Retrospective Reflection
Throughout my journey as an honors college student, I had many opportunities to expand my learning and skillset outside of a classroom. These experiences have deepened my understanding of both me and my knowledge. If I were to now write a personal statement about myself through the honors college, I would write:
“I am an individual in which the Honors College taught me to value growth, knowledge, and experiences to further expand my learning on both a professional and individual level. I will take opportunities “outside of my comfort zone” to further expand my knowledge. I care for and appreciate my peers, mentors, and any individual I have met along this journey. These values can be applied to many current and future experiences for further growth.”
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This statement is still rather similar to the statements I developed for my H200 courses, but I have expanded further upon them through this updated version. However, although similar, the Honors College has truly allowed me to deeply understand and appreciate these values. In my eyes, they are not just a statement like I may have thought when I first joined the Honors College. Now, I truly believe in and trust these values. I would like to appreciate and acknowledge them in all my future endeavors. Even when I graduate here soon, I can continue to deepen my understanding of these values. Which each new job, experience, or idea I can further update who I am and who I want to become. I will always continue to grow as a person.
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I have showcased many honor experiences throughout this ePortfolio, but one truly outshines all of the rest. However, I cannot rule out that my other experiences have had a large impact on my progress as a student. The contract I completed for my Forensic Anthropology course with Dr. Wilson as my instructor was truly an experience that showcased my learning and reflects the goals that the Honors College has. This opportunity, which is also showcased in my Experiences in Anthropology page, led me to achieve the honors college goal of developing strong communication, problem solving, and civic-minded skills.
Throughout this experience and the internship, I thoroughly developed my communication through working with mentors and peers, problem solved by finding solutions to difficult questions I had such as Osteoware, and remained civic-minded by remaining to help with this project after my contract concluded. In addition, I accomplished the goals of research, service, and applied learning through this project. I truly want to appreciate my mentors, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Zoeller, who have continuously assisted me with my growth in anthropology. In addition, I would like to thank my peers who were always willing to assist me in finding answers to difficult questions. I do not think I would be the individual I am today without them.
Other projects, such as the contract I completed with Dr. Eller and honors experiences throughout other biology courses in my 3rd Showcase, also assisted me in showing these goals. Creating a lab procedure, performing it, and writing a complete lab report demonstrates my ability to solve complex problems as a scientist in my field would do. I created a poster that demonstrates my knowledge on different serological tests that a forensic scientist should know. I made a presentation on bias which demonstrates my understanding of bias and how to avoid this in my testing. I did research, communicated with peers, showcased my learning through the completion of a project, and completed experiences to showcase learning in my field. Every single experience I have completed has depended my understanding of what I need to know to become a proper forensic scientist and what I need to be capable of on a professional level. As Professor Oakes likes to say in his class...
“Your client is the science.” - Judge Oakes
Overall, I do not think I would be the student I am today without the Honors College. I would have never had the courage to reach out to professors and ask to partake in engaged learning experiences. Now, even as I’m soon to be graduating at the time of writing this, I believe I will continue to practice my learning through experiences like these. Honors College taught me the values of being a learner and a leader. Learning does not simply end upon graduation. Learning is a daily process, and understanding and exploring this is important to being a good learner. A single scientist does not know everything there is to know about science, hence the importance of learning and communication. It is also important to be a good leader as well as a learner. Learning new things will help when making good decisions in leadership positions. I will take these experiences and values with me throughout my life to further grow as an individual.
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