M Y E X P E R I E N C E S
Jump to a Specific Experience
ENGL 2089
View the improvement of my writing abilities and comprehension of Discourses through my Intermediate Composition class in the spring of 2020.
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SPAN 3070
Go through my discovery of how crime and media affect different Latin American countries in my fall Crime and Media in Latin America seminar.
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GRMN 2050
Follow through my Vampires, Monsters, and Monstrosity class, as I explore the relationship monster stories share with our society's issues.
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ENED 3094
Learn about my Happiness of Pursuit seminar, where I explored my interests and successfully published my first short film.
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PSYC 2090
Explore my journey through the concepts of death & dying as I learned to appreciate both life and death, making the most of the time I have.
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E X P E R I E N C E O N E
Intermediate Composition
Throughout my spring semester of 2020, I took English 2089, otherwise known as Intermediate Composition. As we explore my growth in both my writing skills and my knowledge of certain topics through the class, I will showcase multiple checkpoints and projects that display that development. While I haven't fully completed this class yet, and some planned activities were cancelled due to COVID-19, I have learned quite a lot that I will continue to apply to my own life and communities.
In the beginning of the semester, we began by training ourselves in the core concepts of the class: Discourses. Similar in meaning, Discourses are groups of individuals with common traits and interests all trying to accomplish a common goal with their own ways to behave and communicate. While we were just simply laying the groundwork for what was to come in the semester, this led to a skill I was not expecting to develop: the ability to apply concepts to my own life. As we mastered Discourses, we were tasked with applying the terms learned in class to the communities we are a part of in our lives, and I could easily relate these concepts to another class of mine: my multivariable calculus class. I described my class as one where all members strive to become better mathematicians, despite the differing reasons that each may have for becoming one. I also stated that in this group, we have certain terms that we have come to use quite often that might be lost to others outside of our community. I also related my own experiences to Discourses by stating that, for example, the honors program at UCBA was a dominant Discourse, as in a Discourse that provides certain "goods," like money. I also correlated my past baseball games to his terms by classifying some of my actions as mushfaking, the concept of using your knowledge of the community you are in to pretend that you know what you're doing, as I often faked my way in games as I was not as good as the rest of my team.
In the beginning of the semester, we began by training ourselves in the core concepts of the class: Discourses. Similar in meaning, Discourses are groups of individuals with common traits and interests all trying to accomplish a common goal with their own ways to behave and communicate. While we were just simply laying the groundwork for what was to come in the semester, this led to a skill I was not expecting to develop: the ability to apply concepts to my own life. As we mastered Discourses, we were tasked with applying the terms learned in class to the communities we are a part of in our lives, and I could easily relate these concepts to another class of mine: my multivariable calculus class. I described my class as one where all members strive to become better mathematicians, despite the differing reasons that each may have for becoming one. I also stated that in this group, we have certain terms that we have come to use quite often that might be lost to others outside of our community. I also related my own experiences to Discourses by stating that, for example, the honors program at UCBA was a dominant Discourse, as in a Discourse that provides certain "goods," like money. I also correlated my past baseball games to his terms by classifying some of my actions as mushfaking, the concept of using your knowledge of the community you are in to pretend that you know what you're doing, as I often faked my way in games as I was not as good as the rest of my team.
