T H E D R E A M
UCBA Honors Plan
Perhaps the most crucial step of any assignment, the planning process lies at the forefront of the project. This section involves setting goals for the end of the journey, the minor landmarks throughout, and how you will accomplish these. Currently, I am attending UC Blue Ash under the UCBA Honors Program while majoring in secondary education for mathematics. In the distance, I plan to become a high school math teacher as well as a drumline instructor. Music is a major passion of mine, and it’s been an integral part of my life ever since I was a child, so once I was a section leader for my drumline in the high school marching band, I realized how much I love leading others. I also really enjoy math, so when the option of pursuing a career as a math teacher was mentioned to me, I had an epiphany: I could be a math teacher and a drumline instructor. Ever since, I’ve been on a hard set path towards those goals, and I intend to follow through with them until they’re accomplished.
Throughout college I am going to take all of the required classes necessary to graduate with all of the necessary credits for a high school mathematics teacher and participate in the UC Marching Band up at the main campus. I do, however, plan to advance my ability to complete these in a multitude of ways. Firstly, I will transition onto main campus next year so that I can spend more time involved with the UC drumline. This newfound ability to be with the drumline more and learn more from my instructor will allow me to further train my ear to hear the issues in the line, which is a crucial skill to have when teaching a drumline. I could also use this new availability to practice for the drumline, further building my skills to play and instruct others. This transition will also allow me to study at a higher level since I will not have to drive an extensive amount of time to get to classes. After that, I seek to become a leader in the UC Marching Band which is a minor goal that I am trying to accomplish. I can go forth and complete this by showing interest in leading and taking responsibilities that upperclassmen would usually hold so that my current instructor can see that I care for the program I am a part of. The activities that I underwent in the Honors 1015 class, like the community engagement project and some of the in-class activities and discussions, actually taught me how to lead in greater detail by showing me how to adapt, notice problems in certain ideas, and how to be considerate of others. Lastly, for my goal to teach high school math, I can connect and meet with others that share my interest in teaching. Contacting peers and professors that either know a lot more information that I do or have different ideas for how to educate can be very useful in providing me with new concepts that I previously hadn't considered. I've already learned many new philosophies and ways of thinking from my Intro to Education class this semester, so I know deeply exploring into the education field could yield great results for the path to my current goals.
The UCBA Honors Program can aid me in achieving these dreams through the many experiences that I have access to. For example, the study abroad program in the summer of 2020 would be a great way to advance my skills necessary for becoming a calculus teacher in high school. One of the most important aspects of educating a classroom full of different students is the ability to face diversity. Understanding each students that I cross paths with allows me to teach to the style of teaching that they need in order to learn to the best of their abilities. The study abroad program in the UK and Germany would allow me understand different cultures and how their daily routines differ from ours in America. No matter what cultures I would be experiencing, I would still learn how to relate to others with different values and ideas than me which would result in a better comprehension of how to live in someone else's shoes to understand what they are going through and what they need. I would also learn how to adapt to new situations as they appear to me which I could utilize in both of my goals by using it to face immediate challenges when they first present themselves. New issues appear daily in the life of a teacher, so I need to face them with a rational mind to resolve them effectively, and adapting to those situations as they come forth is extremely important in that process. One other experience I can utilize in completing these goals is the personalized experience, specifically for drumline instructing. When I was discussing possible plans with my honors adviser, she mentioned that my interest in teaching the drumline could actually be a major reason to do a personalized experience. Through that, I would look more in depth at teaching lines which would allow me to analyze and getting the experience and knowledge of teaching the hard way. This experience could also severely motivate me into taking instructing with a head drumline instructor more seriously so that I am learning the most out of it. The UCBA Honors Program allows for so much room to personalize your journey through your dreams inside and outside of college, and there are many routes I can adventure through in order to make those wishes come true, and I plan to do so by using the personalized drumline teaching experience to further my skills as a drummer and instructor, and the study abroad program to advance my skills in the teaching field in general so that I may be successful in teaching mathematics to high school students.
