AAMC Reflection Essay

It is still so surreal to reflect back on my first semester as an incoming college student in the ENC1101 course, analyzing at my progression as a reader and writer in literacy. Since the first day of class I set in stone my goals for this class: receive a 4.0 GPA, develop my connecting theories skills in writing, and become more aware of objectives for each Unit throughout the course. All of these goals became achievements that not only make others proud but most importantly give me self pride. In order to earn the grades and achieve these goals, I went after every opportunity that I was given as an incoming college student, such as office hours and extra credit. By taking this course I have gained confidence with the utilization of literacy, and made an addition to my group of impactful literacy sponsors. Once students are finished with high school they assume that there is nothing else to learn beyond the stereotypical five paragraph essay, but they are so wrong. I was able to obtain so much knowledge about numerous course concepts from Writing about Writing, articles, and my professor. These concepts will carry on with me throughout a bright future of writing courses, job interviews, and any other skills that require literacy. The four outcomes listed below will help illuminate how I improved as a writer, by being a driven college student and going out of the way to earn my achievements in this course. In the first outcome I improved comprehending scholar texts,

I learned, that in order to get a good score on my AP essays, it will take a lot of effort, and I won't have a lot of time. I need to write in a way that the reader can understand and comprehend my ideas, and control of language, while successfully getting my point across in a clear-cut way. This will allow me to get a score based how effective the essay is (Nine being the most effective and zero being the least). In addition, my score should reflect the essay’s quality as a whole. Completing this activity helped me realize that the expectations are high when it comes to writing essay, and I will need to work hard to get the best score that I can.

“Extrapolation is bad.” Well, that’s great Mr. Gould. The moment I stepped into AP Statistics, I was hit with boredom and a tinge of confusion. I thought my teacher was an absolute dork. Who finds data and graphs interesting? However, as I progressed further into the depths of the statistical universe, I started to change. I began to find the research studies in my book fascinating; I thought constructing tree diagrams and box plots was thrilling. Until one day it hit me. “Oh gosh, I think I’m falling in love,” I told myself. There wasn’t an instant moment where I developed my passion for numbers. It was a slow and gradual journey in my statistics class. Listening and taking notes is what I ordinarily do in AP classes. Yet, this one was different.

When I write, I believe one of my strengths is that I am able to generate logical perspectives and strong conclusions. I am able to analyze the literature and relate to it in many different ways. In the compare and contrast essay I wrote, "Oliver conveys a tone of remembrance by juxtaposing 'the old burn-dump this waste place' and 'this secret garden'". I am able to apply literary terms and analyze how the author uses them to enhance their writing. In the same essay, I stated, "By using short, concise sentences, Oliver is more direct in her delivery and showing her lamentations for what has happened to the earth around her". I am able to analyze what the author is doing and the effect that it has on the reader.

This quarter, through study of the assigned texts; I have learned about concepts such as ethos, pathos, and logos; further expanding my understanding of the process of writing and editing. From a functional standpoint, I have learned more about sentence structure and variance, punctuation, flow and the maintenance of a controlling idea and tentative thesis through the exercises completed this quarter. By reading and engaging with the content of The Little Seagull Handbook, by Richard Bullock and Michal Brody, I have improved my understanding of how to form paragraphs, create an argument, maintain proper tone, understand and present my purpose, properly complete research for an assignment, and present in line with MLA/APA formatting

Coming into Drexel this year, a necessity, I learned was to have a clear understanding of the mechanics for literature composition. I learned that it would mature my writing to a higher level of thinking. This is seen as past experiences in my writing through high school English teacher feedback indicated my writing to be full of flaws. I often would receive feedback on my writing being awkwardly worded or lacking fluidity. The one valuable skill I learned from English 101,102 and 103 was the idea that exposure to different readings, formulas and informal writings give practice, for me to find my own voice in writing.

Knowing now-a-days, how people compare themselves to others. I feel that it is time that we stop. Although it is much harder than it seems. Comparing one another is something we do, there will always be someone stronger, smarter, more attractive, and wealthier. The key is not to let it affect us. An individual will always have something that no one else will. It will differ from each individual. We need to just look at our own life and see what we can do to make it better. If becoming a helper will fill a hole in your life, as it does mine, then do it. If becoming a parent does then do it. We need to stop looking at other people’s lives and focus on our own. We are on this earth for one reason, to live. So we need to stop dwelling on what we don’t have, and go out there and get it, and live, go out and live life. Life is too short to keep complaining about what other people have. Everyone just needs to live life to its fullest.

