Assignment 1: Who Are You?
HONORS 100
Honors 100 is the beginning of the honors curriculum. It is sometimes called the first bookend of honors while Honors 496 is the second bookend. Honors 100 provides the foundation and background knowledge essential to every honors student to make the most out of their honors experience.
How did I get here? Not one of the many questions that has crossed my mind since my arrival. Where do I have to be in ten minutes? What is this place? Where is my building? What is my classroom number? Where do I submit my assignment? What should I do next? Where should I eat? Who should I eat with? What am I doing here? These questions regarding my present and future dominated the conversation, or I might say the chaotic chatter that filled my brain.
There has been very little time for reflection and contemplation here. Yet I do remember one night thinking, Why am I here? And I suppose that’s as close to How did I get here? as I got.
The path I took to get here is about as straight and plain as a suburban street in Bellevue, where I grew up. But to get on this path I took the freeway, getting on the onramp to bypass the sleepy town of Stay in High School. I can never know whether I made the right decision, how it would have been otherwise, all I can do is make the outcome the best I can.
Back to the suburban street. Ever since I can remember, UW was where I would go to college. Growing up homeschooled and very close to my family I wanted to go college somewhere close enough that I could live at home. I think everybody I knew assumed I would go to UW and no other place really stayed in the radar for long. Last year, when I realized how dreadfully mundane my fate looked and how I never really considered any alternatives, I last-minute applied to other colleges.
The imaginative and romantic part of me fantasized about living elsewhere, but in the end my parents proved they were right and I watched as friends made new lives across the country while I stayed home.
Yet, the plain oatmeal I was given had some cinnamon spice. A teacher/friend/mentor had encouraged me to pursue the Honors Program. The Honors Program offers a small community within UW’s large community and also offers an academically challenging and broad liberal arts education. These are components that showed that the Honors Program was what I wanted. The Honors Program has already given me a more enriching experience than I think I would have had if I just went to UW without Honors. People here at Honors seem to share my love of learning and intellectual conversations. Being able to retreat to the small Honors community after floating about in the large UW community is refreshing. The Honors open house was one of the only Dawg Daze events I went to that wasn’t overcrowded and didn’t run out of food.
Another spice to my plain story is that I chose to live on campus my first year despite my previous desires to live at home. I really enjoy living with the Honors community in this brand new dorm.
I hope to learn about a variety of subjects here, but I also hope to learn some lifelong skills. I hope to leave this place more self-confident, independent and ready to find my place in the world and do what I was meant to do. I hope to explore different cultures, perspectives, communities. I hope to study abroad, do research and gain some work experience. I hope to grow a lot, be stretched, be pushed beyond my comfort zone, fail and come back stronger, learn my limits and boundaries, and find the best of me and figure out how to use that to better the world.
Even though I like to believe that I am in control of my own fate, I can’t help but believe that some opportunities rise on their own, from fate.
I hope that I will somehow find what it is I am meant to do or that somehow, something magical will happen that will transform my life. Whichever way, hopefully something will materialize out of the nebulous fog that currently is my future and give me a better idea of what to do with the life ahead of me.
I didn’t come to UW by any dramatic tale or wild path. It was just a regular road with arrows pointing straight ahead and signs telling me my destination. But despite the well-travelled path I’ve chosen I hope to make this as personal a journey as possible. Where the road ends I’m ready to start paving it myself.
Assignment 2:
Personal Curriculum Planning
Assignment 3:
Global Challenges, Interdisciplinary Answers
One of the issues not addressed in the chapter is homelessness. It is not only a global issue, but also one that reminds us of its existence every day. It is a problem in our own neighborhoods. I think that the concept of partnership could be very applicable to combating homelessness. Instead of viewing them as foreign and an entirely different world from us, we could learn to work with the homeless community. It would also battle negative views about helping people who can help themselves but are just too lazy to. I think that partnerships show a give and take mentality so that the more fortunate people are not resentful at the fact that they must give and the more fortunate people do not have a heroic savior attitude towards giving where they just help to feel better about themselves.
I think that a lot of common approaches to solving homelessness involve addressing the visible problems. Ways of helping include donating money, food, clothing, temporary shelters, etc. These address problems that have happened as a result of homelessness, but the problem will keep growing unless something is done to address the causes of homelessness. According to Home Aid, National Coalition for the Homeless and Homeless Resource Network common causes of homelessness include domestic violence, divorce, loss of loved ones, home foreclosure and lack of public assistance. To solve the problem both the cause and the outcomes must be treated. This is parallel to Dr. Paul Farmer’s request for both AIDS prevention and treatment. I guess this kind of falls into the category of thinking fractally.
I think that we can turn helping the homeless into a partnership through multiple ways, including teaching them skills or utilizing skills they already have. These people are people too and can inevitably contribute to society in some productive way, it’s just up to someone to help them find it and a means for them to contribute. Organizations such as Goodwill, Real Change and the Salvation Army already have forged such partnerships by hiring the less fortunate. Another positive to this is that the people leave with work experience and are more likely to find jobs because of their work experience. I also think that the homeless community has a bad reputation. I personally get uncomfortable when around homeless people and I know many others do too. I think another approach to solving the problem involves demystifying the homeless community and understanding the people. No healthy partnership can thrive when people fear each other.
