Self Reflection

On Saturday morning, I went to Howe Library in Wellsville, to see its historical display. The display room featured various tables holding displays of the history of various towns, displays of history projects by young residents, and various historical antiques. The layout consisted of various isles formed by the placement of objects and stands. Four lanes ran perpendicular to the four room walls, forming a walking square, which was met on the other side with a rough square of displays. This internal square of displays had points on which to enter an internal space lined with more displays on the inside.

This was the medium in which the MET used to construct their narrative and to educate the participant. These artifacts spoke in a unique way, each one depicting images that told about the structures of society, trades, religious motifs, as well as the techniques and mysteries around the methods used in creating such masterpieces. As I continued from one display to the next, reading the descriptions and tidbits of history, I easily transitioned from one period to the next. I describe this experience as being engaged with a living

Humans hold on. As emotional creatures, we struggle to separate the function of an object from its sentimental value — we see a ragged ribbon from years ago as the sole representation of our sixth grade dance, the poetry project we did in fourth grade as a gateway back to our childhood innocence, and the strip of photos from a trip to the movies just last week already embodies a sense of otherness and warrants preservation. This phenomenon occurs on the societal scale as well, driven from a carnal fear that forgotten history repeats, and communities then strive to create memorials that accurately reflect the lessons learnt, sacrifices made, and complexity of history. As a result, the process of monument-building requires painstaking attention

I believe this experience has impacted my way of thinking that ordinary objects and people can achieve greatness; it would be a privilege to me to tell these stories. After Graduation, I’ll be attending Wichita State University pursuing a doctorate’s degree in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in museums studies. In the future, I want to manage a museum by becoming a curator. I hope to spread my knowledge of the past in order to educate the minds of the

Our teachers and advisors helped us incorporate exploration, encounter and exchange into our project as we listened and followed their expertise and instructions. Creating a rough sketch of our exhibit board, we found relevant images that collaborated with our writing. When we thought about the color scheme we thought about the “sad times” of history where women were treated unequally to men but then the “rebellious times” in which women would start to use their voices for their rights. This is where we started to understand the positives and negatives of color and also our exploration, encounter, and exchange. With the theme in mind and guidance from our advisors, we finished our exhibit

During my visit to the American History Museum, I learned an abundant amount of things and also reviewed some I learned from eighth grade. To name a few, I learned that a draft wheel was a device used for conscription during the Civil War. Officials would place papers with the names of men eligible to fight in the Union Army and then they spun the wheel. After all the papers were shuffled, an official would pull a paper and enlist that raffled

Over the duration of this trimester, we have been working on our projects. Well, some of us more vigilantly than others, but nevermind that. On the last day of April, Adam Charron and I visited the Gerald R. Ford museum in downtown Grand Rapids. A quiet, stoic building amongst the bustling metropolis that is GR, we found our visit to be nearly devoid of human life. After sucking the life from a quite expensive 16oz beverage from Biggby, we passed a bronze President Ford guarding the entrance, and made our way into the museum.

My insights on cultures in the United States have changed quite a bit as a result of my studies this semester. I have a much greater understanding of ethnic groups, gender and sexuality issues, religions, and poverty. My new knowledge base will help me as I become more culturally competent and, therefore, more responsive to my future clients. I am anxious to incorporate my new understandings into my classroom and hopefully in a position as a school counselor.

Take an event in American History from 1800-1970, one that is small enough to paste onto a ream paper box, and make a presentation worthy of a museum in the span of 25 days. Events like the moon landing, Trail of Tears, and fall of the Alamo could prove a meaningful topic. However, something deeply entombed in American History that provides not only entertainment to speaker and audience, but useful contemporary knowledge, is that of the History of Jazz. My group, consisting of Carter Stanley, Emma Dixon, and Ryanne Meyer, began researching and developing a display exactly on that subject matter. By 9/27, this Jazz Group is completing their design; on 10/2, they’re presenting it; and 9/4, they are individually reflecting it. This reflection is in their learning, challenges, collaboration, display, and management. For myself, I confidently speak that my group overcame many trials, and through reflecting have much to say. Covering days spent conceptualizing and weeks passed constructing, it suffices to begin with discussing the display.

During the presentation, the team adapted the demonstration method inside of welcoming, did not perform encouragement for the audience to join the movie night and help out the charity. The plain slides style did not provide secure engagement and visual appeal. Ticketing system explanation was made

“. . . at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.”

As a young child, I experienced an immense amount of love and care from my family. My mother cared for me the majority of the time as a child, as she was a stay-at-home mom. Having siblings, I sometimes thought that I was not sufficiently being listened to or given enough attention. However, looking back on it, we were all given an equal amount of attention as children. Occasionally one of us would have an event or situation happening in our lives that required more attention and as any child would, I got jealous because I felt like I should always be the center of attention. In elementary school, I was not able to easily make friends of my own age. Instead, I would bond with my teachers and the surrounding adults. I would label myself as a mixture of a secure connector and a pleaser. I am usually able to easily communicate my feelings and describe my own strengths and weaknesses. However, I also constantly feel like I need to do everything right in order to please the people around me. As a result of having great parents and mentors in my life, God has been able to evidently care for me through them. God was able to take the times that I struggled with as a child in elementary school and use them to my advantage as I got older, by allowing me to communicate at a higher level with people.

Summer of 2016 wasn't made special because I traveled far from home and explored new places, in fact, it was quite the opposite. For three exciting months I worked as a volunteer assistant lifeguard for the Ventura County Junior Lifeguard program. I was recruited to aid professional lifeguards in conducting and supervising one thousand 7 to 17 year olds as they were taught water skills and ocean safety.

Prompt: Some students have a background, identity , interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Quietly standing in a museum, you examine a written document or other artifact. It may seem like just a piece of paper or a cool item to look at from hundreds of years ago, but you aren’t just looking at it. You’re having a conversation with it. Not everyone will realize it, but there are conversations to be had with these items, carried through time so that we might learn from them today. This was the image painted by Dr. Beth Henschen, who works in the Political Science Department at EMU. This event was one of several of the lectures from the “Courageous Conversations” series beneath Star Lectures, held at the Honors College auditorium on September 19th, and beginning at 7:00 pm. After attending this event, I can now explain my stance about the power and importance of conversations, and the lasting impact they can have.