The first smart goals I chose are to learn to become a leader and to have better time management skills. I chose these because I work on a small unit with no assigned charge nurse. Any day you go in to work it could be your day to be charge nurse so everyone on the unit needs to be able to step up and be a leader. Time management is a skill that every nurse needs to learn. In my opinion, if you have good time management skills it can decrease your stress level and make your workday more organized and enjoyable.

Mmm, you were right the rates are not very generous. I am going to be completely honest; it does put me off a little, from experience how much work will be needed to make this first course a success, which is crucial to ensuring that people feel it's worth signing up for the whole series. I would only want to do this if I can offer something meaningful and valuable. Having spent three days last week rewriting an advanced specialist course for Pilates teachers, I know just how much time these things take as I am sure you do.

I have always been a person interested with anatomy. Although, when I was younger, I was more concerned about animals (polar bears specifically) to ever take the time to learn more about ourselves. School science classes were the first time that I was actually exposed to human anatomy. From the very beginning I was fascinated. There was one organ in particular that I never wanted to stop learning about; the brain. Whenever teachers in class would stop talking about it I would immediately become slightly less interested in what they were teaching.

When I first thought about where I would serve back in the spring, my initial idea was at a soup kitchen. I had worked at one during the Sophomore Retreat Experience, and while I found the three hours we were there exhausting, they were also really fulfilling. However, at the time I was also learning more about myself through the enneagram and was really coming to terms with my particular manifestation of social anxiety. I knew that in a impersonal environment like the one I had experienced at the soup kitchen sophomore year I would not motivate myself to independently form interpersonal relationships. If I went to serve without connecting with people, I would have felt, "that i had no real intention of meeting, even learning about, [the] needs," of those I was serving. I needed an environment that was deliberately structured to create those relationships, like GiGi’s Playhouse. At GiGi’s I feel challenged to live in solidarity with these kids and their parents, and to move past the anxiety that holds me back from connecting with new people.

Prior to the beginning of my sophomore year in high school, I had already decided upon heading to pharmacy school and learning about the profession in detail before eventually graduating with a professional doctorate degree in pharmacy. Taking advantage of the Summer Scholars Advanced College Academy program offered by the local community college, I could participate in secondary dual enrollment while still in high school. Throughout the entire three years from there on out, I would typically attend high school classes in the morning and afternoon and come evening time, I would head over to the college. During my sophomore year, my brother advised to stick with 3- and 4-unit non-science courses to slowly ease myself into this new schedule. Focusing primarily on the relatively lighter breadth requirement courses, I would be endowed with the opportunity to come home, eat a snack, and complete a few homework assignments before heading to class once again but this time, at a different institution.

Patience is the key in accomplishing anything. My most challenging class this year would be my Math Analysis Honors course. My main struggle was fully understanding the curriculum that I avoided my sophomore year, with Algebra 2 Honors. The curriculum was knowing the domain and range of a graph, I assumed that this notion would stay in Algebra 2 and not follow me into my next math course. Starting off the year, the class was simple as it was review of Algebra 2, however days later I am faced with domain and range. I took tests that dealt with this concept and would always get those specific questions wrong. I remember, my teacher saying how most concepts in math would never go away and would be there when taking math in college. My first thought was getting help right away and was exactly what I did. I stayed after school in the Godinez Grizzly Lounge where I got aid from a tutor who took her time in fully explaining the essential way to understand domain and range. After a couple of weeks attending tutoring sessions with her I felt more confident in working with domain and range and was able to get these questions right on the next test that I had. Learning how to figure out these two concepts on a graph was harder as a result of giving up my previous year. I knew, however that I needed to address the issue differently and that's what I did. Although I may not be an expert, I can now figure it out without having to guess or give up on the question. Aside from a challenging

When the school year first started, I thought English class in junior year would be easy based on my performance in sophomore Honors English. However, AP English Language and Analysis has proven to be a difficult and rigorous course. I had struggled both as a student and as a writer in the beginning of the year, but I had learned to recognize several chronic problems I had made in my writing. Through the past school year, my writing skills had matured as I strived to fix issues in my writing. The improvements in my writing skills can best be seen through the growing conciseness, fluency, and analytical thinking in my essays.

At a young age I was taught that weakness was not something to be seen. Mistakes were not to be addressed, simply ignored and moved on from. As I grew up the idea of hold my emotions inside began to do more harm than good. Through years of growing up and developing, I fell into a hole that happens to run in my family: mental illness. My classmates made jokes, and society had made it seem like it was wrong to struggle, so I refused to say anything to anyone. This was the beginning of a downward spiral.