After fully understanding these terms, we were assigned to relate these concepts to other sources outside of our own world, starting with cinema. The Truman Show is a film revolving around Truman, a man who has lived his entire life in a fabricated reality show, as he slowly discovers the truth. While I had been comfortable relating the topics discussed in class to my own life, relating them to something outside of my own experiences proved to be very valuable. The Truman Show, while obviously fictional, still contained plenty of situations that can be compared to reality. In my essay, I utilized the plot of the film to answer a question important in our own lives: how can metaknowledge, or the knowledge of the community you are in and how it operates, create tension between different Discourses you are involved with? With this question, I was able to take certain events of Truman's life in the movie to showcase how his knowledge of the world around him can possibly have a negative effect on his happiness. This process consisted of analyzing the film in such a way I had yet to do before by looking for specific parts of the movie that displayed Truman's actions fueled by his thoughts and mind directly creating negative results. Fortunately, The Truman Show has quite a few of those moments, which left me plenty of time to fully analyze and dig deep into the core of those scenes. In the film, metaknowledge has two opposing effects on Truman's life: one leading to the loss of his "wife," and one leading to his liberation. This contradiction was not something I was expecting, and it taught me a valuable lesson: there will not always be one answer. While I was focusing on how metaknowledge could establish a negative atmosphere by creating tension between Discourses, I never accounted for the relationship between conflict and discovery. In this new perspective, which you can see in the last paragraph of my analysis, I realized that tension allows us to notice problems in our lives, which then leads to the use of metaknowledge to fix those issues.
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F I L M R E V I E W |
E T H N O G R A P H Y |
For the next assignment, an ethnography tasked us with observing and analyzing a Discourse and prepare an argument for a research question we created by relating it to course concepts and comparing it to my personal expectation and media's perspectives. By analyzing this random McDonald's location, I managed to gain the ability of assessing situations to notice strengths and weaknesses. As a result of this, I realized how important this skill was for my career, as I will need to assess my classroom to make different and new lesson plans for what is needed. One of the main reasons I wanted to become a math teacher, besides liking math and wanting to help the youth through high school, was because I believe that math gets a bad reputation as the hard and boring class for most students. I want to make my class as exciting as I can but also as successful as I can, meaning I need to observe, analyze, and determine what I deem to be the issue in other classes that make math dreadful for some students and make my class fix those problems. I can also use this ability of creating new plans along with the skill of properly assessing a Discourse to notice what is something I can accurately understand - also gained from this project - to efficiently tailor my class to students of that school, that year, and that generation. I have had interesting math teachers before, and it is my plan to bring that energy and enthusiasm into the high school to make math more pleasant to students having a rough time with it.
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E X P E R I E N C E T W O
Crime and Media in Latin America
In my second fall semester, I took part in an honors seminar, titled Crime, Deviance, and Media in Latin America. During this course, I was taught the complexity of how media affects and portrays crime in Latin American countries. This class, taught virtually, was constructed as weekly, separated modules, each covering a specific country, film, and crime. Each week, we would be tasked to watch a movie regarding the crime, and analyze it, either through assigned discussion boards, film reviews, or questionnaires, so that once class was held, we were able to discuss our thoughts, as well as learn new details that would build upon the movies themselves. These modules covered topics such as cartel warfare, gender violence, political violence, and even crime prevention, all tied to an example, whether that be a documentary or a fictional film.
F I L M R E V I E W |
During the third week of the course, our class focused on gender-based violence, in which we watched Señorita Extraviada, a documentary on the women who had gone missing in Juárez around 1993 and the criminal case surrounding it. As our weekly assignment for that module, my film review focused on some core aspects of the film itself, such as the score (in addition to the silence) and the storytelling procedure, and in which they relate to the message of the story. Overall, this documentary attempts to spread awareness to the disturbing situations occurring in other countries outside our own and all the components presented portray that same idea. As explained in the film review, music plays a heavy role in expressing the emotion of certain scenes, but Portillo heavily utilizes silence to allow the words of victims to shine through. In her goal of spreading awareness of the crimes, Portillo emphasizes the testimonies of the survivors by not distracting viewers with a powerful score, silencing everything but their stories. Portillo also uses symbols and imagery that relates to the case that carry an entirely different meaning once context is given, such as the busses shown in many shots, which were used in the kidnappings of these women. As someone who has never had any interaction with global issues, this assignment first introduced me to the massive world outside of my own, giving me indication of other countries that I had known existed, but I had never quite understood. Since I was planning on doing a study abroad trip before COVID-19 was introduced, and this class was originally structured to contain an abroad experience, these films provided me with a really strong understanding of the world around me.
