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 am a Nursing student from Glenburn, Maine and before this course, I had a strong passion for writing poetry and also writing short stories about my life. In my high school English class, each Tuesday would be designated in writing for twenty minutes constantly about a given topic. I found that as a writer, I write the best about topics relating to me personally. However, in Rhetoric and Composition, I was able to learn new skills that allowed me to improve as a writer.  In Rhetoric and Composition, I composed essays about my own subculture, a unique place of importance, and a subculture with little to none previous knowledge of. All of these essays taught me at least one skill that allowed me to grow as a writer throughout this course.

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.

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.

I have acquired so many new skills and habits this school year in Ms. Dibernardo's English class. After discussing and analyzing all of the topics we read and learned about, I have developed an understanding for new concepts that I didn't even know were important. This class has helped me grow in various ways that will help me in future classes and high school. Some examples of what we went over are To Kill a Mockingbird, and Gathering Blue.

The opportunity to teach at two high schools in the Bronx made me reflect and struggle with the power of stereotypes surrounding the schools because of the reputation of their borough. These stereotypes did not just impact the way that the schools were perceived, but more importantly the way that my students were perceived and labeled based on the stereotypes reinforced through performance on the Regents exam. Since I was not from New York, I did not have a very good understanding of the stereotypes surrounding the schools when I started, but I knew that the Bronx was a scary place based upon the way that it was portrayed to me through media and in New York history. I won’t lie, I was nervous when I realized that I would be working in a high school in the Bronx in my fall placement, but it did not take long for me to realize that I had been led astray and had believed stereotypes that were far from true.

Organization is one specific tool I have used throughout my life consistently that has helped me become who I am today. When I was a little kid, my mother use to say, “ okay, now help me clean up.” This stuck with me and as years went by, I eventually did so without her asking. I had a place for all of my things. If it wasn’t there when I went to look for it, I became anxious. Point is, at a very young age, I discovered the need for things around me to be organized and tidy. Throughout the course of one’s life, we adapt many practices that later shape who we are. These practices are called literate repurposing. While gathering my research, I came across many unique findings. This character trait has never diminished, and I've repurposed my organizational skills all throughout my life.

In this class we have a credo, and in that credo there are some key words that were capitalized: Read, Think, Write, College Level, rigorously, Holistically, Learning, Safe, and Fun. Everyone has their own way of defining words, some maybe the same and some may be different but that’s ok. In this essay I am going to thoroughly and efficiently explain to you in my own words what each of these words mean to me in the context of this course.

I was born in central Los Angeles and remained there until if was five years old. Due to our growing family and some of the concerns surrounding community violence my parents decided to move to Van Nuys. Even within the San Fernando Valley there are areas of high community violence, gang activity and poverty. However, I felt as sense of community support and safety due largely in part to the *** established early on in my elementary school. Though community gatherings my mother found a new source of social support and support networking. The ability to learn about our neighbors and community helps to establish a sense of cohesion, trust and a real community. I remember my mother and neighbors coming together to talk about issues within the larger community that may have been or concern or placed children and families at risk. As I grew older things appeared to have changed. Families moved away, businesses closed down, and again it seems the once united community has reverted to an individualistic neighborhood.

It was the first day of the new semester. Dr. Razzaque, the professor giving the introductory lecture of his fluid mechanics course, decided to start with an audacious statement. “If you think mechanical engineering is too broad in scope for your liking, remember, you have seen nothing yet.” Aware that he had the class’s attention, he went on, “Think about what you have learned so far. You have taken courses in physics, multivariable calculus, electric circuits, computer programming and so on. It will be some time before you will properly understand how all these elements come together, but when you do, you will probably be surprised by your own understanding of the world.” He then went on to explain, citing Formula One, computational fluid dynamics and biomimetics, how mechanical engineering brings very diverse skill sets together. Those words felt, at the time, like a key to making sense of the plethora of courses that was my college life. Dr. Razzaque had suddenly made me realize the relevance of what I was learning. It would prove to be a pivotal point in my academic life. That lecture, and the following course, renewed my passion for mechanical engineering. I joined Dr. Hasan’s lab a year later as an undergraduate researcher and now I aspire to pursue graduate studies in mechanical engineering. All of these can be traced back to that quiet spring morning more than two years ago.

When I was a child, I was a real menace. My mother told me my behavior could clear out a playground. Obviously changes have happened since my playground days and today I’m going to tell you a story prior to my metamorphosis. This is a story that I am not proud to say happened. My parents think it’s funny; however, at the time of the incident they did not. This happened about ten years ago, so I can now look back on it and laugh about what happened with them.

“Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.” - Allen Ginsberg

While the majority of my students are homogenous in terms of race, economic and social class, sexuality, and their technology access, I do have some individual students whose lives do not follow the same uniformity. As a result, I am driven to work even harder to create an inclusive classroom community. While most of the students in my classrooms may fall under the category of “privileged” I also have a percentage of students who do not. In the minds of my students, their disadvantaged statuses are only made more apparent while surrounded by those who do not experience the same hardships.

There is no clean way to gut a dog shark. I carefully held the sharp scalpel in my right hand with my left hand on the belly of a shark. My professor mentioned that my specimen might be pregnant and she wanted me to find out for the class. The excitement and anticipation were palpable in the room as all eyes were on me and my lady shark. Shortly after the first incision was made, I held up a fetal shark like Simba in The Lion King. Everyone’s eyes sparked with awe as they saw the baby shark. There were five other unborn dog sharks and I gave each group one to explore. This lab was very special to me because I became the unofficial teaching assistant. My classmates would ask me to help identify structures and give them tours of organisms. In this lab, I felt purposeful. It almost felt like I was the professor. I cherished every moment in comparative anatomy because I deeply enjoyed getting my hands dirty, working with real organisms, and teaching my classmates.

In life, there are a lot of events that can certify one’s challenges. People pass through a lot either to make it in life or to achieve a certain target. Despite this, the only thing that can stand out of this hustle is happiness. This is a feeling that has no limits in one’s life. It’s not negotiable not purchasable. The only thing that an individual can ascertain to is self-worthy and this element generates automatically.