Honors First Year Experience (FYEX)
Date: April 2017 – December 2017
Competencies: Self-Awareness lv. 1, Knowledge & Understanding lv. 1&2, Communication lv. 1
Competencies: Self-Awareness lv. 1, Knowledge & Understanding lv. 1&2, Communication lv. 1
Summary
The first semester I was at MNSU, I took the Honors First Year Experience class. We met once each week during the semester. This was one of the first classes I took on a college campus, as well as my first experience with the Honors Program. During class each week, we would discuss various aspects of the competencies of the Honors Program: Leadership, Global Citizenship, and Research. This gave me a good base on which to build my knowledge and experience of the Honors Program’s core competencies and helped create a framework through which I could experience the remainder of my time in the Honors Program and at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
The first semester I was at MNSU, I took the Honors First Year Experience class. We met once each week during the semester. This was one of the first classes I took on a college campus, as well as my first experience with the Honors Program. During class each week, we would discuss various aspects of the competencies of the Honors Program: Leadership, Global Citizenship, and Research. This gave me a good base on which to build my knowledge and experience of the Honors Program’s core competencies and helped create a framework through which I could experience the remainder of my time in the Honors Program and at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Reflection
When I began college, I was fairly self-aware of my own culture and beliefs, but not so much with others. Coming from a small, rural community, I did not experience much diversity growing up. In class one day, we grew identity charts. While drawing this chart, I was able to acknowledge that there were a lot of different things that made me unique (Awareness lv. 1), as well as reflecting on how boring our world would be if we all had the same cookie cutter culture. For class, we read a section of the book Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan. This story helped me realize how difficult a time people learning a second language can have, as they are jumping the knowledge barrier of speaking English well while also jumping the cultural barrier of being looked down upon and verbally harassed because they haven’t yet mastered an extremely complex and nuanced language. It also helped show me that people can speak differently or use communication – both verbal and nonverbal – differently depending on the cultural group they are with (Communication lv. 1).
During that semester, I was able to take the opportunity to go swimming with a girl in my Honors Learning Community one morning. While we were swimming laps, we were having a conversation about ourselves, just getting to know each other’s lives – high school, faith, what we did for fun growing up (Knowledge lv. 1) – when suddenly she asked what my views were on same-sex marriage. Unbeknown to me at the time, she identified as a lesbian, and was curious as to my beliefs on that topic. Though I believe in the sanctity of traditional marriage, I do not let my personal beliefs tarnish my views on a person, or my potential to build a relationship with them. My friend was very understanding, and we got to talk about the complexities of religion for an additional hour (Knowledge lv. 2). Being able to share deep, intimate beliefs with each other helped me gain a great respect for her that day.
Honors FYEX helped give me a strong base on which I could build my other cultural experiences and helped make me more open to growing experiences. I was able to realize that getting outside your comfort zone and embracing the awkward can bring beautiful things.
When I began college, I was fairly self-aware of my own culture and beliefs, but not so much with others. Coming from a small, rural community, I did not experience much diversity growing up. In class one day, we grew identity charts. While drawing this chart, I was able to acknowledge that there were a lot of different things that made me unique (Awareness lv. 1), as well as reflecting on how boring our world would be if we all had the same cookie cutter culture. For class, we read a section of the book Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan. This story helped me realize how difficult a time people learning a second language can have, as they are jumping the knowledge barrier of speaking English well while also jumping the cultural barrier of being looked down upon and verbally harassed because they haven’t yet mastered an extremely complex and nuanced language. It also helped show me that people can speak differently or use communication – both verbal and nonverbal – differently depending on the cultural group they are with (Communication lv. 1).
During that semester, I was able to take the opportunity to go swimming with a girl in my Honors Learning Community one morning. While we were swimming laps, we were having a conversation about ourselves, just getting to know each other’s lives – high school, faith, what we did for fun growing up (Knowledge lv. 1) – when suddenly she asked what my views were on same-sex marriage. Unbeknown to me at the time, she identified as a lesbian, and was curious as to my beliefs on that topic. Though I believe in the sanctity of traditional marriage, I do not let my personal beliefs tarnish my views on a person, or my potential to build a relationship with them. My friend was very understanding, and we got to talk about the complexities of religion for an additional hour (Knowledge lv. 2). Being able to share deep, intimate beliefs with each other helped me gain a great respect for her that day.
Honors FYEX helped give me a strong base on which I could build my other cultural experiences and helped make me more open to growing experiences. I was able to realize that getting outside your comfort zone and embracing the awkward can bring beautiful things.
Artifact
Attached is the global citizenship essay I wrote at the end of our global citizenship section of my FYEX class, as well as the identity chart I created during class.
Attached is the global citizenship essay I wrote at the end of our global citizenship section of my FYEX class, as well as the identity chart I created during class.
Identity Chart |