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By the end of the course, the films and stories I had witnesses provided me with a really in-depth understanding of the crime that occurs in other countries, but despite that, there was still a desire to discover if and how these stories still persist today. As a result of this, my final project focused on how different aspects related to time influenced drug crime and violence. In my six blog posts, I focus on a singular movie from the previous modules, and utilize their concepts to discuss the relation that specific crime has with the time surrounding it. Throughout my brainstorming process, I found that through the example I had been given, there were four main concepts that related to time: gradual change, sudden change, situations completely dependent on the time (or once-in-a-lifetime situations), and generational differences. While the movies themselves provided a big portion of my argument, I also related each concept back to real stories, giving them a bit of reality along with some of the more fictional films. This project, while providing with some more basic skills like blog management and website creating, really helped me explore more of the world around me, outside of just films created in these countries. As someone with no experience with these high levels of crime, these stories opened a whole new world for me, giving me new insight into what occurs around our country. I'm sure that in my future, these details, along with other information I am currently learning in law-related classes, will allow me understand students' backgrounds and potential criminal behavior if those situations ever arise.
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C R I M E B L O G |
E X P E R I E N C E T H R E E
Vampires, Monsters, and Monstrosity
While I was researching my schedule for my 2021 spring semester at UC, there were multiple honors seminars that I was interested in, but only one fully caught my eye: Vampires, Monsters, and Monstrosity. As someone who loves film, taking a course revolving around the concepts of monsters' relations to society was instantly intriguing, and I couldn't wait to watch tons of movies regarding monsters and the social issues represented by them. Even though I did get to view a wide variety of films during this class, the history of monsters ended up as the most interesting aspect. Each week consisted of viewing the assigned materials in preparation for class, in which we discussed how the text represents the time and society that it was established in.
Beginning with the original history of vampires in folkloric times, the following weeks develop their role in society, as well as how basic stories became a natural part of written and spoken text. As the semester continued, the course delved more into modern cinema, with heavy discussion on how these stories have evolved from their earlier counterparts. One prime example of this was the classic story of Frankenstein. Written by Mary Shelley in 1818, Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein: a man who deals with the consequences of creating life. In 2015, a film titled Victor Frankenstein was released, taking a spin of the story by focusing on the creation of the monster, instead of the aftermath. While the film reflects the original's themes of isolation and prejudice, it alters them to conform to modern day ideologies, which is one of the focus points of my mid-semester assignment. As a result of this reflection, I've learned of the importance of how time plays a role into the current culture of the world, which I now see as a very crucial aspect of viewing the world, and the people, around us, which is an ability I will often utilize to fully comprehend the students I will encounter in my teaching.
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V I C T O R F R A N K E N S T E I N |
V A M P I R U S |
As the semester continued, more monster films were presented to us, and in turn, my experience with these stories grew. As a result of this, my final project was one of cumulative effort. Combining all of the previous knowledge of how monsters and vampires reflect society's conflicts, my short novel consisted of Dracula styled journal entries describing a pandemic-like vampire virus titled Vampirus. Much inspired by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, my story follows three characters as they suffer through a virus that turns people into typical vampires. While my project on Victor Frankenstein emphasized my ability to notice pre-existing relations to society, this final allowed me to showcase my ability to create new ideas based on my own observations, while also letting me be creative. In my future profession, I do believe it will be beneficial to analyze how the culture and society surrounding each year of students affects them, in who they are and how they learn. In order to use this information effectively, however, I must be able to understand it enough to structure my career's decisions around it, which is exemplified by this final project which had me fully reflect the culture around me.
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E X P E R I E N C E F O U R
The Happiness of Pursuit
For classes this semester, I once again found myself skeptical of which honors seminar to choose. As I was perusing the options, one titled The Happiness of Pursuit stuck out to me. A class that allowed me to pursue my own interests was a revolutionary concept to me, as I don't usually explore things outside of my current curriculum. In the past, many of my hobbies or goals have been pushed aside simply due to one part busy schedule and one part procrastination, but now, I would have a perfect chance to pursue my interests and ensure of their completion. While I do have several interests I could have explored, one stood out to me: creating a short film.
