Extra Credit

Math, English, History, and Science! What in the world do these things have in common? Why nothing of course. Except, you do have to read and write in the other three classes, and sometimes even do some critical/analytical readings. Also, often when your are reading or writing an essay for an English class, it's helpful to know other subjects like history and science to give you some background on the material. In science, often math is required and vice versa. To give a more specific example, when I was taking human biology, I had to write a paper on my first experience with nature, and I never would have gotten the A that I did if I didn't have the writing skills I had learned in my English classes. In my physical geography class, we learned about makeup of the planet, incorporating important historical events into the story. We also calculated things like the movement of glaciers over time, and we wrote an essay on the film An Inconvenient Truth, so really this class was a few different subjects in one! Another good example is macro-economics. In this class I have to do mathematical equations and relate them to economic principles, I had to understand the political science and history of economic principles and economics today, I had to write an essay on the economics of America today, and I had to understand the science of the field of economics, and this was just one class!

Extra Credit

There are many reasons to become an honors student, but let’s be honest about the main reason that most of us actually bother with this extra endeavor. Being in the honors institute means that you can become an honors scholar, which means that you can sign TAP, which means that you can get into UCLA! Besides that, taking honors classes and being an honors scholar look good if you’re trying to transfer anywhere, and they can bring you a step closer to eventually graduating from a four year university with not only a bachelor’s degree, but “with honors”. This step above what others have attempted in the academic lives can bring you closer to finding a better job faster, or getting you into a better graduate school. So you see, there are many reasons to join the honors institute. However, not everything is about grades and jobs and admittance into good schools. Being an honors student can also give you better reading, writing, and studying skills, which will be essential to you in later life. It can prepare you for the more challenging coursework ahead in a four year university, and get you motivated to work harder in school. The smaller size classes can give you a more intimate relationship with your classmates and professor, fostering deeper and more meaningful discussions in class, and often preparing you for the style of classes you will experience in graduate school, if you intend to get your master’s degree. All in all, I would say that being an honors student offers many perks, including but not limited to, those of an ambitious student.

Intro to my ePortfolio

This ePortfolio is a collection of writings from the past several years. The intention behind this small sample of my writing life is to showcase the ways in which I have changed both as a writer and as a human being. I will be concentrating mostly on the work I have done at Foothill College, with a few pieces from high school thrown in. I would like to show my professor, my peers, and myself, a small piece of who I am and how going to college has changed me. I want to portray both my creative and intellectual efforts in writing during my academic years, and how I have not only changed, but am continuing to change on a constant basis. These samples of my writing will range from creative pieces like poems and narratives, to more intellectual works like essays and critical reviews of articles, plays etc. I will also, in order for my readers to understand my motives better, include an audio clip describing what I would mlike for my readers to understand about me through this ePortoflio. In the future, I will use this ePortfolio as a place to collect future writings and academic endeavors, and as a way to procure the opinions of others on these works. I would like to connect with other students and faculty members on my literary efforts, and to ask for their input on how I can improve. I would also like to solicit suggestions for new topics of interest in writing, and perhaps different styles or themes. Feedback on my work is my main incentive in making this ePortfolio

Honors Infomercial

For my Honors Institute Infomercial, I would want to do it in the style of a documentary. I would want to interview students, (only students), about what they’ve gotten out of this program. I would want to have part of the infomercial focus just on some brief facts such as how to get into the program, how to become an honors scholar and what being an honors scholar means. Then I would want to move on to interview specifically people who have really gotten something out of the honors program, emphasizing those who have been admitted into UCLA because of signing TAP. I would also want to find people who have a specific class or teacher that they really learned a lot from, and for them to explain what about this specific honors experience really changed them or taught them something. I would then want to possibly interview some popular teachers who could talk about their teaching style in honors, how it differs from normal classes, and what they hope that their students will get out of taking these honors classes. I would want to discuss the variety of classes that are offered in honors, and how easy it is to be accepted. I would also want there to be a marketing strategy such as people discussing what classes they would like to have offered in honors that aren’t already offered, or how they wish that certain classes would occur more often in a quarter, or more often in a year, or how they wish more teachers would teach honors classes. This strategy would encourage more students to join the honors institute because they would see that if they did they could help the institute offer more classes, and it would encourage more teachers to teach honors classes because they would see that this would benefit the students.

Pre-Planning

My final ePortfolio will be mostly academic. It will focus on writing I’ve done for school, especially at Foothill, although I will also include some items from High school, and it will reflect how I’ve grown as a person. All of my materials will come in the form of a blog. I will show an array of work from poetry to essays that I’ve written. I will also include an audio enhancement which will talk about my growth as a person during my time at Foothill, including both the academic and extracurricular work that I’ve done. My evaluators will be Scott Lankford (obviously), and a close friend. My entire ePortfolio will be based on self-evaluation because I will be discussing changes in myself over the years. I will discuss what specifically has changed me as a person and how. This will include both personality and intellectual changes. I will have my rough draft completed by next week, and then I will continue to add things until the end of the quarter, including comments from others and myself. I will also probably add some sort of narrative about what I think of myself today in comparison with when I started at Foothill. I want to discuss how I have changed, and how I am continuing to change every day. I will also discuss where I see myself in the future, and how I intend to accomplish this. This will include my dreams and ambitions for my education, my career, and my own personality

Honors Institute

I think that the fact that Foothill has an Honors Institute to begin with is amazing. We have a large variety of classes with honors standing offered every quarter, and each of them can count towards being an honors scholar, which looks great to any college, and can almost guarantee you acceptance into UCLA. I also like that even though there are some requirements for being in the honors institute, along with an application process, I do not consider it an elitist establishment, primarily because it really is an institute which encourages everyone to try to join. The requirements are not outrageous and the application process is simple in that as long as you do actually apply and meet said requirements, you're in! I think that the only thing I would change is to add more classes, and encourage more students to join.

steve jobs

Steve Jobs' speech, while certainly inspirational, has little to do with my own personal educational path. I recently decided to major in business with the purpose of eventually getting into marketing. I did this, not because of a secret passion I have for business classes, but because I know that there are a lot of oppurtunities in this field, that it often comes with some kind of stability, and that theoretically I do think that it is interesting. Basically, I took the careers/majors that I know can realistically make money and I eliminated everything I didn't want to do. While I do think that it is important to do something you care about, I also think that most people compromise when they decide what they want to do. They pick something that they like, that they can theoretically succeed in, and that will realistically give them some financial stability in the long run. Doing what Steve Jobs did is difficult because it's living without really understanding what's going to happen in the future, which for most of us is a difficult and terrifying notion. On the other hand, it's not like he didn't have a plan at all. He knew he wanted a business, and that he wanted to be involved in technology, and that is what he did. He entered a field where he has talent, and where he knew that if he did succeed, he would be secure in every way. He just took a little bit longer to get there than many of us would like.