{"id":1967,"date":"2015-05-11T06:31:06","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T06:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/?p=1967"},"modified":"2015-05-11T06:33:24","modified_gmt":"2015-05-11T06:33:24","slug":"unlock-your-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/2015\/05\/11\/unlock-your-genius\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlock Your Genius"},"content":{"rendered":"

*This is a blog post I wrote in the middle of the semester but forgot to publish. \u00a0I can say that in retrospect, this semester was a challenge. Not only possibly the toughest in my college\u00a0career but the most rewarding\"\"<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This last semester, it\u2019s been a challenge to maintain a balance, with a challenging course load, extra-curricular activities, and lectures, while also planning for post-grad life with job applications\"\"<\/a>\u00a0and interviews.<\/p>\n

In February, my friend and I started a show called \u201cNo m\u00e1s\u201d on our college radio station KUPS, dedicated to advocating for the detainees of the Northwest Detention Center (the 4th<\/sup> largest detention center for undocumented immigrants, in the country). More about this in a future post!<\/p>\n

I also had a role in Eve Ensler\u2019s \u201cThe Vagina Monologues\u201d, a play for women\u2019s empowerment. It was the first time I ever acted on stage, and I\u2019m really proud to have been part it. The great thing about going to a small school is that there are plenty of opportunities\"\"<\/a>\u00a0to be a part of performance groups without any prior experience necessary, whereas in a much larger school you might have to audition and compete to get a part. In the past I\u2019ve also danced at the Hui O Hawaii\u2019s (Hawaiian club) annual Lu\u2019au, and the Repertory Dance Group ((RDG). All of which require no prior experience!<\/p>\n

Again, this semester I\u2019m taking some of my dream classes with some spectacular professors.<\/p>\n

My favorite is an International Political Economy class called \u201cTourism and the Global Order\u201d where we\u2019ve explored tourism and its social, political, economic, and environmental impact. Some of the topics we\u2019ve explored in class are\"\"<\/a>\u00a0volunteer tourism, cultural authenticity, the effect of tourism on elephants, and how class and status are conveyed through tourism. The main take-away from this class is that tourism is imperfect. It has its trade-offs, and one should not moralize or be preachy about it.<\/p>\n

In my Spanish seminar \u201cUtopian Spaces in Latin-American Literature\u201d focusing on the concept of utopia and magical realism in the novels Los pasos perdidos by Alejo Carpentier, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garc\u00eda-M\u00e1rquez, and Waslala by Giaconda Belli. This has been a really great class. I feel like I developed my Spanish writing skills in a way I had not in other classes.
\nThe Economics of Underdevelopment. A challenging class and heavy on the excel but also accessible and relevant. From micro-finance institutions, education\"\"<\/a>,\u00a0and market failure, the poverty trap, this class is a must for people interested in development work.<\/p>\n

Biology. Which for someone who isn\u2019t a science major and hasn\u2019t taken a class since high school, is death (at least for me). But I am lucky to have had a professor who is really really awesome and I feel like I’ve taken away a lot of essential knowledge from this class . For my extra credit\"\"<\/a> creative project I wrote and illustrated a children\u2019s story book about the Beatle\u2019s exploring the organelles of a eukaryotic cell, entitled \u201cAcross the Cellular Universe\u201d of course, following the lyrics of the song.<\/p>\n

The great thing about going to a small school is the resources available\u00a0to you. I have been to the Center for Writing, Learning, and Teaching several times throughout the semester for help with Econ and Biology, as well as for help writing my papers\"\"<\/a>. The tutors and writing advisors are excellent.<\/p>\n

This is only a brief reflection of my academic engagement this semester. I honestly don’t think I could have had a better experience anywhere else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*This is a blog post I wrote in the middle of the semester but forgot to publish. \u00a0I can say that in retrospect, this semester was a challenge. Not only possibly the toughest in my college\u00a0career but the most rewarding. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1967"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1969,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967\/revisions\/1969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}