Reflection Essay

6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.

Giving back to the community is a passion of mine. The most rewarding experiences in my life have been doing what I can, to help others. As an Education major, helping children in the community is important to me, and reflected in my volunteer work. I have volunteered in several classrooms over the past two years in partnership with Junior Achievement. Volunteering with Junior Achievement allowed me to teach second grade students about the community they live in, the differences they can make in the community, and empowering students to become successful citizens who make a positive impact in the community. I have also volunteered with SA Reads, tutoring four students in reading in high-poverty schools in San Antonio. When tutoring, I use Science-Based Reading Instruction to improve literacy components. Tutoring students with SA Reads allows me to directly impact the lives of children in the community by tutoring them in reading each week, improving their reading skills, and helping students who would otherwise fall behind, succeed. Other ways in which I have impacted the community in a positive way is by regularly donating platelets at the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center, donating books to children nominated for an angel tree, volunteering at SWISD Special Olympics, Volunteering with Voices for Children, Picking up litter in a neighborhood, volunteering at the Celtic games and music festival cultural event at the kids’ corner, raising awareness of human trafficking

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.

At some point in our lives, we have all asked the question “What is the purpose of school? Why must I learn this? The first time I can recall myself experiencing these sentiments was when I started French immersion. This subject has always presented a struggle for me as I have always felt that it is rather difficult which was amplified due to the lack of help that I received from my parents, as neither could speak French unlike many of my peers’ parents. Your teachers as well as the principal in schools also play a major impact in your education journey and can ultimately shape your education experience. These challenges can impact all students in some way however, it is important to approach these challenges head on in order to succeed and reach your goals including making yourself and your parents proud.

In my English classes, a popular assignment is analyzing the literature in an essay after reading a novel. You may think that because I had this assignment multiple times already, that I would be good at it by now. I should definitely be able to write it without any hesitation or problem. However, that is not the case, unfortunately. When analyzing literature, I still have a long way to go. I still have a lot of techniques and ways to pick up that would help make my writing more efficient. My brain is definitely still developing new strategies that could come in handy when writing. Although sometimes I believe that I am alright at analyzing literature, I do often times have writer’s block and can not seem to come up with an analyzation. Thankfully, due to my most recent English teacher, I had a lot of help and improved myself greatly. I feel confident in the quotes that I pick, confident in the commentary I am writing, and confident in the way I phrase it. I have developed my own techniques as to analyzing literature in order to write an essay along the way.

One aim I remember well is “Why do we prefer to see segregation as natural, or unplanned?” as I was the one who helped pick it. You gave me a choice between this question and “do we prefer to see segregation as natural, or unnatural?” (something like that), and I picked the former because I knew it better prompted the way you like to guide your lessons. I didn’t think you wanted a debate on whether segregation is planned or not, but rather a discuss on how calculated the racism in our nation is. When you asked the class about the aim, I remember there being silence. Even I was uncomfortable answering because Americans have a tendency to not want to accept their faults. It’s in our textbooks, our curriculum, and our daily lives. Every single history teacher I’ve ever had remained very neutral to the information they taught (which I don’t blame them for most teachers are expected to not share opinions), but you did not care and I loved that!! I feel like I never had the weight of how cruel and deliberate our history of racism was really drop on me until I was in your class. Americans passed segregation off as a natural process because we knew it was wrong, and did nothing about it, but we did not want to feel bad about ourselves and accept what a backwards society we created. It’s such a simple concept, but for some reason, it didn’t hit me hard until then.

Being accepted into May’s Business School this past May, I started to think forward to all the exciting job opportunities and different career paths that I could explore. Through the guest speakers and seminar sessions, I have grown to understand the steps needed to succeed in our evolving job market. By enabling myself to take this course I have learned many professional lessons which include; the value networking can have on your job placement, interview preparation, and how ethical behavior in the workplace can affect your performance.

