answer wrong that I would not participate in large group class discussions but since coming to college I have learned that in order to better learn topics that you do not understand you will have to get answers wrong to better understand how to correctly do the problem or pronoun a certain word. Being more comfortable around people and being less shy has been a great growth for me because it has allowed me to branch out and make new friends but it has allowed me to go outside my comfort zone and begin to network with faculty and older students on campus which has allowed me to get into connections with people that has similar interest as me which could hopefully lead to shadowing opportunities or research positions. I have also learned that in being able to speak up for myself in situations that I do not agree with the decisions being made has allowed me to grow and also understand the importance of being around others that have different opinions and prior experiences than you.

I hope that as I continue to learn in college that I begin to seek out other with different opinions and experiences than myself to allow myself to learn from them and to be able to see situations in the way they do. I hope to continue to become more outgoing to allow for me to continue networking with new people and allowing me to make more friends with the students on campus.

WOW Wednesdays

On Wednesday mornings I get the opportunity to go off campus and do science experiments which children that are in low-income situations that would not be able to experience these projects. The program I get to volunteer through is called WOW which stands for Wonders of Our World, which is exactly what it is. This past week, my volunteer team and I went to a first grade classroom to teach the children about magnetism.  I was skeptical at first of the station I was running which was to allow the students to predict which object were and were not magnetic. I thought that the children would not enjoy it because it was not as “cool” as the other stations. These children blew my expectations out of the water. Seeing the excitement on their faces when they correctly predicted an item and just their astonishment at magnetism in general was an amazing experience. Also, seeing how the children grew in understanding and tried to redefine what they thought magnets were each time they predicted wrong.

This experience taught me how to lead a group but, from just being around the children I saw the importance of inspiring children in science and showing them all the fascinating things about science. The children also taught me to be amazed by the small things like being able to pick up a metal spoon with a magnet. Being able to teach these children also taught me be patient and to let them grow in their understand by working through what they got incorrect and why that was. Being able to see these kids love for science and love for learning helps me fuel my passion to continue to learn.