It was day one when we were first introduced to the concept of our online portfolio. Sprinkled among typical first day assignments like plagiarism quizzes, syllabus overviews, and ice breakers, was an overview of an assignment not due for months. But it made sense; after all, the assignment was meant to be the cumulative presentation of our journey through the class and our first semester of college. The portfolio is our chance to share our hard work and express our frustrations and triumphs, experiences that every student has. It is also a great place to show off our new and improved skills of reflection, an area I know I have improved in throughout the course. One of the ways we present these concepts is through the inclusion of a couple of artifacts.
The first artifact I chose, and one that really illustrates my entire semester so far, is my City as Text research paper on the Charlotte streetcar system. This assignment was integral to my entire experience so far as an honors student, as well as a brand new college freshman. Despite having only been a few weeks into the semester, this assignment was tied for the most effort I have ever had to put into a research paper, right up next to my senior exit project essay. Although that project required separate supplementary materials before it was done, it also required a 6-page research paper. And while my senior exit paper was on a very technical topic – Net Neutrality – that required a lot of research, all of that was done at home on my computer. In contrast to that paper, my Charlotte streetcar essay required much more physical research.
Those more physical elements started immediately, when we had to meet in the tenth floor of the library. In there, we checked out the rare documents collection, an area filled to the brim with old manuscripts, photos, maps, and more that relate to the history of Charlotte. I had to spend a while walking around and thinking critically about every possible piece of information that I saw. This is very different from the type of research I have had to do in the past, which mostly required Googling until I found sources that backed up whatever point of view I was pushing. That is only one example of how getting the research for this paper was much more involved than previous ones, however.
Another example is when I looked through JSTOR for books and documents related to the streetcar system. I actually found a collection of old company records from the people who used to run the transit in the area, which is something I didn’t even know existed, and it was really cool! I immediately figured out where it was in the library, navigated my way to the seemingly random floor, and confusingly paced the aisles while trying to remember all that nonsense they teach you in elementary school about libraries and whatever that guy Dewey was talking about. I found the general area and after scanning the rows, I finally found it. It was way bigger than I expected!
Inside this very large, poorly bound book-thing was a bunch of… well, mostly useless facts and figures. I did glean quite a bit of information from the many pages I flipped through, however. First of all, there quite a few pictures lining the margins; something that was probably just done as a neat design but which proved very informative to me many years after the fact. There were also several full pages pictures and expansion maps. I also got a real chance to confirm something I had read offhand during my research – near the end of its life, the streetcar was bleeding money, and fast.
That whole experience taught me a lot, and brought me straight down to the depths of university-level researching without telling me to hold my breath first. While I was initially quite overwhelmed by the task that was in front of me, I am glad to have gone through that experience. The whole paper was a huge challenge, but one that I overcame in the end. I feel that I learned a lot from the experience and will be applying those skills for years to come. This certainly was not the only assignment that had an impact on me, however.
Up to this point, we have done a lot of work in Honors Colloquium, especially given that it is only worth 1 credit. Despite the fact that that gets a bit annoying at times, I feel that almost every assignment in the class has taught me a new skill, or been useful and informative, and I would like to highlight a select few here. Firstly, there was the checks assignment. This assignment came out of nowhere and was very confusing for me at first. It was not until we started being given more and more checks to deal with that some of the concepts started to click. As more and more factual details, in the form of new checks, came into our story, we had to constantly revise or throw out our previous assumptions on what happened. One thing that I understood from this is that even our best educated guesses about a situation can be wildly incorrect. These guesses are fueled by our previous experiences, our biases, and the stereotypes of society. Sometimes it is best to sit back and wait for more, real information to come in to form opinions and guesses. Otherwise, you fall victim to “judging a book by its cover”; or perhaps more accurately, judging a book without its cover and only a vague understanding of its contents.
Another time in class when we covered that kind of issue in depth was with Adichie’s TED Talk, “The Dangers of a Single Story.” This talk was all about the assumptions we make about other people, and how those assumptions can be wildly off base and detrimental. Adichie took care to not blame those who are affected by these incorrect beliefs. Many of these issues, such as the stereotypes we may believe in, are cause by basic human biology. Forming containers in your head where you cram a group of something into and proceed to paste labels all over it is to our evolutionary benefit. Those type of quick, instinctual assumptions used to help us stay alive by making quick judgements about a possible threat. So while it is important to understand that those feelings are natural, it is just as crucial to take a step back and analyze your thinking to overcome such instincts with your intelligence. The world becomes a better place that way.
The world can also become a better place through a better understanding of and more participation in your community. The City as Text experience went way beyond the research paper I talked about before, with its biggest adventure a trip to downtown Charlotte. This was a wonderful experience, and even as a Charlotte native I had previously spent very little time downtown. Walking through the city and just talking to my fellow Charlotteans taught me so much about the city. In fact, one of the most memorable experiences of the day was my group’s extended interview with a police officer. His point of view was obviously much different than that of the ordinary citizen on the street. He spoke at length about how Charlotte’s development affected crime across the city, as well as how the police force is well respected in some areas of the city but not as appreciated in others. This is the type of fascinating and informative experience that I could not have gotten were it not for the City as Text program.
That was not the only interview I did this semester however, and that brings us to the second artifact that I chose for my portfolio. For the second item, I wanted to branch out a bit into my broader freshman experience thus far. I chose to include a transcript of an interview I did with an IT professional. He had recently started working at his current job, and it was his first job outside the realm of fast food and other minimum wage positions. Although I was initially required to do this for my ITCS 1600 class, essentially an HONR 1700-style class for the College of Computing and Informatics, I actually got way more involved in it that I had to. I put a lot of effort into it because I was genuinely interested in what he had to say, and loved relating it to my own experiences. I currently work in IT for students and faculty in the College of Engineering, so there were many times where I empathized with his struggles or understood his accomplishments. Although I am not sure if IT is exactly what I want to do with my Computer Science degree after college, having the chance to talk to someone actually working in a field I am interested in was a very informative and exciting opportunity.
I think that as I continue through my UNCC and honors college experience, I will often think back to the skills I worked on in this class. While I did improve my critical thinking and research abilities, there is another important skill that has been thoroughly stressed so far: reflection. For almost every event, assignment, and topic in this class we have been required to look back on our experience and put our thoughts and introspection into words. While this was a very tedious process at first, this type of “metacognition” is absolutely crucial to our personal and professional development. So, as I close out this particular reflection and finish up the course, I know that I will be much better prepared in the future to learn from every single success and failure that comes my way.