Review your work thus far and write a 300-500 word narrative (that reflects your major) discussing your experience in the Honors 4900 Seminar, and how it has shaped your emotional and intellectual development.
BACKGROUND: Life, Work, and the Liberal Arts is a senior seminar that focuses on the interactions between the values promoted by a liberal arts education, the social and individual implications of the professional world, and the placement of an individual within society. According to William Cronon, values of a liberal arts education include the ability to understand complex ideas regarding a wide variety of topics, to translate ideas into persuasive and moving writing or speech, to solve problems, and to maintain a humble, tolerant, self-critical, and empowering (of the self and others) character. The purpose of the Honors Scholars Program was to serve as a medium for these values, and the microsystem of the 4900 seminar has had a considerable impact on the development of both emotional and intellectual capacity. METHODS: Emotional communication was addressed via open-minded small group discussions through which personal opinions, perspectives, expectation, and experiences could be shared. Intellectual competence was developed through analysis of complex and intersectional readings and relation of said readings to the self, academics, professions, and the world. RESULTS: High frequency of emotional communication increased comfort with vulnerability and ability to translate complicated feelings (regarding the self and society) in an academic setting. Additionally, actively listening to the perspectives of others expanded emotional intelligence capacity through identification and resolution of cognitive dissonance. Interdisciplinary connections between academic courses, life experiences, and cultural and historical context promoted through assigned reading analysis improved the intellectual ability to combine knowledge from seemingly unrelated sources to form nuanced perspectives. CONCLUSION: As a microsystem of the liberal arts education offered through the Honors Scholars Program, the Honors 4900 senior seminar has served to increase emotional intelligence, communication, and vulnerability, as well as intellectual competency, critical thinking, and active understanding using self- and societal-reflection via academic readings and discussion-based analysis.