SPRING QUARTER

HONORS 232

Past Experiences & Present Curiosity

Titled "Reproductive Justice in Practice: Movements, Methods, and Meaning," this honors social science course challenged me to step away from an academia and towards advocacy. Each day in the classroom prompted me to acknowledge my positionality and identity within the many open discussions that would occur. We dissected social bias and policy implications. Who is writing bills on women's bodies? Who is being served by these bills- who is being silenced? The topics we covered spanned more than biological female bodies and their right of agency; we dabbled in conversation about colonialism, healthcare, history, intersectional sexuality and disability, and climate, always with an overarching emphasis on BIPOC identities and experiences.

I think I got the learning I wanted out of this class through the primary mode of listening. I had an opinion on reproductive justice coming into the class, but I didn't have the fact-based foundation to amplify my ability to advocate and facilitate educational dialogue. I am not only walking away feeling like I accomplished a lot of meaningful reflection and knowledge acquisition, but that I am also walking into a future with this new lens of reproductive justice I can apply to numerous areas in my life that I didn't realize could or would be affected by reproductive justice.

The document to the right is my initial reflection after the first week or so in this course, and a consistent theme it brings up that maintained itself through the whole quarter was this idea of "I don't know, but I want to." This awareness that my position and identity, fueled by privilege, have allowed me to get this far without needing to know the histories and experiences and traumas of others disheartened me, and it gave me the motivation to rewrite the way I move through the world - rewrite the way I see others move through the world.

HONORS 397

On the Path Towards Being a Peer Educator

This opportunity changed the trajectory of my undergraduate experience. This small additional involvement in the honors program enlightened me to how purposeful and excited I feel to be surrounded by the honors staff and students, and I know that I am going to continue seeking out chances to be engaged more deeply in Honors.

Particularly regarding this course, the primer for our actual teaching in the Fall, I learned and grew a lot in terms of my leadership and lesson planning. The peer educator retreat established the grounds in which myself and my fellow peer educators and friends would continue developing our relationships with each other. In my van on the way there, our two hour drive turned to four, and the numerous minor inconveniences - like gas, bathroom breaks, wrong directions - were the best parts. One activity we did on the trip was to envision a story with a plot and a resolution given whatever random prompts we were assigned, and my group's complicated and silly string of events required a designated C.E.O. I nearly took the role but, in my doubt, chose to turn it down and sufficed with a different role- a tree. At the end of my reflection, there's a mention of this - a desire and confidence to step into that theoretical C.E.O position rather than succumbing to something else. This quarter shaped me in developing my self-esteem and assurance that I am capable of leading and of teaching; that I can be more than a tree if I choose to.

A few goals I set for myself in my teaching were to improve my adaptability and trust in myself, honor diverse perspectives by engaging in intentional ways with my students as we cultivate community together, and consistently reflect on my successes and areas of improvement. Here's to what the Fall will bring and future portfolio entries of this experience!

Final Reflection

EDUC 216

My First Ad-Hoc

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I ad-hoced a class for the first time! This course, EDUC216: Thriving on the Path to Happiness focused on cultivating positive experiences and emotions by helping students develop tools and skills to increase their subjective well-being, interpersonal relationships, and opportunities for happiness. This class was the second in the EDUC series, and I was excited enough to continue my learning on social-emotional wellness, but I was even more excited to take my learner to the next level by engaging in additional work internalizing and understanding the content beyond class. My goal with the project was to recognize emotions with more accurate and descriptive language to better connect with myself, those around me, and within society.

My professor, Dr. Lally, was someone I loved being in the classroom with. Her teaching style is captivating and fun, and the climate she and her teaching team establish is welcoming and kind. I knew that they would share my passion and curiosity in my project. I thought that my ad-hoc theme related to the honors program mission statement of "to value a life of continuous learning and personal growth," and I thought having the emotional language to grasp in moments of instability and joy would equip me with skills of mindfulness and presence and ultimately help me make impacts beyond myself.

My project primarily consisted of bi-weekly meeting with Dr. Lally where we would indulge in vibrant and casual conversation facilitated by my takeaways of the readings I did. I read three books over the course of the quarter, and they related to the class because many of our typical classwork readings including excerpts from these books, so I got to read beyond what was encouraged in our weekly tasks. I was able to understand the context of the course at a much more detailed level. I read "Atlas of the Heart" by Brené Brown, "Emotional Agility" by Susan David, and "Bittersweet" by Susan Cain. My ad-hoc concluded with a final, comprehensive vision board of different media that contributes to students' engagement with the course content in a more relatable way via platforms such as TikTok. The final project shifted a bit throughout the quarter as Dr. Lally and I made sense of the readings and explored what would make the most sense to capture my takeaways. The document here is the final piece I created, and, like we did throughout the quarter, my evaluation was just as much of a guided conversation as I explained my logic behind this map of literary, media, and musical components.

I loved this ad-hoc as I was able to produce something different from the usual assignment or paper by utilizing critical and creative thinking. I feel proud of this quarter-long journey and look forward to other opportunities to take my learning into my own hands.

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