This quarter I came in knowing that I had to be on top of my game. With 19 credits and 4 classes, this quarter was the busiest I think that I have ever had. Yet, I found it manageable ... but I look forward to no longer having two seminar classes and no 8:30's (Spring maybe?).  

Biology 180 started out slow this quarter: the material all made sense and the content was interesting, but that did not translate over onto the first test ... or second. From the first to the second exam, I adjusted my studying slightly and worked very hard to comprehensively understand the material, so it was quite disappointing to not be doing well in the class. By the third exam, I was starting to feel disappointed that maybe I wouldn't get into Neuroscience and continued to work hard. I made two important changes for that third exam: 1. I did all of the practice questions, including the "extra" spare questions that were long and hard and 2. Studied one-on-one with another friend. These contributed to a 15% increase in my exam grades (and conveniently a lower class average) which really helped my grade and my feelings of positivity over biology. I am really hopeful about my chances of getting into Neuroscience, but more importantly this showed me why I want to go into Medicine and how awesome Biology is (considering I haven't taken a Biology Class in 4 years!). 

Sociology 301: The construction of Madness was about how the United States has constructed mental health vs unhealth in the United States. This class was taught by Heather Evans who was the professor that taught my Introduction to DS class last Fall and my Independent Study last Spring, so I am a little bias, but this class was excellent. It walked us through the construction of mental illness in the United States and abroad, looked at Social and Medical Stigmatization that still exists today and did case studies on Specific Mental Illnesses. I was able to right a research paper (attached) specifically looking at Identity Construction in School Aged Children with Cerebral Palsy and found this topic particularly interesting in that I was able to connect this to my own work with my nonprofit. I think that it is very important to think about how everyone's identities are being constructed on the consequences related to this. I really enjoyed this class and really look forward to connecting to the Disability Studies world even more. 

Organic Chemistry was an excellent class this quarter, but I certainly found that topic a little bit less engaging and am really looking forward to getting to more mechanisms next quarter - we started with a Gen Chem Review from last year which is not as exciting as the mechanisms and biochemistry! I am looking forward to applying these techniques in lab next quarter, but am preparing for lab to be a lot of work.  

This was not my favorite honors course, although this was only my second. I think that the main problem was that it lacked some structure, but it is a really interesting topic. I found it particularly interesting looking at the complex relationships between each country and writing a country report about Ecuador (where I was this past summer and fell in love with). This was a great application for me and I certainly enjoyed my classmates and the small class size. I have never learned about international affairs in the context of human rights, so I learned a significant amount through our outside of class readings.