Y E A R O N E
2019-2020
This past year, I was involved in two honors related experiences, Honors 1015 and Intermediate Composition. Both classes taught me some valuable skills, as explained in their respective sections. Honors 1015 allowed me to explore and develop my strengths while also making light of my weaknesses and how I can control them. Through this course, I was introduced to the honors program and all it has to offer at UCBA, but what I consider to be the most beneficial result of the course was the community engagement project. Despite the unfortunate outcome of the situation, I was still able to learn quite a lot from the experience. For the first time in my life, I was tasked with beginning, planning, and executing a full project. Along with help from my group, we completed a project plan detailing the promotion of the food drive for food insecurity. This assignment involved us evaluating each member's skills and strengths in order to most effectively work towards certain parts of the plan. This was the first time I have ever assessed others in order to assign them to certain tasks and it was very interesting to me. I had also never fully constructed a project from scratch with free reign before, so that was very enlightening. As a teacher, it'll be my duty everyday to plan and execute lessons from scratch with only a goal in mind and knowing my strengths in planning and executing will lead me to working quite often with others with strengths in other departments so that I can teach to the best of my ability.
Outside of the honors program, I took many education classes in my first year at UC. In just the first year, I completed an Intro to Education class, an Individuals with Exceptionalities class, and an Educational Technology class, while also being currently enrolled in Teaching and Learning Diversity, Educational Psychology, and Pre/Mid-Adolescent Development. I've learned so much through classes, from the history and different philosophies of teaching to the development of the human mind through youth. The knowledge taught in these class, while taught in many different teaching styles, helped me understand my own teaching philosophy, a common concept necessary for prospective instructors to understand. Having a plan for education is an integral part of the teaching career, so knowing what matters to me, in terms of education, is very important and beneficial. Taking part in these classes also confirmed for me that I want to teach high school students. Throughout my many observations of high school classrooms, I got to experience varying levels of course difficulty and the students in each class. While, for most of the observation, I was instructed to just simply observe and not interact with the students, for my second round of observations for my Individuals with Exceptionalities class, the teacher I was observing often specifically asked me to help out certain children. These moments were incredible to me. While it had been a while since I had even studied the math that they were being taught, I still tried my best to explain the concepts, and asked the actual teacher for aid when I needed it. While it was really solidifying for me, I also realized that this is much, much more for me to learn to teach. I am no longer worried about if I am making the right choice; I am sure and excited to train and eventually teach.
Outside of the honors program, I took many education classes in my first year at UC. In just the first year, I completed an Intro to Education class, an Individuals with Exceptionalities class, and an Educational Technology class, while also being currently enrolled in Teaching and Learning Diversity, Educational Psychology, and Pre/Mid-Adolescent Development. I've learned so much through classes, from the history and different philosophies of teaching to the development of the human mind through youth. The knowledge taught in these class, while taught in many different teaching styles, helped me understand my own teaching philosophy, a common concept necessary for prospective instructors to understand. Having a plan for education is an integral part of the teaching career, so knowing what matters to me, in terms of education, is very important and beneficial. Taking part in these classes also confirmed for me that I want to teach high school students. Throughout my many observations of high school classrooms, I got to experience varying levels of course difficulty and the students in each class. While, for most of the observation, I was instructed to just simply observe and not interact with the students, for my second round of observations for my Individuals with Exceptionalities class, the teacher I was observing often specifically asked me to help out certain children. These moments were incredible to me. While it had been a while since I had even studied the math that they were being taught, I still tried my best to explain the concepts, and asked the actual teacher for aid when I needed it. While it was really solidifying for me, I also realized that this is much, much more for me to learn to teach. I am no longer worried about if I am making the right choice; I am sure and excited to train and eventually teach.
