Freshman Year, Autumn Quarter Overview

When I arrived at the UW in September, I had many questions that needed answers: How will I organize my time, will I find a good social group, what sort of activities and classes will I take part in, etc etc. Now that I near the end of my first quarter here, and my outlook on my university life has become clearer, in part thanks to Honors 100, I have found that, while many answers to those questions have been presented to me, at the same time many new questions have cropped up.

The question of time organization is probably one of the most important ones, as it opens up many issues that I have discovered in regards to my plans here at the UW, and for that reason I will consider it first. This goes beyond figuring out my schedule: it’s a question that touches on my long-term plan here, and of the opportunities that are available for me. As someone who is planning on getting a major in Biology and going into medicine, I recognized that the requirements for my goal would be heavy, and thus my opportunities outside of my regular coursework would be slightly limited. However, I was still planning on having enough extra room to fit in a varied amount of interests outside of my Biology major: I wanted to take part in a varied amount of clubs, go on a study abroad program, engage in volunteering programs, and take interesting courses that are outside of my main focus of study.

However, I quickly learned that it wouldn’t be so clear cut as that: when I made a rough My Plan for Honors 100, and saw just how packed my schedule would have to be in order to complete not just my Biology major, but also the Honors program requirements and a minor in Mandarin, I became worried that I would have no chance to experiment with my learning and consider classes outside of what was required of me. Later, as I signed up for my courses for the next quarter, and saw how busy my schedule was, I started to doubt my ability to take part in extracurricular activities, such as my plan to volunteer at the Swedish Medical Center winter and spring quarter. However, while I was worried about this for quite some time, I came to realize that even with my course requirements, I would be able to find time for all the things I wish to accomplish during my time in college: I realized that the Honors program, while definitely adding a great deal to the things I needed to do, would give me a chance to take courses on topics outside of my intended major, and even help me find study abroad programs that can fit with my long term plans. And while I am still unsure about my ability to start volunteering at a medical center, I have been able to find time for activities such as pen and paper games. So, while the activities I take part in may not be as broadly varied as I had initially intended, after this quarter I am confident that I will be able to do everything I aimed to do while in college.

The question of becoming a part of the UW community is probably one of the most important ones when it comes to this quarter. My social skills have never been to good, and finding a good group of friends and peers has always been a difficult process for me. For that reason, the prospect of finding my place in a campus as huge as UW absolutely terrified me at the start of the quarter. Now, I can say with confidence that those fears were completely unneeded, and that I have found a stable position here in this community. A big part of this is thanks to the Honors program: I was able to find people in the Honors program that I could connect with well, and was able to start my social life through that. Another big part was actually the limited number of extracurricular activities I was able to take part in: since I found that I was unable to take part in as many clubs as I had intended to, I ended up throwing a great deal more effort and passion into the ones that really interested me, and found a great group of people in the Pen and Paper and Gaming community. Generally, I just found that getting into the UW community was a very natural thing: be it in my dorm, in my classes, or anywhere else, I found that I was able to feel like a part of a community, and definitely did not feel like I was isolated.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a review about my first quarter if I didn’t talk about my courses: outside of Honors 100, I took Honors Calculus 124, Chemistry 142, and a History of Science course. Each one of these courses taught me something about college courses, and what I should expect from future courses I take at the UW. The History of Science course was rather unique among the classes I took this quarter, as it was the only one that was not a class required for my Biology major. Because of my long-standing interest in History, especially regarding natural philosophies, this class ended up being my favorite of the quarter, especially for the required reading. In this course, I learned a great deal about more specialized college courses, as well as how to write college level essays and take part in discussions with peers with much more experience than I (the course had a high number of Juniors and Seniors, many with History majors). Chemistry ended up being the most mundane of the courses I took this quarter: this does not mean it was not that interesting or that I did not learn anything, its just that it was the one the most similar to my High School courses in terms of topic. Despite that, I did experience many new things with this class: I learned how to handle extremely large classroom sizes (let me put it this way: the size of the class was more than the graduating classes of my middle and high school combined), and had a very enjoyable first quarter with college level Labs. Finally, there was Calculus, easily one of the most difficult classes I have ever taken, and especially considering that mathematics have always been a weakness on my part. Thanks to that class, I learned how to handle difficult college level classes, to not be surprised to not do as well as I thought I would do, and to praise the curve after midterms.

