Be You At BU: My Freshman Year Experience :: KHC Writing Studio

First Semester Caption:

One of the KHC Studio objectives is to "build and sustain a community of students in close contact with scholars, researchers, artists, and institutions at BU and across Boston". I don't think I have created relationships with concrete examples of these types of people, but my blogging experience has allowed be create stronger connections with other students in the Honors college and my Studio professor through collaboration.

The blogging assignment allowed me to voice my opinions on a day to day basis and then research certain topics that I was interested in. Sometimes the word count of the blog became daunting and overwhelming, yet at the end, I found it easier to reach the 12,000+ word goal when I blogged about things that I cared about. This assignment has inspired me to maintain my own personal blog and further my development as a writer. I hope to continue the process of perfecting my approach to conceptual problems through the informal blog in order to assist my formal education writing assignments here at Boston University.

First Ever Blog Post: I remember writing this blog on the first Sunday after classes, and I felt completely overwhelmed. I didn't feel confident in anything, let alone my first blog post. After receiving positive feedback from Professor Pasto, my confidence level rose. He mentioned that I explore the idea of independence further. I didn't do that explicitly by expanding upon this blog post but I answered the question, "How did I become independent? In what ways have I prepared myself for college independence?" The answers to these questions led me to my first published blog.

First Published Blog: My first published blog asked the question, "Is Jewish summer camp worth it?" As a product of the Union of Reform of Judaism Greene Family Camp in Bruceville, Texas, I offered personal anecdotes to how camp shaped me into the person who I am today. Multiple studies have been released saying that camp is worth it, but in today's still precarious economic situation, many parents aren't sure if they should spend the money. I address these issues in this published blog. I learned a lot through the feedback from one of the studio professors and reflected upon their advice for other writing assignments.

Second Published Blog: My second published blog asked the question, "Should we save the printed book or resort to electronic e-books?" There is something about feeling the pages of the book and exploring the shelves of a book store that puts a printed book experience above pressing "download" on an eReader. One of the things that I struggled with while writing this blog post was finding credible and scholarly sources. From this writing experience, I learned to broaden what constitutes as research and start researching earlier to have sufficient amount of time to ask for help. I loved writing this blog post because it is extremely relevant for today's technological transition.

Second Semester Caption:

I didn't edit any caption from the first semester caption section. I enjoyed going through and rereading what I wrote over six months ago. The captions below are for the artifacts that I added from second semester studio with Professor Queen. These artifacts are different from the first semester because they might have occurred during the second semester, but it encompasses knowledge from the entire year.

Blog Analysis:

This assignment led the KHC to look analytically at our own blogs and other pieces of writing that related on a thematic level. The first difficult part of this assignment was to find the thematic thread. This pushed me to use my creativity and look how different disciplines can be connected. It was frustrating at first, but I then found it amusing to discuss how the writings are connected. This skill will be useful for next semester's sophomore course when the learning is broken down into different modules. At the end of the year, I will have to string them together. I found the connection and then analyzed the researching methods behind the writings. It was useful to see how the research led to well thought out conceptual problems. It was useful to personally reflect upon my own research approach but not in a condescending way.

Group-Led Discussion:

I had to combine my research skills, writing skills, and group facilitation skills for this project. I enjoyed being able to combine three separate academic necessitities and practice them together in a small group setting. Being able to take a concept from the reading, research it more fully, and then relate that new knowledge back to reading was a new learning vehicle that I had never done before. The most challenging aspect was using the information that I accumulated and bringing it back the square one. However, once I accomplished that step, it made Professor Bacevich's reading more meaningful and provided more depth behind what he was stating.

First Semester Portfolio Essay:

In the grand scheme of college life, I am still a "baby" freshman. Going back and reflecting on my first semester portfolio essay brings forth that I was even more of a "baby" only six months ago. I focused a lot on how studio was my foundation in a shaky academic setting. This essay provides a comparison of what I used studio for last semester and what the course means to me now. The portfolio essay found in the Introduction section is not only for the second semester like the first one. It will mention ideas from first semester but will be all encompassing for the entire academic year.