Year 3: Got it covered (?)
Pol S 334
Pol S 334 was probably the class that most helped to reassure me that I was on the right path pursuing a degree in political science. Rather than simply talking about how bad our current media ecosystem was, we explored areas of human psychology that contribute to our inability to reason effectively and see past our own beliefs. This class was super interdisciplinary and touched on a multitude of interesting topics. My artifact is a paper discussing how college students are uniquely positioned to both combat our unconscious biases while simultaneously being particularly vulnerable to certain other limitations when it comes to "thinking for ourselves."
Pol S 302
This was another amazing poli sci course, taught by the same professor as 334. Instead of dealing with internal biases and misinformation, we discussed nature, nurture, and free will. This class fundamentally changed how I view my own beliefs and how harshly I judge others for their beliefs and actions. I learned their are many different factors that can impact why people think the way they do, and we attribute others' beliefs to causes while believing there are reasons behind our own. Overall an incredible class, once again reassuring me that poli sci was the right call. My artifact is a short paper I wrote about determinism.
Norwegian 200
Second year Norwegian was even better than first year, and a lot of that is due to the fact that it was in person. I had so many great experiences in this class, from reading traditional Norwegian Christmas (Jul) stories to attending the Syttende Mai parade in Ballard. The artifact to the right is a picture from the Norwegian retreat at Friday Harbor, where we spoke Norwegian, went to farmers markets, and generally just had a great time with other people who loved the language and culture. This was also the year I applied to shadow at the embassy in DC, which I talk about more in experiences. I ended up getting a minor in Norwegian after taking a few extra Scand studies classes.
Honors 397
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I discuss Honors 397 more in the experiences section and in Year 4, so I'll just say I really enjoyed learning how to be a peer educator for Honors 100. My artifact is a doc compiling all the different discussion posts from that class.
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Year 3
Reflection
Once again, I'm leaving a previous reflection below even though I'm unsure how much of it is still true to me. Junior year was actually a pretty good year overall. I had a ton of fun in my poli sci classes with Professor Smith and really enjoyed learning about all the different topics he covered. Thanks to my Norwegian courses, I got to go to a ton of fun events. I got to watch a talk by the Norwegian ambassador to the US about Norway's climate policies, and I got to watch her walk in the Syttende Mai parade in Ballard a few days later. I also got to sit down with her face-to-face for seven minutes when I went to DC. I also got to make a bunch of cool projects, including a cooking show in Norwegian in which I ate a spoonful of mayonnaise. Junior year was also the year that my childhood dog Kona passed away, which actually sucked really hard. In spring quarter I did the training to be a peer educator, something I talk about more in experiences. This was also the year I took the LSAT right at the end of finals week. The LSAT was a total nightmare, with my online proctor just vanishing for about an hour and a half in the middle of the exam and forcing me to sit there unable to even doodle on my scratch paper (it was considered cheating). Despite that, the LSAT went very well, and I'm looking forward to law school next year. The summer of junior year was awful for some personal reasons, but it ended on a high note in DC and the rest of the year was great.
Spring 2022
This quarter has undoubtedly been the greatest quarter of personal growth I have seen for myself during my time at UW. This has been in large part due to both my academic experiences and various experiences I’ve had outside the classroom. My time in Honors 397 has definitely helped me to grow as a leader, and has also helped me to clarify some of the goals I have in life through the subjects discussed early in the quarter. I’ve seen myself become much more confident in my ability as an instructor as the quarter has gone on, and I think this was reflected in my lesson plans. Initially, I felt extremely unsure of the activities, Powerpoints, etc. that I was planning to utilize because I had very little confidence in my teaching ability. I’ve tutored before, but never have I instructed a section. As I was making my final lesson plan drafts, however, I felt much better about both my ideas and my ability to implement them in a classroom. I’m now super excited for the opportunity to aid next year’s Honors students with building and discovering their community at UW, whether that’s through my section or outside of it. One’s community has a huge impact on their time here at UW, which is something I’ve come to realize more and more as the years go by, especially in the context of the pandemic. Among other things in my life the quarter, Honors 397 has contributed toward breaking out of the sort of “cynical funk” I’ve been stuck in. For a long time, I’ve held to the belief that the world just kind of sucks and there was nothing I could do about it. So why bother? This course helped show me that yeah, the world does kind of suck. That doesn’t mean, however, that you should just sit back and accept it: instead, you should try to do something about it, even if it doesn’t change anything. Another course I took this quarter, Political Science 302, touched on similar themes. An author by the name of Ezra Klein discussed how “equality of opportunity” is virtually unachievable when you consider how many different factors and causes there are that contribute to and effect the opportunities one is given, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on the idea. The perfect realization of an idea may be unachievable, but striving for it will still make the world a better place. I’ve realized that I need to find a career where I am making the world a better place for other people in order to feel personally fulfilled. Working somewhere just for the money or just to enhance my personal status is not the key to leading a fulfilling life. I’m looking ahead to the LSAT in a couple days with a somewhat renewed sense of purpose and a more positive outlook on the world. I’m not totally sure exactly what happened this quarter, but I finally feel like I’m moving with purpose rather than just floating through college looking for one.