Throughout college I am going to take all of the required classes necessary to graduate with all of the necessary credits for a high school mathematics teacher and participate in the UC Marching Band up at the main campus. I do, however, plan to advance my ability to complete these in a multitude of ways. Firstly, I will transition onto main campus next year so that I can spend more time involved with the UC drumline. This newfound ability to be with the drumline more and learn more from my instructor will allow me to further train my ear to hear the issues in the line, which is a crucial skill to have when teaching a drumline. I could also use this new availability to practice for the drumline, further building my skills to play and instruct others. This transition will also allow me to study at a higher level since I will not have to drive an extensive amount of time to get to classes. After that, I seek to become a leader in the UC Marching Band which is a minor goal that I am trying to accomplish. I can go forth and complete this by showing interest in leading and taking responsibilities that upperclassmen would usually hold so that my current instructor can see that I care for the program I am a part of. The activities that I underwent in the Honors 1015 class, like the community engagement project and some of the in-class activities and discussions, actually taught me how to lead in greater detail by showing me how to adapt, notice problems in certain ideas, and how to be considerate of others. Lastly, for my goal to teach high school math, I can connect and meet with others that share my interest in teaching. Contacting peers and professors that either know a lot more information that I do or have different ideas for how to educate can be very useful in providing me with new concepts that I previously hadn't considered. I've already learned many new philosophies and ways of thinking from my Intro to Education class this semester, so I know deeply exploring into the education field could yield great results for the path to my current goals.
The UCBA Honors Program can aid me in achieving these dreams through the many experiences that I have access to. For example, the study abroad program in the summer of 2020 would be a great way to advance my skills necessary for becoming a calculus teacher in high school. One of the most important aspects of educating a classroom full of different students is the ability to face diversity. Understanding each students that I cross paths with allows me to teach to the style of teaching that they need in order to learn to the best of their abilities. The study abroad program in the UK and Germany would allow me understand different cultures and how their daily routines differ from ours in America. No matter what cultures I would be experiencing, I would still learn how to relate to others with different values and ideas than me which would result in a better comprehension of how to live in someone else's shoes to understand what they are going through and what they need. I would also learn how to adapt to new situations as they appear to me which I could utilize in both of my goals by using it to face immediate challenges when they first present themselves. New issues appear daily in the life of a teacher, so I need to face them with a rational mind to resolve them effectively, and adapting to those situations as they come forth is extremely important in that process. One other experience I can utilize in completing these goals is the personalized experience, specifically for drumline instructing. When I was discussing possible plans with my honors adviser, she mentioned that my interest in teaching the drumline could actually be a major reason to do a personalized experience. Through that, I would look more in depth at teaching lines which would allow me to analyze and getting the experience and knowledge of teaching the hard way. This experience could also severely motivate me into taking instructing with a head drumline instructor more seriously so that I am learning the most out of it. The UCBA Honors Program allows for so much room to personalize your journey through your dreams inside and outside of college, and there are many routes I can adventure through in order to make those wishes come true, and I plan to do so by using the personalized drumline teaching experience to further my skills as a drummer and instructor, and the study abroad program to advance my skills in the teaching field in general so that I may be successful in teaching mathematics to high school students.
T H E S K I L L S
Strengths Narrative
Our strengths are an integral part of our lives, despite our knowledge of them. We use our strengths in some degree every day in almost every activity, but we might not know exactly what they are. I took the Clifton Strengths test, and found that all of my strengths related to people. I am very much a people person and a people pleaser, and my results reflect these ideas as it shows that I excel in communication, woo-the ability to make new friends-positivity, harmony-the want for consensus-and empathy. I usually display these skills when I'm with my friends, as I often tell stories that will keep everyone positive.
