Honors Experiences
English 2089- Intermediate Composition
Intermediate Composition was a composition class I took this past semester as an honors experience. Over the course of this class, I followed the Navigators (a Christian group on campus which I am a member of) and tracked their communication practices through different genres the group publishes and utilizes.
The final project for the course was a culmination of the work done through the class. Through the semester, I researched the process of becoming a member in the Navigators. This was intriguing to me because I myself am apart of the organization but still found myself wondering when I was officially a member. Through my research, I learned that whenever someone decides that they are a member is when they are a member. For example,if a member comes once a month and considers that membership, they are just as much of a member as someone who goes to every single meeting. For this project, I compiled all of my research from the entire semester into a unique genre. To play off of the group name, I made a mock ship’s log which documented the steps to becoming a member in chronological order. At the culmination of the class, the students presented these projects to those in the Honor’s Suite and the other classmates.
This reflection and analyzation was very insightful and impactful for me. It taught me to look deeper into communication practices and see the purposes behind them. It also taught me a heightened awareness of my identity within groups and the importance of being present and active for membership.
This PDF is a copy of the handout I provided to those who listened to my presentation. It gives a brief overview of the project and the purpose behind it.
International Institutions
This is a PDF of one of my policy proposals from this semester. Proposals like this were one of the most impactful portions of the course.
My International Institutions class this semester was one of the most impactful experiences so far in my time at UC. The class was built around finding solutions to large real world problems and discussing them, in addition to learning the basic structures of International Organizations. These discussions and problem solving assignments were scary at first. However, once I would make proposals, I found myself more and more invested in the issues. For example, one of my favorite pieces of work from the class was a proposal on solutions for the Syrian Refugee Crisis in the EU. For the proposal, I had to research parts of the crisis I did not previously know existed or had an impact on the big picture. In the end, I had solutions I passionately believed in for a topic I did not know too much about one week prior. This paper is my chosen artifact for this experience and can be found to the left.
In addition to the classroom aspect of the course, the study tour portion was also incredibly impactful. During my time in Belgium and The Hague, I had the opportunity to see many international organizations at work improving the world. This impressive and inspiring sight served in part as motivation for me moving future looking for careers. The professionals we met with bring a high amount of passion and dedication to their roles and as someone who admires their line of work, such passion was amazing to see firsthand.
Blind Injustice
Blind Injustice was truly the most impactful classes I have taken during my time at UC and perhaps one of the most impactful experiences of my whole life. In this three hours class, the class learned about the issues in the legal system which lead to wrongful convictions. While this portion of the class was without a doubt impactful and eye opening, the truly amazing portion of the class was the guest speakers. Mark Godsey, the professor for the class, is one of the founders of the innocence project in Cincinnati and the author of a book about wrongful convictions. Thanks to his work in the field, he filled the classes with both experts in the field and those who have been exonerated. The experts were leading their perspective fields in best practices for the matter. Those who spent time wrongfully convicted were some of the most inspiring people in the world. These are the people that truly ignited my passion for the topics. I was able to see the pain and suffering these bad practices truly cost. One example of someone whose story will always stay with me is Nancy Smith. Nancy was a school bus driver convicted of sexually assaulting children, something loads and loads of evidence cleared her of but was ignored in court. As a result, Nancy missed the birth of all but one of her grandkids. Even worse, to remain free from prison, she had to claim she was guilty. Listening to her talk was heartbreaking and angered me for her.
My final for the project, based on "The Confession Killer" on Netflix. The presentation interpreted what went wrong using the things we learned about in class.
My final paper for the class, a more in depth analysis of the documentary and the class teachings.