The writing process we practiced during this assignment was quite tedious. The Classes seemed to drag on forever. Since we had the class so early in the morning the motivation to write just wasn’t present. Our writing process was parted in so many different sections, that made it somewhat easier and more difficult at the same time. I didn't have to write it all in one sitting, if i did i would have gotten bored with it. Since our classes are every other day and there are sometimes weekends and I would sort of forget my train of thought from last class and am not able to pick up where i left off. Some parts of the story i got really into and cared about, while other parts of the story i just wanted to get it over with and just wrote down

Prompt: Science, Mathematics, Computer Science students have the opportunity to specialize in rigorous mathematics, science, and computer science curricula focused on problem-solving skills and research. Students will work with a diverse group of peers to solve mathematical, science, and engineering problems. Please describe yourself as you study, work, and interact in your favorite class or activities related to the focus of Science, Mathematics, Computer Science program. Be specific and choose your words carefully. Your response must fit the space below. Your response may be word processed using font size 12 and pasted in this space.

Tune in and listen without judging the other individual or rationally condemning the things she lets you know. In the event that what she says alerts you, simply stay quiet, yet don't state to yourself, "Well, that was a dumb move." As soon as you enjoy judgmental bemusements, you've traded off your adequacy as an audience. Tune in without forming a hasty opinion. Keep in mind that the speaker is utilizing dialect to speak to the contemplations and sentiments inside her cerebrum. You don't recognize what those musings and emotions are and the main way you'll discover is by tuning in. Try not to be a sentence-grabber (Wolvin, 1985).

My main goal for this class was to figure out how to make university cheaper and, writing my personal statement. This class offered me more than just two things I was looking for, instead I was informed about workshops and introduced to new ways of researching. I am happy I took this class, it made the process of transferring easier.

For as long as I could remember I never understood how to comprehend shakespeare, or old English poetry such as epics. My first time being introduced to this type of writing was 9th grade where she had us read Romeo and Juliet . At first, I was excited because I had always heard great things about the book and movie. However, I had no idea it was written in a different context. I was introduced to different words and phrases I never heard of . It had reminded me a lot of the bible, how you actually had to put things into perspective yourself because the message would never be as clear. It’s almost like critical thinking, but even knowing that trick I still would have no idea what I was reading or what the message was. We often would

As Yogi Berra would say, “just kidding I learned my lesson.” I made a lot of mistakes in my first OHSC0 writing assignment, the main one being to keep my essay focused even if it means leaving out what I had seen as comic relief. I believe just this change would have made room for me to correct most of my other mistakes as one of my biggest problems in this essay was editing it down to two pages. One of the main comments about my essay was that I should be, “including clear definition of terms in the scientific process,” and I actually previously had a much better definition for many of the terms, but I chose to cut and shorten them to make room for more comedic quotes. This was clearly a huge mistake and only hurt my essays fluidity and

As I woke up this morning in the middle of my college career, I was faced with the simple choice of what to eat for breakfast. Seems like an easy enough task, but it took me fifteen minutes. At this same point in my life I am faced with the decision of quitting my job now or waiting until I start my new one in March. Not as easy of a task. The choices that I make can be right or wrong, but either way I will learn from them. If I make the right decision, good for me and my life can go on smoothly. If I make the wrong decision, then I will struggle to fix my mistake and learn from it in the process. People are faced with choices throughout life. Sometimes these choices can be as simple as left or right, while others are much more

Welcome family, friends, loved ones, to the beginning of your newest journey to discover a deeper part of yourself. It’s surreal to think about how far we have all come, from learning your times tables in kindergarten, to finding the area under a curve using trigonometric calculus. From practicing our cursive lettering in shaving cream on the desks in third grade, to exploring underlying themes about human nature in century-old literature. Through these years of education, our brains have been developing into an even more complex, associative structure that allows us to form bonds and ideas that constitute our reality every day. With our synapses constantly firing, we continue to build ten to the billionth connections every single day. Our