In the end, I found this first quarter to be one of finding my bearings: now that I have found a balance and feel confident about my position and plans for college, I expect the rest of the year to see a steady but sure growth in my actions. I intend to start taking more difficult courses and challenging myself with my education, to still aim at starting volunteering, to take a more leading role in the clubs I’m a part of, and of course become the best Dungeon Master this world has seen. That last one is a priority.

Freshman Year, Autumn Quarter: History of Science

Books read over the course of History of Science. Through this course I learned a great deal of what is expected out of college level writing and reading.

Honors 100: Who Are You?

Honors 100 Assignment 1:

When I learned I was accepted into the honors program at UW, I felt two very distinct emotions: joy and relief. I was happy to have been accepted into this prestigious program, to have access to more challenging and interesting classes and numerous helpful advisors. However, at the same time, I felt a great deal of relief, because I felt that me being accepted into the honors program was proof that I had been successful in my past activities and choices. For better or worse, I was someone who is constantly pushing myself to succeed in what I do: I’d always try to take the most advanced class, get the highest grade, take part in the most programs, and in general exceed. It took me quite a while to finally realize how dangerous such a perfectionistic lifestyle was, and how damaging to my health so much stress was, and in high school I slowly began to take a less strenuous path in my education. Even then, I never lost my ideal of challenging myself in order to learn more about the world and myself: this is due to my ideal of having a deep responsibility, as someone who was fortunate enough to be able to one day go do college and beyond, to learn as much as I could and achieve my full potential. I graduated with an IB diploma, worked with MUN from a simple delegate all the way to a committee chair, dedicated great time to my studies, and continued my volunteer work that culminated in a month long overseas volunteer trip to rural china. The only difference now was that, instead of pushing myself solely to acquire the immaterial high grades I once stressed greatly over, I worked and studied to further my own personal understanding of the universe, refine my morals, ethics, and ideology, establish my goal of becoming a doctor, and, most importantly of all, begin to reveal the truth about my long-living ideal of becoming a world citizen. That is what I’m looking for in the Honors program: for as much as I have learned through my work up until now, I am still woefully ignorant about the world, morality, and myself. I am only 18 years old, hardly at the start of my life, and there is still so much I have yet to see. The University of Washington and its honors program can help me truly begin my path to acquiring understanding, and I will take full advantage of my time here to gain knowledge that will serve me for the rest of my life. It will be challenging, but I am confident my past experiences have prepared me for it. I want to learn the things that normally wouldn’t be necessary for a doctor: I will get enough of biology and the other sciences as I start to study in medical school, but right now I want to learn of history, philosophy, anthropology, and cosmology. This coming 4 years are a once in a lifetime chance to learn what I want to learn, before specializing into medicine, and I will be sure to learn as much as I can.  Of course, I entered college not knowing everything, and I doubt I will know everything by the time I leave.  This is just an early step in a lifetime of new understanding and experiences: I want to go to medical school, work overseas with an organization like Doctors Without Borders, find a place as a doctor here in the US, and through it all continue my pursuit of understanding. It fills me with unbelievable excitement when I think of what is to come, and I hope that the program will help me get there.

Honors 100: Experiential Learning Interview

The summary of the 3rd activity for Honors 100, the experiential learning interview. Thanks to this, I learned a great deal of the opportunities available to me in terms of study abroad programs and volunteering.

Pen and Paper: Dungeon Master

Grid Map for the first dungeon in the campaign, as copied from the module I am currently running. Future campaigns will most likely involve dungeons that I will have designed from the ground up.

With several year of experience playing Dungeons and Dragons, transitioning from a player toe the role of Dungeon Master was something I assumed would happen. However, me becoming a DM so quickly came by accident: a friend of mine introduced me to some of his acquaintances in McCarty, who turned out to be long-time DnD fans, and before I knew it, I was running a store-bought campaign for a group of 4-6 people on a weekly basis. Now that we are quite a number of sessions in, I've learned a great deal of what it means to be a DM, be it the enjoyable parts, and the "I want to throw these dice at you" parts.

Being a DM is a time consuming, exciting, and, far too often, thankless task. The role of the Dungeon Master is complicated and multi-faceted: he or she serves a the rule master and judge of the game, but must also act as the storyteller and entertainer of the adventure. He or she must be able to think quickly on their in response to the actions of the PCs (player characters), be able to plan ahead a great deal, and have good strategic and tactical skills to keep combat interesting. The best way I can summarize the role of the Dungeon Master is as being the foundation of the pen and paper game: a good DM is solid all around, and allows the players to expand and experiment with what they want to do while at the same time keeping the order. A bad DM is unstable, unbalanced in their methods of managing the adventure, and either severely limits the actions of the party or allows chaotic actions to run rampant.

