Global Awareness
One of my fondest pursuits is the study of the French language and the incredibly diverse Francophone world. As I have already completed my foreign language requirement and have a fairly full schedule, it’s unfortunately doubtful that I will continue taking many French foreign language courses. However, I hope to combine my learning in French with some of my other coursework; ideally, I will take Francophone literature and performing arts classes rather than similar courses filling the same requirement but taught in English or with a focus on pieces written in English. It is also a goal of mine to become more involved with the Café+ French conversation group.
Original Inquiry
The Language Pod at COSI is an amazing source of research on human language as well as an organization for science communication, and I am fortunate enough to have just started my involvement with them as a research assistant and I intend to continue my involvement there. In just a few weekends, I’ve already learned so much about the research process, ranging from the ethical treatment of human subjects to the purpose of norming studies, and the thought of just how much more I have to learn is incredibly exciting. In the future, I look forward to experiences with research in my other major, computer and information sciences, and hopefully in the interdisciplinary field of computational linguistics.
Academic Enrichment
I’m especially excited for the computational linguistics two-course sequence I plan to take my junior year, as well as the foundations of speech and language processing class and upper-division computer science technical electives. Since I am strongly considering graduate school, I think the experience of taking mixed graduate and undergraduate (5000) classes would better prepare me for the skills that will be required of me in the future. As I intend to enter development or research with either natural language processing or machine translation, this coursework as well as research experiences should be both pleasantly challenging and provide skills that will be essential for my plans after graduating.
Leadership Development
I look forward to strengthening my leadership experiences, hopefully through an extracurricular pursuit I for which I have a strong passion. Although I have not yet decided which student organizations to which I would like to devote my time, I’m strongly interested in those related to my majors, such as the Association for Computing Machinery for Women or the Underlings, as well as maybe an environmentally focused student organization, as I enjoy environmental science and related studies even if it is not the focus of my formal education. I also hope to continue my involvement in research, such as at the COSI language pod, and expand it further, hopefully to interdisciplinary research that involves both computer science and linguistics.
Service Engagement
Although I have not yet committed to any particular service opportunities, I am considering a few that look quite exciting. Code that Cares is a student organization that would allow me to use the skills I’ve learned in the computer science classroom for the benefit of others. Although they do not relate to my majors, I’m also interested in some of the environmental service opportunities on campus as sustainability and nature are personally important to me.