During my senior year of high school and the summer following that school year, I held a weekly dinner for my friends and I which was a ton of fun. I got to see my friends a lot, and we all grew closer because of it. On one of those days, my friend, Hunter, had shown up, but he wasn't his normal self. I noticed that he was quieter: he didn't talk much and when he did, it was in a soft voice. I questioned him about it, and he explained that he and his girlfriend had broken up. I felt bad for him, because they meant a lot to each other, but had to break up because he was going to be going on a missionary trip soon, so they wanted to soften the blow by breaking up early. I understood their reasons, but still felt bad for my friend. I was proud of him still showing up to the My Top 5 Strengths
dinner to try to have a good time, so I wanted to make him happy. I started off the night like usual,
with just my friends and I chatting and catching up. After eating, we played board games, and remained positive throughout, acting goofy and making sure my friends were having fun as well. By the end of the night, I had noticed that Hunter was smiling and laughing more and more, and after everyone left, I checked social media, and saw that he had posted that that night helped him. I was able to use my empathy strength to understand my friend's feelings, and using my communication and positivity, I was able to cheer up my friend.
During my senior year of high school and the summer following that school year, I held a weekly dinner for my friends and I which was a ton of fun. I got to see my friends a lot, and we all grew closer because of it. On one of those days, my friend, Hunter, had shown up, but he wasn't his normal self. I noticed that he was quieter: he didn't talk much and when he did, it was in a soft voice. I questioned him about it, and he explained that he and his girlfriend had broken up. I felt bad for him, because they meant a lot to each other, but had to break up because he was going to be going on a missionary trip soon, so they wanted to soften the blow by breaking up early. I understood their reasons, but still felt bad for my friend. I was proud of him still showing up to the My Top 5 Strengths
dinner to try to have a good time, so I wanted to make him happy. I started off the night like usual,
with just my friends and I chatting and catching up. After eating, we played board games, and remained positive throughout, acting goofy and making sure my friends were having fun as well. By the end of the night, I had noticed that Hunter was smiling and laughing more and more, and after everyone left, I checked social media, and saw that he had posted that that night helped him. I was able to use my empathy strength to understand my friend's feelings, and using my communication and positivity, I was able to cheer up my friend.
In order to further train my skills, I would need to participate in activities where I would get to speak to lots of other people. Volunteering around the community would be a good fit for me to improve my strengths as I could meet a multitude of new people and would want to remain positive throughout the experience, also trying to make others positive as well. Volunteering would improve my positivity and woo traits greatly, but all my strengths could possibly excel through it too. My desire of harmony would keep me motivated to help the community to ensure everyone is happy, my empathy would help me understand the feelings and lives of those less fortunate, and my communication skills would need to be put to use to speak with the members of the community. This would offer a chance to make a change in the community around me, while also putting my strengths to use and developing them even more.
T H E J O U R N E Y
Community Engagement Project
Me Participating in Food Drive Tabling
My Group's Designed Flyer
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This semester, in Honors 1015, our major project for the course was the community engagement project, where the classes split up into groups with designated roles in order to promote awareness of the food pantry at UC Blue Ash and food insecurity as a whole. Although the original plan for the assignment did not go as intended, I still learned quite a few things from this experience. I was part of the promotion team, along with 4 other members, which was in charge of planning how to promote the food pantry while also spreading awareness for food insecurity among college students which is a serious issue affecting all universities. My group met up one day early in the assignment and planned out what we could do to be successful in promoting this. We all had very different ideas and had to talk through them to see what would be the most reasonable and appealing to college students. These different meetings taught me how to analyze and walk through ideas to eliminate the improbable ones so that the ones that realistically work could be planned. We talked through each other's ideas and finally came up with what we wanted to do: posters and flyers for the walls and cafeteria tables, a power point slide for the TVs around campus, and tabling around campus to grab people's attention.
