This is my schedule for winter quarter; during registration I did not have any problem getting all of the classes that I wanted. Just like last quarter, all of my classes were great and focused on one my interests. 

Overall: I really liked my class schedule and the class start times, although Tuesdays and Thursdays are long days. 

My Social-Cultural Communication class was really great this quarter. This class counts for the Disability Studies major, but is no longer going to be offered as the department is changing its classes. This class was excellent in that I was able to think back to my Introduction to Disability Studies class and see ideas that we studied in this class. Then, I took the material to another level and applied it to learning about culture; how different cultures have different communication needs and beliefs in medicine. As a pre-med student, I found this class particularly interesting as it talked about how to address people with different cultures, the terms associated with this and how to work with people with communication impairments. Much of this information I had never really learned before and I really valued this class, not once getting board in the lecture. Also, the teacher was really excellent and very sweet. 

My artifact for this class is the required reading book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadima. This book is a required reading at some medical schools around the country and truly shows how culture can impact health care; it is very limiting to not know anything about there culture. In a reflection for this class, I wrote "I also believe that with cultural transmission, cultures will change and there will be more to learn, so a continuing education in not only my field, but in culture, will be necessary to providing the best quality of care for each individual." This is so true and this class definitely showed me how there are parts of culture that can be generalized, but more that is specific to the individual. I highly recommend that everyone reads this book. 

This quarter I took my very first Honors class and absolutely loved it! I took an Invented Languages class and as a proud nerd I really enjoyed the subject area. I also learned about linguistics and got the basics that could support looking at my own language and others. For our reflection piece this quarter, we wrote Linguistics Memoirs which basically asked us to talk about some part of our own language development. Of course, I talked about much of what I am passionate about: Spanish and working with people with disabilities. These two aspects of my life were introduced early on and I continue to develop them. This was a nice opportunity to sit down and reflect on how these experience have impacted my language and personal development. I really look forward to taking other Honors classes because this class, while it challenged my writing abilities, really pushed my limits and supported my academic growth. 

This quarter of Chemistry I felt really good about: I did excellent on the tests, did excellent on the labs, and met a great group of people. BUT I didn't do as well as I would have liked, because your GPA goes down quickly if you don't get a perfect score on the tests. This has left me a bit frustrated and now I am working on a new plan on how to get those perfect scores and take it the next step. Keys to my success this quarter were having a good lab partner, good study groups, going to office hours, spending time in the Chemistry study center, etc. These all really contributed to my success, so now I need to work on how to take this knowledge to the perfection that is required. 

To say that I was frustrated by Spanish this quarter would be an understatement. Above is my grade for my final composition, which is quite a bit lower than I would have liked. My professor was fantastic this quarter (and I am taking Spanish with her next quarter too!), but she graded harshly and I found myself feeling very challenged on how to make my writing perfect (which it isn't in English either). But I do think that I learned a lot this quarter and am looking forward to seeing how I can apply my learning in context. I truly enjoy learning Spanish, but I need to work harder and make the next jump to perfect my Spanish.