Community Music with Prof. Berrios-Miranda
In the spring of my freshman year, I signed up to take Honors Community Music. The course focused on music as a community-building practice. Throughout the class we thought about the social functions of music making through readings, listening, and discussions with community musicians and classmates. I also visited five community sites to observe and participate in community music practices. This class remains one of the most unique and memorable classes that I have taken at UW, because it pushed me out of my comfort zone, and it helped boost my self-confidence. The class also pushed me to think about my education through a different lens. After this class, I knew that I wanted to continue having diverse and out of my comfort zone experiences throughout my education, and throughout my future career. |
Video from my final project for the class reflecting on my experience with the Bomba workshops.
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Human/Transhuman/Posthuman with Prof. Whelan In the winter of my sophomore year, I signed up for this seminar with Professor Whelan. I had previously taken a course with him on 'the disenchantment of the west' which I thoroughly enjoyed. This follow-up course aims to question what it means to be a human being, and what it means for a human being to flourish. It also provided an overview of philosophers who have tried to understand what it means to be human, ranging from Nietzsche to Kierkegaard. This course, in combination with the disenchantment course, really pushed me to think about my understanding of life. I had never previously thought I could think about spirituality, meaning, and being in an academic context. After this class, I felt that no matter what I do with my life, I have to make sure my actions fit with how I understand myself. This 'understanding' is captured in the final paper I wrote for the course. This paper summarizes my personal philosophy - the metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics that I believe in. |
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Calderwood Seminar with Prof. Bessner Spring of my junior year was my first fully online quarter. I was nervous about what this would mean, both in terms of my learning and in my ability to form community with other honors students. Luckily, another one of my favorite professors was running a class that quarter - a Calderwood Seminar on Rethinking U.S. Foreign Policy. Calderwood Seminars are upper-division seminars in which students read and write policy briefings, journal articles, blog posts, editorials, the personal essay, and a variety of other formats. This course really pushed me to think critically about the way I read and write. I also improved my ability to provide meaningful constructive criticism for edit others' work. In doing so, I formed collaborative relationships with the other students in the class, that remain important for me today. |
A snippet from a writing assignment from this course - note the numerous comments
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