Interdisciplinary Honors Program
I was accepted to the Interdisciplinary Honors Program as an incoming undergraduate freshman at University of Washington. Before deciding to accept the offer, I attended an honors seminar about the intersection of music and climate change. Not only was I impressed by the creativity and originality of the seminar, but I also appreciated the collaborative relationship between professors and students. I participated in the Honors College throughout my undergraduate career, allowing me to graduate with Interdisciplinary Honors.
Storytelling in the Sciences
I really enjoyed this class and used its content throughout my college career. The purpose of this class was to teach students how to effectively communicate scientific ideas. We engaged in improvisation exercises and storytelling techniques in order to properly interest our audience. My first presentation was called "Encouraging Student Exploration: Stem Education in High Schools". I felt like this was an important topic to talk about. Since technology is developing rapidly, it's important to start STEM education earlier. Despite one's field of study, all careers will involve STEM concepts such as web development, statistics, and much more. My second presentation was on the effect of epigenetics on cancer. I was first introduced to epigenetics in high school during a biotechnology class. I was intrigued by the topic and wanted to learn. Not only did I learn a lot about the functions of the human body, but I found motivation to get involved in the medical field in order to help others. Since my first presentation had a more standard approach, I wanted to try using more storytelling techniques. I think it was successful since epigenetics isn't as common as the educational system. Using familiar communication methods to explain an unfamiliar topic can help increase accessibility. Beyond working on presentations, we also listened to podcasts and read a lot of interesting articles. Some sources were RadioLab, which often took personal stories to communicate scientific findings.
Title slide from my first presentation.
Title slide from my second presentation.
Women in Ancient Greek and Roman Antiquity
History is often recorded by men; however, this class chose to study and analyze women's perspective in ancient Greek and Roman society. Through different primary sources and records of religious practice, the class discussed what life as a woman would be like. I enjoyed this class more than I thought I would when I registered in the winter. At first, I thought that studying a past culture would be intellectually interesting. Now, I understand that studying classics can help us reflect on our own society. By being able to critique and notice patterns in societies beyond the one we live in, we can find links to how our own society functions. Taking this class has reminded me how human culture is constantly evolving.
As part of the class, I wrote an eight page research paper on the stereotypes women in music faced in Ancient Greece. I then found patterns throughout different eras of music that mirrored the mistreatment women faced in Ancient Greece. I was personally interested in this topic because of my own experiences in music. It was interesting to see how ideas developed hundreds of years ago can still linger in present time. To the right is a painting of women playing the cithara, which resembled a modern day guitar. It was fun to see that my own hobby (playing guitar) has been around for thousands of years.
