The 2016-2017 academic year marked the beginning of my UW experience. This page gives a preview of my first year at the University of Washington, highlighting the coursework and activities I was involved with, as I began to find my place at the university. My reflection of the year is divided into Autumn, Winter, and Spring, focusing on the different classes and assignments for each quarter. The courses that are listed were those that I found particularly important to my academic experience, whether that be the material I learned, or if I was able to discover something about myself through the quarter.
Autumn 2016: Honors 100
These assignment were some of my very first assignments I submitted in college. The first assignment focused on explaining my journey to the University of Washington and the Honors program. My response provides a look at my love for the outdoors and how my environment growing up impacted many aspects of both my personality and worldview, and how I hope for UW to affect me in a similar way. I appreciated being able to reflect on the path that came before UW, as often it was something I overlooked. Additionally, the second assignment is a preliminary academic plan I created for myself as part of Honors 100. So far, I have pretty much not followed the plan in any single quarter, but it acts as a somewhat humorous memory of what I thought I would be doing at UW.
Winter 2017: Honors 394
As my second quarter at UW, Winter 2017 allowed me to explore more of my academic and personal interests as I became more used to the life of a college student. I had the opportunity to take many interesting classes, but the most memorable course this quarter was Honors 394: Human Rights From the Bottom Up. Through this course, we took an interdisciplinary approach to analyzing human rights and the Western idea that human rights are "self-evident". This course was often challenging and required me to stretch my thinking, but became one of the most valuable classes I took my Freshman year.
This was the final assignment in Honors 394, and proved to be the most difficult, but also most rewarding. Through this final term paper, I got to explore a human rights issue that interests me, climate change. While researching for the paper, I had the opportunity to talk to Kyle Murphy, director of Carbon Washington, and explore more into the world of carbon policy and what we can look towards in the future for Washington legislation regarding climate policy.
Spring 2017: Honors 392
As someone who has lived in Washington for nearly all of my life, taking a course specifically focused on the Pacific Northwest was particularly enjoyable. Growing up on the eastern side of the state I was much more familiar with the geology and history of that region, and through this course was able to expand my knowledge to the greater Seattle area as well. This course truly highlighted the complexities of the definitions of the outdoors, how we see them, and the different ways the natural world in interacted with. Through field trips, numerous guest speakers and a diverse selection of readings, we got to explore the themes of the Pacific Northwest.
When brainstorming what we wanted to do for this project, our team realized we all had different backgrounds and hometowns, and wanted to explore what similarities and differences there were regarding land use. For my part of the project I decided to implement a creative way of analyzing different landscapes through art. This was one of my favorite projects over the year, combining my love of art and my interest in environmental issues. The complete project is listed below as well as my specific contribution.
Final Project: http://honors392parks.weebly.com
My art and explanation:
"For my pieces, I was inspired by the very different landscapes of both Qilihai Park and the Washington Park Arboretum. Although quite different, I still was able to find similarities between the two parks and the cultural attitudes towards both. Both parks have a strong history, and this inspired me to incorporate objects and designs from the early to mid-twentieth century. We often use parks as way to preserve a fleeting landscape, and this inspired me to depict both landscapes in surrealist jars, as a nod to this dynamic. I also chose to place the jars sitting on maps of their location, providing a whimsical looking glass effect. To go along with my vintage depiction, I chose objects to place alongside the jar that I thought represented the different parks’ values and utilities.
Although the Arboretum has many different gardens and landscapes, I chose to represent the wooded areas that most mimicked the natural landscape of the location. I also added a bag of seeds next to the jar, as the park is known for its living collection of plants. On the opposite side of the jar, I chose to add a classic camera. This was inspired by the park's portrayal of itself as a living museum, and the fact that visitors and tourists often take pictures of the various well-maintained landscapes.
For my depiction of Qilihai National Wetland Park, I followed a similar theme, highlighting the similarities of the parks, as well as bringing attention to their differences. In the jar, I chose to depict one of the more natural landscapes that the park has to offer, focusing on the wetland area. I also placed a vintage fishing lure alongside the jar, since fishing is very popular at the location. However, many tourists fish at an artificial creek on the park’s grounds. I added a Chinese inspired porcelain teacup along the other side of the jar to represent the values that many visitors have towards the park. Qilihai is often a destination for relaxation and leisure, and I chose a teacup to represent this attitude. "
When brainstorming what we wanted to do for this project, our team realized we all had different backgrounds and hometowns, and wanted to explore what similarities and differences there were regarding land use. For my part of the project I decided to implement a creative way of analyzing different landscapes through art. This was one of my favorite projects over the year, combining my love of art and my interest in environmental issues. The complete project is listed below as well as my specific contribution.
Final Project: http://honors392parks.weebly.com
My art and explanation:
"For my pieces, I was inspired by the very different landscapes of both Qilihai Park and the Washington Park Arboretum. Although quite different, I still was able to find similarities between the two parks and the cultural attitudes towards both. Both parks have a strong history, and this inspired me to incorporate objects and designs from the early to mid-twentieth century. We often use parks as way to preserve a fleeting landscape, and this inspired me to depict both landscapes in surrealist jars, as a nod to this dynamic. I also chose to place the jars sitting on maps of their location, providing a whimsical looking glass effect. To go along with my vintage depiction, I chose objects to place alongside the jar that I thought represented the different parks’ values and utilities.
Although the Arboretum has many different gardens and landscapes, I chose to represent the wooded areas that most mimicked the natural landscape of the location. I also added a bag of seeds next to the jar, as the park is known for its living collection of plants. On the opposite side of the jar, I chose to add a classic camera. This was inspired by the park's portrayal of itself as a living museum, and the fact that visitors and tourists often take pictures of the various well-maintained landscapes.
For my depiction of Qilihai National Wetland Park, I followed a similar theme, highlighting the similarities of the parks, as well as bringing attention to their differences. In the jar, I chose to depict one of the more natural landscapes that the park has to offer, focusing on the wetland area. I also placed a vintage fishing lure alongside the jar, since fishing is very popular at the location. However, many tourists fish at an artificial creek on the park’s grounds. I added a Chinese inspired porcelain teacup along the other side of the jar to represent the values that many visitors have towards the park. Qilihai is often a destination for relaxation and leisure, and I chose a teacup to represent this attitude. "
My depiction of of the Washington Park Arboretum and it's park philosophy.
My depiction of Qilihai National Wetland Park (七里海国家湿地公园) and it's park philosophy.