There are several challenges in DMing: the one I first encountered, and I do believe it is the one all DMs fear the most, is simply organizing sessions: managing a half-dozen of college students with varying and conflicting schedules is like trying to herd cats. At the start of the quarter, the time slot for DnD was chaotic and unsure, but now I have been able to establish a consistent time of Wednesdays at 6:00pm  during which everyone is open. The second big challenge involves the cost: for a regular player, DnD can be effectively free. You can always borrow dice, and it's expected of the DM to bring all the required rulebooks and character sheets. For the DM, however, things can become extremely expensive: with several costly books to purchase, numerous sets of dice, figurines for both the players and enemies, grids for maps, and any little extra things you need, the cost quickly adds up.

Finally, there is the difficulty of actually running the adventure. First of all, the DM has to make sure the campaign is always moving at a brisk pace, which means I have to be quick when recalling rules and statistics, and just general setting fluff: time spent remembering what the "Evard's Black Tentacles" spell does or checking what the Monster Manual says of the mating practices of the Tarrasque is time lost from the actual adventure. Then there's the whole roleplaying part of being the DM: I've never had much experience with acting, and now suddenly I have to act out the roles of an entire universe of Non-Player Characters and enemies. I have to go from playing Joe the Farmer to acting out Mr. Murder McGenocide, then immediately shift to Vlarmgoth, The Chaos Maw. I think that the most difficult part of DMing is making sure the adventure stays on track while adapting to the actions of the party: since this was my first time DMing, I decided to simply buy a pre-made adventure, thinking that I wouldn't have to do much planning and just go through the book. Unfortunately, nothing in the book will help you in the face of the at times insane actions of the party: It says nothing of what to do when the party Warlock attempts to either mind control or seduce everything he sees, or when the Cleric tries to fry the dragon eggs she found, or when the Fighter gets her freaking arm cut off! There are a great deal of things that I have to adapt to, and it can get very hard to keep track of everything everyone is doing.

Despite all of this, I find being a DM as being extremely enjoyable: being able to plan out a session and see everyone enjoy themselves fills me with a great deal of satisfaction. Even when I pursue a more active role with the UW pen and paper club, I hope to continue this little adventure I have started with this small group of friends.

Honors 100: My Plan

A summary of the long term plan I completed for Honors 100. While definitely a rough outline, it does show the density of work that I must accomplish in order to complete the Biology major, Mandarin minor, and Honors requirements.

Pen and Paper Games: Introduction

Including my experiences in pen and paper games in my portfolio may seem like an odd choice, using Dungeons and Dragons as an example for leadership experience even more so. However, I wish to stress the significance of this topic in regards to my start in the UW community, as well as in regards to taking a leadership role, something that I found very difficult doing before. Back in high school, Dungeons and Dragons played a critical role in improving my then nonexistent social and communicative skills, and helped me become more confident in exploring more leadership oriented activities. For that reason, I hope to continue using pen and paper games at the UW to further my personal growth outside of my classes, both by organizing sessions with friends, and taking a leadership role in the UW pen and paper club.

Introduction: Honors 100

Entering into the Honors Program was an amazing opportunity: it offered a multitude of resources that would help me during my time here at the UW, such as scholarships and advisors, and gave me the opportunity to take interesting honors courses to broaden my education. However, I quickly learned that the honors curriculum had a great deal of requirements that needed a good amount of planning to incorporate into my already extensive goals for my education. For this reason, Honors 100 was a vital part of my first quarter, as it helped me fully understand what was required for Honors, and organize my plans for the future, in terms of Honors requirements and also with regards to my general education plans.

Regarding This Portfolio

There are two purposes that this portfolio serves for me: Firstly, this portfolio is a way to store and organize vital details and documents regarding my time here at the UW, along with my opinions and thoughts on said artifact, for future reference. Secondly, the portfolio will act as a summary of my experiences during my time at the UW, an outline of whatever personal growth I encountered while I went through these 4 years. Generally, I intend this portfolio to represent what I was able to accomplish during this important period of time in my education, and of my life. I will include details from both classes and of extracurricular activities, to properly present the scope of my experiences.