When we were actually completing these tasks, I learned a few new important skills. The first very useful piece of information I gained was how to utilize everyone's skills in projects to provide the best product. When we all decided how to divide the workload, we took note of each other's skills and goals and organized specific pieces of work for those people. For example, one of the members of our group was into design and was in a design major, so we all determined that she would be the best fit for creating the flyers and posters, while other members, like me, found it easier to be social with our peers rather than creating something, so we assigned ourselves to promoting the pantry through the tabling. This project also taught me how to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. The original plan for this project was to hold an external food drive at a local Kroger, but that did not work out in the way that we all had hoped, so we had to move the food drive onto the campus, which worked fine, but we had to adjust a few things about our promotion planning. We were no longer just promoting food insecurity and the simple fact that we have a food pantry at UCBA, but we now were trying to gain donations from people while also spreading awareness to students. We had to alter our posters to contain what foods to bring in and where to drop them off, and our tabling now not only had to include food insecurity awareness but also trying to get donations from people around campus. This project helped me gain important leadership and planning skills that I am going to need to remember during my career. Since I plan to be a high school math teacher, there are many random occurrences throughout the days and weeks that I need to know how to work around so that my students can still learn what they need to. I can also use my knowledge of how to eliminate unrealistic ideas and how to use everyone's specific skills to create successful products to plan effective lessons and assignments that accommodate students' skills so that they can reflect their knowledge of the content being taught. Overall, this project taught me a few concepts that I can utilize in the path to my goal of becoming a teacher and being a teacher itself while also training me in great leadership skills I could use in my everyday life. |
"Only Connect" ReflectionIn William Cronon's piece, "Only Connect," his purpose is to show readers how to be liberally educated, but eventually comes to the realization that one cannot fully become this way through a set of courses. He defines being liberally educated as a "way of living in the face of our own ignorance," explaining that liberal education is not a definite state of being, but rather a goal to strive to be closest to. Cronon lists ten ideas that liberal education encompasses, ranging from simply problem-solving to caring about the people in our world. The final philosophy that Cronon employs is to "Only connect." Liberal education, with every other personal quality that it entails, eventually leads to your ability to connect to the world and understand how it works. Most teachers educate their students on the assigned curriculum, but in order to have an involved community, teachers need to also educate the skills necessary to connect and act with society. UCBA Deans Leadership ReflectionDuring the presentation from the UCBA Deans, we discussed leadership in detail, and when I had revealed my plans to become a teacher, she had asked me what some opportunities I could take advantage of. This stuck out to me because up until my senior year of high school, I didn't know what I wanted to be, and then once I found out, I talked to some of my teachers because of it. And now that I am in the program, I have so many options to improve my ability of success. One of my other goals for my future is to become a high school drumline instructor, and so far, I have utilized some of the opportunities presented to me by occasionally returning to my high school marching band to help with the drumline, and next season, I plan to email the band director to ask for permission to aid the main drumline director throughout the season in teaching and improving the line. Food Insecurity Activity ReflectionOn October 2nd, my class participated in an activity where 5 separate groups were tasked with creating a poster from the materials that you were given. The purpose of the project was not solely to see if you can produce a poster for the food pantry, but rather can you create one with the materials that you were given. Every group was given a varying amount and quality of tools to use, with some having a significant advantage above others. My group had received poster paper, wavy scissors, a green highlighter, and the bag that the materials came in. As we looked over our own resources, I glanced over at my other classmates and realized that they had received things like glue, glitter, straight scissors, full boxes of crayons, different colored markers, etc. They had clearly been given more materials and had a better chance at making an appealing and successful poster, but my group still did not give up. We had to be more creative and work harder to come up with a clever idea, but we still created a poster that captured the required idea. This assignment can be related back to real life in which everyone is given different resources but are expected to accomplish the same goals. This can be hard for certain people who come equipped with less tools, but they can still finish what they need to by working hard and intelligently. This can specifically relate to food insecurity in college, as a large portion of students aren't sure where their next meal will come from, but are expected to maintain their college grades and goals. This lack of resources can discourage and add stress to students' lives to the point where they fail or maybe even drop out. These students have to work hard and creatively to get the job done so that they can have time to work and get food for themselves and maybe even for others. This activity made me realize that everyone has to work with what they get, and that it's not impossible for people to come back from a lack of resources or food insecurity. |