We can also use imagination to solve homelessness. What constitutes a house? What constitutes a home? We can be innovative about creating homes for the homeless. I have seen many innovative ideas for homes in small spaces, sustainable homes, portable homes, collapsible homes, 3D printed homes, etc. Surely this explosion of innovative home ideas can be leveraged to help create homes for the homeless.
Our solutions must also be sustainable. Once the person has a home, we must make sure the lifestyle can be kept. Ideally, the shelters and temporary homes are just that, temporary. Helping people after they get back on their feet and seeing that they will continue is also an important part of solving the problem.
Leading up to a place where hope and history rhyme the capabilities of the homeless are used to improve the productivity of society until they not only are able to get on their feet again, but also help others. In a place where hope and history rhyme there will be no homelessness. Homelessness will be prevented from even starting in the first place.
Assignment 4: Experiential Learning Interview
Summary of the conversation
Sophia is interested in global health, and wants to major in microbiology. She is specifically interested in HIV and malaria. Clare is passionate about water, specifically equitable access to water. She is concerned about water treatment by the government and corporations. There have been particular bodies of water that have been taken over by corporations and then the people living near the water are no longer able to use it or their access is heavily restricted. She is also interested in the social impacts of people not having access to clean water. She would like to pursue the ideas of innovative sewage systems, keeping water clean, and improving global health. I have not found something really important to me and I am not really sure what I am passionate about yet, but I am interested in doing some kind of research and doing something with individuals’ interaction with technology and technology’s effects on society.
I have found a few opportunities that might be of potential interest to Clare, which of course involve water issues. Two of them are research opportunities and one of them is a study abroad program.
The first research opportunity is headed by someone named Ed Kolodziej from the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The research project is called Research Opportunity in Water Quality and Organic Contaminant Fate. The description of the project says it is about organic contaminants in water. While this research project is not heavily focused on human health, but one of the research areas is environmental health, which I think relates to Clare’s interest in water and water treatment. Here is the link:
https://expo.uw.edu/expo/opportunities/details/1502
The second research opportunity is very closely related to Clare’s interest in equitable access to clean water. It is led by Professor Graham Allan, from the College of the Environment. This research project is called Purification of Water in Less-Developed Countries. According to the project’s description it focuses on contaminated water’s harmful effects on global health in less-developed countries. It looks like the students will actually be involved in creating a simple, low cost, easily distributable water purification system that can be used in households worldwide. Again, one of the research areas is environmental health, which sounds like something that Clare would be interested in. Here is the link:
https://expo.uw.edu/expo/opportunities/details/737
The study abroad program makes no direct reference to water equity or treatment, but seems like it will broadly focus on health and human rights. The program is focused on improving the healthcare systems for disadvantaged communities in Brazil. The overarching themes include human rights and improving healthcare practices, which seem to align with the themes that Clare is passionate about. I do not actually know for sure whether the study abroad program involves water issues but based on the description there is probably at least something similar. Here is the link:
http://studyabroad.washington.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10839
------------------------------
Assignment #4: Experiential Learning Interview
Sophia Orlando
I had two partners for this activity, Savanna and Clare. I interviewed both of them, but only found experiential learning activities for Savanna. Clare is passionate about promoting equitable access to water. She is also interested in how water is treated by governments and by corporations as a commodity. Clare also wants to know more about how restricted access to water and working sewage has social impacts as well as its role in the world of global health. Savanna is interested in sustainability and climate change through the lens of technology. She is also interested in accessibility of technology to people around the world. Her research interests include technology design and the impact of technology on society. Another of her research interests is applied physics.
My three ideas for experiential learning for Savanna:
Clean Energy Ambassadors- Clean Energy Institute (CEI)
The Clean Energy Institute is affiliated with the UW’s Department of Physics. The institute’s mission is to promote a clean energy future by developing electrical energy storage materials, devices and systems. They offer a volunteer program for university students that connects undergraduates with similar interests in science and engineering to each other and CEI fellows. This is also a service learning opportunity.
http://www.cei.washington.edu/education/outreach/cleamb/
iSchool Study Abroads
There are three UW programs (all under the title of iSchool) that connect students to technology and the impact it has on communities abroad. The programs take place in Ghana, Denmark, and South Korea. Given Savanna’s more specific interests the iSchool Ghana: Communication Technologies and Development in Southern Ghana seems most appropriate.
http://studyabroad.washington.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10922
http://studyabroad.washington.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=11138
http://studyabroad.washington.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10737
TASCHA Research Seminar
The Technology and Social Change Group at the University of Washington offers a 2 credit research seminar. The seminar gives students a chance to build research experience while contributing to this university program. I would recommend looking into TASCHA’s work as they explore how technology impacts communities facing social and economic challenges as well.