Final Project
The final project for Gateway to University Honors is intended to allow students to reflect on a personally significant event/experience which has occurred this semester through both a creative project and words. I chose playing racquetball with my friends and father as my significant event/experience.
Mock Self-Designed Honors Experiential Learning Project Proposal
Writing a mock Self-Designed Experiential Learning Project Proposal is intended to give students practice writing proposals so that they will be prepared if they ever decided they want to create an honors a self-designed honors experience. My mock Self-Designed Experiential Learning Project Proposal proposes a co-op for BMW in Germany as an honors experience.
This I Believe Statement
As an assignment for Gateway to University Honors, I was asked to write a personal credo called a This I Believe Statement. The words below distill my unique approach to life and give anyone who is reading my portfolio a sense of who I am.
I believe in persistence. In my own mind, persistence is continuing steadily regardless of what obstacles or difficulties stand in the way. When I was three years old, I was tested and diagnosed with ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It is a condition affecting the area of the brain that helps control concentration and impulses. Growing up, I was always a dare-devil. I acted on everything that popped into my head and never took the time to think whether it was safe or appropriate. At school, I never focused on work, said the most random things at inappropriate times, and never censored myself. I was never accepted by my peers and, as a result, was always angry and argumentative. I remember in the fourth grade fighting with my best friend Keegan about why he hated vegetables. The argument ended with me telling the entire class that he was weird, and then later, feeling that I was an awful person who would never fit in with my peers. Throughout my early childhood I was a boisterous fool on the outside, but self-conscious and feeling like a failure on the inside. Even though I felt this way, I did not possess a sense of persistence so that I could change myself.
Recently in Gateway to University Honors I learned the difference between beliefs and values. Beliefs are what a person thinks, whereas values are what they act upon. Persistence is considered a value which people desire to have and want to see in others. However, I do not see it is a value, but rather a belief. Through my experience, struggling hardened my mind and made me persistent in order to achieve success. For me, persistence is not something in which you act upon because it is 100% mental. It is developed through struggles and enhanced by self-confidence. My struggling led me to find persistence, but my belief in myself allows me to accomplish my goals. I saw that I would never accomplish anything if I did not believe in myself because my true strength comes from my own perception of myself and my actions.
At the end of the fifth grade, I decided that it was time to change. During the summer I began to take my psychologist visits seriously and began the journey to becoming a new person. I began to act kind, courteous, and reserved. I stayed up every night doing my homework and critiqued my actions before I went to sleep. It was tedious work that often left me depressed because of the small mistakes I made each day. However, it paid off in the long run because I achieved all A's, had a fair amount of friends, and was generally happy at school. I learned that little adjustments here and there can add up and make a huge difference. I never gave up on the image I wanted for myself, and my persistence led me to develop into an organized, well-rounded, and hard-working person. As I finished middle school and transitioned into high school I began to critique myself less and less because I felt that it was not necessary anymore. My image of myself started becoming reality and my actions felt natural. The change did not come easy, but my persistence has taught me to cope with the affects of my ADHD. I believe in persistence because, even though it does not always lead to success, it makes things that seem impossible a possibility.
I believe in persistence. In my own mind, persistence is continuing steadily regardless of what obstacles or difficulties stand in the way. When I was three years old, I was tested and diagnosed with ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It is a condition affecting the area of the brain that helps control concentration and impulses. Growing up, I was always a dare-devil. I acted on everything that popped into my head and never took the time to think whether it was safe or appropriate. At school, I never focused on work, said the most random things at inappropriate times, and never censored myself. I was never accepted by my peers and, as a result, was always angry and argumentative. I remember in the fourth grade fighting with my best friend Keegan about why he hated vegetables. The argument ended with me telling the entire class that he was weird, and then later, feeling that I was an awful person who would never fit in with my peers. Throughout my early childhood I was a boisterous fool on the outside, but self-conscious and feeling like a failure on the inside. Even though I felt this way, I did not possess a sense of persistence so that I could change myself.
Recently in Gateway to University Honors I learned the difference between beliefs and values. Beliefs are what a person thinks, whereas values are what they act upon. Persistence is considered a value which people desire to have and want to see in others. However, I do not see it is a value, but rather a belief. Through my experience, struggling hardened my mind and made me persistent in order to achieve success. For me, persistence is not something in which you act upon because it is 100% mental. It is developed through struggles and enhanced by self-confidence. My struggling led me to find persistence, but my belief in myself allows me to accomplish my goals. I saw that I would never accomplish anything if I did not believe in myself because my true strength comes from my own perception of myself and my actions.
At the end of the fifth grade, I decided that it was time to change. During the summer I began to take my psychologist visits seriously and began the journey to becoming a new person. I began to act kind, courteous, and reserved. I stayed up every night doing my homework and critiqued my actions before I went to sleep. It was tedious work that often left me depressed because of the small mistakes I made each day. However, it paid off in the long run because I achieved all A's, had a fair amount of friends, and was generally happy at school. I learned that little adjustments here and there can add up and make a huge difference. I never gave up on the image I wanted for myself, and my persistence led me to develop into an organized, well-rounded, and hard-working person. As I finished middle school and transitioned into high school I began to critique myself less and less because I felt that it was not necessary anymore. My image of myself started becoming reality and my actions felt natural. The change did not come easy, but my persistence has taught me to cope with the affects of my ADHD. I believe in persistence because, even though it does not always lead to success, it makes things that seem impossible a possibility.