HONORS 397

HONORS 397: REFLECTION

I cannot begin to explain how happy I was when I found out I was going to be a peer educator. I have wanted to be a teacher ever since I was in high school, and this was the first time I was getting the ability to teach a group of students. I tell people that what I really want to do is go to Med school and I know that is something that I would for sure enjoy, but deep down I know that I just want to be a teacher. My parents discourage it and say that it is beneath me even though teaching is one of the greatest gifts you can give back to the world and society. I think the reason teachers are looked down upon is because of their salary which in my opinion is not a great determinant of the quality and value of work someone does. I hope one day I can convince my parents that being a teacher is good enough for me because it's good enough for anyone. I know this is something that I really want because I do many extracurriculars outside of school to make my resume look more impressive, but this has thus far been the only activity I've done for myself.

The start of the quarter was tremendously difficult for me because I learned a lot of info about my family that I’m unsure if I just wasn't ready to hear or if I wasn't mature enough to hear. One particular circumstance caused me to miss the retreat for the peer educators. I still feel bad I missed the retreat and the opportunity to get to know all my classmates. I know I did the right thing but sometimes even when you do the right thing it still doesn't feel like the right thing in your heart. Regardless, I carried on and continued to try to cultivate relationships with my classmates during our class time. I still feel like I don't know some of them at as a deep of a level as I want to. I know this has been brought on by an array of circumstances, but I think the greatest factor is my shyness. Some of my classmates are extremely outgoing and friendly and have taken the time to get to know every single face in the classroom. These people astonish me, and I am constantly awed by their openness. They've inspired me to step outside of my comfort zone so that I may make others feel the same way that they made me feel, like I belonged.

There is quite a large learning curve for creating lesson plans. Upon first glance, lesson plans don't seem too difficult. However, once one delves in and tries to create their own, they quickly learn that it is not as easy as it looks. I know I felt like this in the first few weeks of the quarter when I was just beginning to make my lesson plans. It is quite difficult to gauge how long an activity is going to take especially when you have never conducted it before. It is an unusual skill to have, but a necessary one when you are a teacher. Additionally, striking a balance between teaching content and allowing students to participate in activities is often quite tedious and requires numerous tweaks to get it just right. I don't know where I would be without my wonderful girlfriend who luckily has a degree in education and was able to teach me some tips and tricks for creating fun yet informative lesson plans. That being said, lesson planning creating worksheets, PowerPoints, and activities was one of my favorite things I did throughout the quarter.

A weird quirk about me is that I would rather give a presentation to thousands of people than carry an individual conversation. So, teaching my peers was not as nerve wracking as it was to some of my classmates. However, that doesn't mean I didn't have my struggles finding my voice or figuring out how I want to present myself while teaching. With the help of this class I have been able to slowly figure out the teacher I want to be, but I hope to continue to do it throughout the next quarter and for the rest of my life.

My biggest fear for teaching is learning how to tell students no in a way that doesn't make them despise me but requires them to listen and respect my decision. I hate saying no to people. I realistically know that sometimes it is required, but even if I know I need to it doesn't make it any easier for me. I am grateful my teachers spent so much time going over how to diffuse every single type of disagreement that could possibly arise within the classroom. This difficult but necessary skill has been by far the most useful skill I learned from this class. It is a skill I had no intention of fine tuning to such a great degree, but one I am glad I did. This skill will seamlessly flow into my other leadership positions and make me a better leader all around.

EVENING WITH NEUROSCIENCE

Once a year, Grey Matters Journal hosts an enormous outreach event targetted to the entire general public. This event, Evening with Neuroscience features human brain dissections, neurotechnology demos, neuroscience art gallery, and a panel session with leaders of the neuroscientific field. Expetedly, putting together and hosting such a massive event takes many working hands. By the end of the process our team was composed over over 40 undergrads all working together on one special night. We began our planning over 6 months before the actual event. My title was marketing team member. Our group was front-loaded, and we were required to immediately start as soon as the committee was formed in order to ensure we had enough funds and publicity for the event. One my weekly tasks involved cold calling businesses around Seattle for possible EWN sponsorships. I made many emails and calls and received very few back. Luckily, I was able to acquire a few hefty sponsorships that greatly benefited our event.
As the quarter progressed on and the event loomed closer we began to work with the design team to create and distribute posters. I had a large hand in the social media aspect of EWN because I also serve as on of the social media officers for the general club. I have made a few tiktok videos, and made the highly viewed EWN highlight reel. Click on the link to view my hard work! We worked tirelessly to make sure that every single person would know about EWN. Every demographic was our target so that inevitably led to a hefty load on the marketing team to appeal to all ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, education level, and more. Overall, I think we were able to strike a wonderful balance between this precarious tightrope walk.

The week leading up to EWN was one disaster after another. First I got sick and was unable to table our EWN booth promoting the event. Then, our team leader contracted COVID and had to run the entire operation from behind a computer screen. When seemingly nothing else could go wrong, our neuroscience art team couldn’t get into contact with some of the artists who promised us artwork for the event were not returning our emails. It seemed as if all our hardwork was falling apart. Thankfully, our wonderful team stepped in and filled in the gaps where we or others could not. The night went perfectly and our attendance was over 1,000. It was astonishing the diversity of people that were able to attract with our fully undergraduate run event. I can’t to be apart of this crazy ride again next year.