HONORS
Interdisciplinary Honors has been an important place of community to me since the beginning of my time at UW. From orientation where I made my first friends, to Honors 100 and Medical Ethics where I got my first real exposure to the Honors community, this program has given me classes, relationships, and experiences that I could not be more grateful for.
PEER EDUCATOR
My ideas about leadership definitely did change because of this course. Whenever I imagined what it meant to be a leader, I saw it as someone to look up to— now, I recognize that in order to be a role model or mentor, it is not always about modeling perfect behavior. I felt how impactful honesty was with my students, whether it was telling them how difficult Winter quarter can be, or how I struggle too. Recognizing that leaders are not perfect and that being vulnerable makes leadership more valuable was a big revelation for me. In future leadership roles, I hope to find a balance between being a role model and inspiring my students, while also relating to them and showing them the reality that every student has their own challenges.
One aspect of this experience that has changed since I wrote my application was my intention to practice adaptability and preparedness. While I consistently re-read my lesson plans before class and knew what I needed to do going into each section, as well as altering here and there to adapt to the online environment, I feel that I didn't adapt and prepare to a much greater extent than was necessary. To be honest, I struggled a lot this quarter with some really hindering mental health issues, and that got in the way of my capacity to be as engaged as I really could be. My check-in helped ground me, reminding me that there were little ways to adapt to the online environment, and if I just took a little time to brainstorm, I could find activities that would make class more engaging and appropriate for the online environment. For example, Aly gave me the idea to consider Experiential Learning in the context of an online environment, and have students discuss what that might look like. It ended up being a great discussion!
I really enjoyed 397 when I got to collaborate with my peers and connect with them while sharing stories from our classes. It helped me a lot to know that my peers were experiencing some of the same challenges I was. While I did benefit from the community of 397, the drawback to this was realizing every week that there was something more interesting or more engaging that I could have done, but I merely sought to fulfill the curriculum requirements because it felt like all I could manage. I sometimes felt a little boring, too. I don't blame myself for this, but I do regret a bit that my students may not have had as much fun as they could have with another peer educator.
Granted, it's entirely possible I am being too hard on myself. This reflection is helping me recognize the wins I did experience this quarter! One aspect I am proud to feel I nailed was providing students with the resources needed to understand Honors, their own educational paths, experiential learning, health and wellness, and more. I did not just regurgitate these links, but had students engage with the platforms themselves. For example, in my first lesson, I had students look through the Honors course archives to see what kinds of classes were available to fill each requirement in Honors. When they came back from searching, many were visibly excited to describe some of the interesting classes they found, and it felt good to know that molding the activity to encourage individual exploration was effective, because they could spend more time finding classes best suited to their interests. I used a similar strategy for finding communities, in which I demonstrated how to navigate different platforms- such as ASUW and RSOs- and gave them individual time to look for communities where they would fit in best, or that would be relevant to their career goals. It was really rewarding to see in their assignments when they used a resource I shared with them, or joined a club they found during my class activities.
Just as well, I felt I did a good job fostering community by giving them opportunities for discussion in small groups as well as the larger class. For our reflection on Global Challenges, I first put the students into breakout rooms and gave them a series of reflective questions exploring the interdisciplinary nature of the discussion, what they liked, and where it might have fallen short. After giving them time there, I brought them back and we had a discussion as a larger group, which gave them the opportunity to share what they had discussed and build off of different groups' ideas. I felt like this was the best class discussion we had all quarter: all of the students were engaged, I didn't have to try hard to encourage participation, and they brought really meaningful points to the conversation. Most importantly, I assured them that their concerns and frustrations would be heard.
One moment that felt like a little win for me was during portfolio presentation prep. I had put them in breakout rooms to look at example portfolios on the Honors page, and discuss what they liked and how it might inspire them. When I closed the breakout rooms, I got ready for them to all come flooding back in... but not a single person came back until there were only 20 seconds left on the countdown! It's a small thing that seems insignificant, but knowing that my students were engaged in an activity I planned made me feel accomplished.
All in all, this was a good experience and I feel like I benefited from it, in being able to recognize my successes and also my shortcomings. I think I gave my students at least what they needed to be successful going forward, and that's the least the Honors advisers can ask. I think in another quarter without the hurdle of online classes or the burden of declining mental health, I could have made a very fun and engaging class. But, for now, I'm just glad I got my students what they needed.
SWEDEN STUDY ABROAD
It is difficult to pinpoint the biggest takeaway upon which I can reflect. Sweden taught me so much about global politics, individual experience and strife, and every role that contributes to a culture or a movement. During Pride we saw the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people, refugees, women, etc, and I realized that no country has a perfect solution to the world's problems; however, I also realized how important it is for people to hear their stories and decide what they want to do to help. In one panel, we heard from gay asylum seekers from Uganda and Nigeria. They explained the difficult process of applying in which they were asked to provide "evidence" of their need for asylum- in this case, evidence that they are gay and truly in danger if turned away. However, being from a country where homosexual acts can be punishable by death, it was nearly impossible to provide this proof.
Different panels showed us different struggles from trans asylum seekers, taught us of the gravity of global movements against women's reproductive rights, the ignorance of border agents to LGBT experiences, and overall we learned the importance of educating ourselves on these issues. I concluded that if any of these people had had someone on their side, the stories they told might not have been so hard-- maybe no country is perfect, and one probably will never be, but we must do what we can to improve the lives of the people around us, especially those of us with the opportunity to use our education and resources to make an impact on not only the world, but every life and every story within it. I know personally I often get caught up in the stress and pressure of solving the world's problems, and I want my life to be involved in at least working towards something greater. I realized on this trip that there is so far to go, but at least we have some examples of what to look for in our path forward.
In the other portion of our trip we studied culture, what factors influence it, and how these norms contribute to the general culture of human rights. We met with Lawen Mohtadi and talked about her production of Katarina Taikon's story. We learned about the influence Katarina had on the Roma rights movement, the work that went into advocating for change, and the disappointment of seeing trusted policy-makers decide that your movement isn't worth the effort. It reflected so many elements of struggles that we have seen for decades; seeing its alignment with the US Civil Rights movement put into perspective that globally, people are fighting for many of the same things- even today, we see the Black Lives Matter movement failing to effect change despite its widespread support. Putting all of this together, we begin to wonder why- if so many people fight for equality across the globe- are we still not seeing the changes we want to see? It's inspiring to see the common desire to always demand more for ourselves and others and never settle for what we're given, yet disappointing to consistently see how these movements fall short. This goal of global engagement becomes important as we see that we are not alone. In my life, I'll always seek to advocate and be a part of these movements; this trip played a large role in showing me that we need to look to both the successes and failures to learn how to make these changes.