Despite the amazing first year, it didn't come without its flaws. Within my first week of classes, the first major problem arose in front of me: marching band. I am a part of the drumline in UC's marching band, and while the experience itself was fantastic, the constant loss in time spent traveling between home, UC Blue Ash and main campus and in marching band rehearsals, games, and trips took a toll on me and my studies. While I was able to do well in all of my classes, sometimes assignments were submitted which I thought weren't to the best of my ability. These assignments still returned with good grades, but for me, I wasn't quite satisfied with my work. At that moment, my two passions, education and music, were tearing each other apart, which was something I had to learn to manage. Like most freshman college students, time management was a crucial skill I absolutely needed to learn in order to be satisfied with my college life. Although I struggled throughout the first semester, I learned a few tricks to better my path to success. Despite taking three online classes, when the one online class in the fall was difficult, I pushed through the troubles and made sure stay on track with my courses and assignments. As a result of my transfer to main campus next year, I will be able to have much more time to complete schoolwork while also allowing me to focus on my ability in the band as well. Following that, we all had to experience a big challenge: COVID-19. This virus interrupted all campus activity, including classes, sports, and unfortunately, big events like study abroad. While my summer study abroad group had only met twice before its cancellation, we were all very excited to finally travel and study in UK and Germany. Although I was excited to just go and learn about the history and sight-see, the most aspect I will miss this summer is the ability to reach out of my comfort zone. Since I've never traveled outside of the country or lived outside of my parents' house, this definitely would've been a change, but a welcome one at that. I plan to participate in another study abroad program in the following years as I was very excited for this opportunity and it would be very beneficial for my goals.
|
Post-Football
|
Throughout these two semesters, I also took two calculus classes and Intermediate Composition. The latter course is covered more in its respective page, but it was a very valuable class where I learned how to expand my observation, analysis, and writing skills. The different assignments requiring me to analyze others in a deep manner proved very beneficial as I was able to learn how to properly assess others in whatever atmosphere they were in, a crucial skill for teachers to be able to evaluate students in the classrooms. In my two calculus classes, I furthered my math abilities while also being able to analyze different approaches to teaching math. Overall, this year has been a great introduction into what is possible, both inside and outside the honors program. For the next year, I plan to participate in an honors seminar as an experience, and also research other study abroad programs for spring or summer. I hope that I will be able to leave my comfort zone throughout the following semesters in order to learn more from the world around me and learn more about myself. I will continue to use the skills I have built up over the years and in college in order to accomplish my goals in education and grow as a person.
Y E A R T W O
2020-2021
For most, this year has anything but expected, and while that philosophy also applies to my second year at UC as a part of the University Honors Program, the outcomes weren't all negative. While both of my honors experiences were almost equally interesting and important, my fall course provided me with a better insight into the world around me, which I believe will be of greater use to me in my future. Concerning crime and the use of media in Latin American countries, this seminar introduced new social issues each week through different films and countries in order to broaden the views of me and my fellow classmates. Although I do remember taking a World Geography class in my lifetime, it was nothing quite like learning how each of these countries operates, as well as the culture and the level of crime taking place in them. As a future teacher and instructor, one of my prospective duties will involve properly understanding each of my students' backgrounds. While this may have appeared as an easy task in my younger eyes, after this class, I have recently realized the impact cultures have on individuals' actions and personality, and as a result, I now try to invest more time into discovering a person's background in order to understand them. With this being a new skill I am currently developing, I'm sure it will continue to improve as I grow and become more accustomed to it, which would be incredibly useful in understanding my students and how I should teach to them in order to let them effectively learn.
Tenor Drum Section on Halloween
|
Outside of the Honors Program, once again, marching band plays an important role in defining who I am and who I will be. Due to the pandemic, band has completely transformed in accordance to state and university guidelines, resulting in a much different experience than what I was accustomed to during my first year at UC. Since I was promoted to be my section's leader, there was much more on my plate than previously expected, which was an experience I was ready to take on. My new duties not only required me to lead a small group of people to greatness, as well as work with a team of other leaders, but also help brainstorm and construct new procedures relating to COVID-19. While I have led my section before in high school, leading in college and during a pandemic is a whole different story as I had to constantly manage multiple things at once, from making sure everyone was on time and prepared, all the way to ensuring pandemic guidelines were being followed. This type of multitasking was revolutionary to me, forcing me to step out of my comfort zone in order to properly lead a group, something that will be crucial later in life when I must manage my students, their classwork, and my relations with other teachers.