Clifton Strengths ReflectionI was mostly not shocked by the results of my strengths because all of them have to deal with my interactions with others, and I have always felt that I am strong when dealing with others. I have always been able to encourage my friends into doing their best and feeling their best, and in return, I feel better as well. On the other hand though, I am completely shocked about my second strength, Woo, because as I have always had the ability to talk to almost anyone in a friendly manner, I am usually afraid when meeting new groups of people and hoping to be liked by them. Once I have met the person, however, I can talk to them almost as if we had been lifelong friends. My top strength, Communication, I feel is very accurate because I absolutely love talking to others and giving my opinion on topics. I can talk for extended periods of time, and usually the recipients are interested. Research ReflectionIn your life, you can either be the listener, or the teller. You can either be the explorer, or the viewer. This concept applies to a multitude of aspects of life, but it strongly applies to personal research. In college, you might be tasked with finding resources that tell you important information, or you could be instructed to do some research on your own to discover the information for yourself. Research is a pretty important part of undergrad studies, but it is integral in graduate studies. I recently spoke with a professor of mine about the study and research that was required of them in order to gain their PhD so that I could gain a better understanding of what goes into researching a topic. My professor had completed his undergrad experience with a bachelor's degree in studio art at Indiana University, but moved over to the University of Cincinnati to finish his graduate studies to earn a PhD in Mathematics. When he gave me a basic overview of the required research project for a PhD, he explained that the final goal of the graduate program is to answer a question that no one has ever answered previously. This involves researching the topic that you set, and writing and completing a dissertation about their selected topic. My professor, since he gained a PhD in Mathematics, he had to advance some knowledge in the field of mathematics. His dissertation was titled Bilipschitz Homogeneity and Jordan Curves, and he explained that he made discoveries relating to fractals, which were curves that had an infinite amount of detail no matter how far you analyzed it. No matter what your research is on, however, a few pieces of advice he gave me apply to researching in general. The three skills that he learned the hard way throughout the process, he said, were persistence, patience, and open-mindedness. He illustrated the importance of not giving up, not rushing, and not being stubborn while researching any topic. To me, those are standard skills that anyone can learn, but he then went into detail on how they apply to research specifically. He said that at certain times in the process, he did rush, which made the work incorrect at times, which could be a major problem in your dissertation. With as grueling of a process as a major research project is, I can understand how you can easily be discouraged from finishing it. It can be very time consuming, and expensive, but luckily the universities provide you with the opportunity to complete this research. Persistence is a major skill to have in all of life, but research basically requires it. One of the most important skills that he learned was necessary in order to properly conduct successful research, however, was the ability to remain open minded in your own work. He explained it as the fact that some things you will try, simply won't work, especially in math. This was research is all about, though: testing new ideas to see if they actually work. Some things you will try just won't work out the way that you believe they will, and you can't let that trip you up as it leads to your research and work forming a biased conclusion that tries to reach for certain ideas. In addition, it takes up a majority of your time that you could be utilizing by researching stuff that actually makes sense in your field. A majority of what you will do in your field will be meaningful to you and your goals, and the same applies to my professor. The reason might vary from individual to individual, but my professor stated that he found and currently finds mathematics fascinating in his eyes because of the limitless opportunities to explore. He finds it very interesting how math can be found in every aspect of life, yet there is so much about it that is lost and mysterious to the world, so researching in that field made sense to him. Besides the personal interest in his research, there are definitely other benefits of his research. For him, his current research of the philosophy of mathematics and theology, which is funded by the university, continues to drive his teaching in the classroom because to him, educating students on the same topics could become very repetitive in his career, so the research constantly adds new ideas for him to introduce in class. Other than his own personal gains, other researchers gain a better understanding of mathematical concepts that fills or connects new ideas. Overall, research is a very important aspect of the university and college system because it provides educators with the opportunity to search about topics that they are interested in, but also advances knowledge for others in their field. Research results in new ideas arising for the next generation of researchers to explore to connect and improve them. A lot goes into the researching process, and, with the proper skills and determination, important discoveries can be made. My professor advises that anyone planning on researching need to remember three important ideas: 1) Don't go alone. Connect with others in the field, either new or experience, 2) Don't obsess over being new or notable, and 3) Just tell the truth. |