Q U E S T N O T E B O O K |
As someone who loves film enough to have a movie podcast, I have always dreamed of making my own movies, even if it was just for a hobby. In the past few years, as ideas popped up in my mind, I recorded them heavy detail in hopes of ever making these ideas come true. After seeing many short films online, I felt very confident in my ability to make them, but with no prior experience at making them, I severely misunderstood the amount of effort it would take to finish just 1 of the my planned 2 short films. As explained in my quest notebook, my filmmaking process consisted of storyboarding, filming, editing, and publishing, all completed solely by me. Unfortunately, I was truly unaware of the amount of work ahead of me, forcing me to eventually change my quest from completing 2 films into just completing 1. While this was upsetting, it was definitely the right call and made me learn a valuable lesson: research is crucial. As my eagerness to start made me rush into things headfirst, I realized that my initial programs were not optimized for actual film creation, especially since I was recording on my iPhone. In the middle of the semester, I had to make an extreme turn and change editing programs, but ever since, filmmaking was a breeze. For future endeavors, I know now that research is an extremely important aspect in having a successful and enjoyable time in whatever I choose to do. I have many more films planned for the future, all with their own unique ideas, and I am very excited to pursue these adventures with the right headspace and experience.
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S O C I A L B I L I T Y
E X P E R I E N C E F I V E
Death & Dying
In my final fall semester, my last honors experience was a class titled Death & Dying. While this might not be a class that everyone would be interested in taking, it was one that I believed would help strengthen my outlook on life. I am one who fully believes that death is a natural part of life, and that since death is unknown and inevitable, it’s best to make the most of every moment and opportunity that comes your way, appreciating it as you go. This belief came after a pivotal year in my life a couple years back, and has since changed the way I run my day-to-day activities. From choosing to do what I want to do, to spending more time with the people I love and care for, my ideology has made me who I am today, and has changed my already happy life into a much happier one.
In this class, I was able to solidify how I view life and death, learning more about the process of dying, the different ways different cultures perceive the concept of death and their traditions regarding it, and what potentially happens following death. I got the chance to learn about other perspectives of death, whether they were from other countries or my fellow University of Cincinnati peers. There was one aspect of the class that I was not expecting, but I was extremely grateful for: my own death forms. The entire class was assigned to fill out our own medical forms relating to death, as well as other important death-related writings, like our obituaries and epitaphs, which I have attached to the side. While it is quite often that you hear about someone taking control of their life, this "Death Packet" allowed me to take control of my death, forcing me to consider what is important in the final stages of my life, and what I want to be remembered by. I was given the opportunity to set up my own funeral arrangements, write my will, and many more aspects that going into the process of dying, but it was extremely enlightening. Following these projects, I felt a sense of calm and relaxation wash over me, as I knew that even after I am gone, I will be able to be remembered for how I was, and hopefully inspire others to live their life to the fullest.
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O B I T U A R Y + E P I T A P H |
Outside of learning or acting on my own death, I also found a chance to explore how death works, and in some other cases, how near-death works. Featured below is mine and another classmate's presentation on the different views of the meaning of life and death, as well as research into near-death experiences. In a unit during the class, we briefly spoke about near-death experiences (NDE's), and during that class, we explored some of the causes and then the results following their return. This fascinated me, so for our presentation, I was able to explore what happens in NDE's, and how it changes the individual post-death. Through this research article, I was able to discover that those who reached close to an actual death, usually came back with a greater appreciation for life, even going as far to not fear death at all, since they had already experienced it once. Most would go on to live happier lives than before, a discovery in which I inferred that the meaning life, like I had always suspected, is closely related to our deaths, and the end of our ability to truly live. Following this class, I am going out into the world, not only appreciating my life a little more, but also fully appreciating my inevitable and unknown death, as for things to truly matter in the time and in the moment you are in, there has to be an ending. "Life moves pretty fast." Appreciate it.
T H E M E A N I N G O F L I F E & D E A T H
S L I D E 4 (4:39-6:26) |