The future is starting to look bright, thanks to the new vaccines coming into light, and as a result, many are starting to plan their following years. I am also following that philosophy, planning out my current academic schedule for the upcoming years of school and life. While I hope to see my application to the Disney College Program be accepted for this upcoming semester, I am open to continuing my leadership within the UC Bearcat Marching Band. In DCP, I would travel and stay at Disney World in Florida, learning to live on my own and work in such an important social role, constantly communicating with guests and learning how to operate in such a large organization. Otherwise, my current plan at UC entails taking courses related to education and math subjects until I may begin student teaching! |
Y E A R T H R E E
2021-2022
This year has been full of plenty of unique experiences, all from my own volition, as I begin to be more independent in what I decide to do. In my fall semester of college, I took part in a seminar regarding personal goals, as well as how to achieve them. In this course, I was able to decide for myself what I wanted to venture into. Some chose goals related to research, some chose self-improvement, while I chose to pursue a long-lasting dream of mine: to make a short film. While I originally thought I would have time to make three full short films of different lengths and topics, there were way more obstacles than I initially anticipated. My first short film was about a man who, through his repetitive life, gradually get more and more tired, represented by a "social energy" bar at the top left corner of the screen. There were many problems that I encountered, but one plagued me for a while: editing. I knew of an editing program called ShotCut before I started, and while it did have some issues, I overlooked them at first because I knew how to use it. Since my short film revolves around the idea of the character's face remaining in the same location the entire time, I needed to edit the clips I got in order to actually frame them right, but ShotCut was not designed well for in depth editing. The whole process of editing became a drag, so I had to make the decision to only focus on this one short film, since it was going to take the whole semester. After most of the semester, I decided to do some research into better editing software, and found one on my iPad that made my life so much easier, especially since there was no need to transfer my videos onto my laptop, and I could easily work with my Apple Pencil. This streamlined the process and made it actually enjoyable, and I quickly finished my short film, despite completely restarting the process. I was able to release the film by the end of the semester, which left me very satisfied with the work I had made. Through this honors seminar, I learned the importance of research in order to ensure a better experience going forward, as well as how to manage a self-made goal, which is a very crucial skill for the future.
For the spring semester, while I didn't enroll in any classes, I did have big plans: I was going to be in the Disney College Program! For five months, starting in February, I would move to Florida and work for Walt Disney World as an outdoor food vendor at Magic Kingdom. As someone who had yet to live without their family their entire life, this was going to be a big step for me, but despite only being here for three months already, I feel that I have made huge leaps in becoming even more independent. From making my own meals and grocery shopping to waking up to go into work, living on my own has been a revolutionary experience, one that I think will always be a part of my life. In addition to becoming more autonomous, I have been able to spend so much time with new friends at my favorite place! Getting to visit the parks almost every single day has been a lovely adventure: one that I'm not quite ready to leave. While I know I need to return to Ohio and finish schooling, I do believe that the DCP will have forever changed my life for the better, no matter what happens in the future.
|
The Disney College Program
|
Y E A R F O U R
2022-2023
Mainly recovering from the big change of the DCP from the spring, this year has given me lots to think about, with a ton more experience in many departments of life. The fall semester didn't have anything spectacular going for itself, but it still did provide me with new memories! I still participated in the Bearcats Marching Band as a leader of the tenor drum section, which I plan to repeat with my final year next fall. It was a nice return to campus after the Disney College Program finished over the summer, and allowed me to jump right back into things, especially since I've learned that I strongly dislike having weird gaps of empty time between big events. Throughout the fall, my girlfriend, Caitlin (which I met on the DCP), visited where I got to show off a lot of what Ohio has to offer, further building our relationship. Classes were mostly basic math courses, but I did get the opportunity to take an Animation class, which is something I've always wanted to look into, so it gave me a good introduction into the artform. Finally, the end of the year brought on an interesting Boston trip with the band, which brought along its own challenges, and I was able to really shine as a leader to make decisions.
My New Nephew!
|
A vast difference from the slow fall semester, spring 2023 blew right by, especially since I started my first Practicum of my education! With this experience, I had the chance to spend around 8 hours a week in a 7th grade math classroom, where I learned so much about this career I'm going into. First of all, this provided me with a lot more security and assurance of my choice, as I absolutely loved my time. This was initially shocking to me, as I was really uninterested in teaching anything other than calculus, but I honestly adored working with younger students, and even if I still end up working with high schoolers, I learned a lot of valuable techniques and strategies for teaching which I can't wait to start in the following year. Outside of school, however, big life changes were happening, including the unfortunate passing of my grandmother, which has brought my large family together for the first time in a long time, and the fortunate birth of my nephew! I still have lots to learn about being an uncle, but I am extremely excited for the future. There is a lot I'm looking forward to in my final year at UC, but for the first time in my life, I'm looking beyond my education and at providing others with an education. I simply can't wait for the coming years for many, many reasons, and I cannot wait to continue to grow as a person.
|