Semester review

HVCC Fall 2023: One of the first things I noticed as a first-time college student was that time was no longer mandated. The hours of college and high school haven't changed too much besides more possibility with afternoon and even night classes. They might better suit your schedule especially if you have a job at this point in your life. The main culprits of having classes after 2pm seem to be science classes because they require lab time in addition to lecture. Labs are usually 3 hours but can be 2 hours depending on the class. It might sound odd, but you are actually going to want the 3 hours of lab time. This is because when you finish a lab, you are not required to stay for the full time period. With the exception of biology, most of the time the 3rd hour gives you time to work more carefully to get better results or make up mistakes. Something else I noticed is that you have to print your own materials most of the time, while optional, having the paper material is often helpful for taking quick notes or using as a reference. I have learned that while you have more time, you must use it wisely if you want to get all your work done on time. I have learned about myself that I tend to work very carefully to get the best results so I must allot myself adequate time to get assignments done. At first, I was nervous to go to the clubs but over time I became more comfortable seeing that HVCC clubs have no obligations for regular members. So, if I was busy one day, I didn't have to feel bad about missing a club meeting. Some moments that really stood out to me were being able to make an appearance on stage for investment club in the voices lectures series. It gave me a chance to once again explore myself in a large audience setting. I was also told that my question to the main guest that day helped someone else get a better understanding of the topic of investing. It meant a lot to me to here that I had opened someone's mind to new possibilities. In biology club, the current club president told me that he would like me to take the position for the 2024-2025 semesters when he was no longer around. I was surprised and honored by the notion, but I want to make sure that I can handle the responsibility before taking the position. I also really enjoyed every volunteer opportunity I got to be a part of. On the Halloween event I got to put on my award-winning pirate costume one more time. Receiving my Phi Theta Kappa membership as a Christmas bonus was also a big moment for me. Some people that made really made the semester for me were my chemistry partner who was also an honors student was always very on top of every lab, my biology lab partner had the drive to succeed and wasn't afraid to call me out when I did something wrong, I couldn't ask for more. Our head elf was always very nice and made showing up to ELA class and experience to look forward to. Our ELA teacher taught in a very unorthodox way, but I can tell all her students really enjoyed it. She gave out candy around Halloween and cookies around Christmas. She always gave us plenty of flexibility in choosing our writing topics and had plenty of ice breaker activities that allowed us to get to know our classmates. My calculus teacher was teaching topic that I had already went over in my AP high school classes, but I still ended up with a better understanding by the end. He said he was old-school, so he didn't make us learn all the calculator shortcuts (he didn't actually allow us to use graphing calculators) and no matter how obvious of a question you asked he would always answer in excruciating detail to make it impossible for a student not to understand the content. He also allowed for partial credit on bonus questions on tests even of you didn't answer all the other questions which I had never experienced before, but really appreciated. My chemistry teacher usually allowed students ample opportunities to get better grades by allowing for extra credit on homework assignments and with practice tests. Our Honors Forum teacher had plenty of on campus field trips that helped us to better understand all the different facilities and opportunities on campus. My hybrid bio class was pretty confusing for most of the people in class in terms of what was expected, but even for me which was surprising for how much effort I put in. I ended up doing fine because of my AP biology experience but I feel it could have been much more difficult for other students. The one admirable thing about my biology teacher though is how competent she is in the topics and always strives to learn more about each one. 

HVCC Spring 2024: A lot happened over this semester, but the majority of the things that happened were solely based on the work that I did, such as my awards in chemistry. I had an additional class this semester and three of my classes were science based with lab portions. This meant that I had to spend a lot more time with my nose to the grindstone. It also didn't help that two of the teachers I had this semester had questionable teaching methods that made what was already difficult even more so. From speaking with my Honors College peers, it was clear that most people just wanted the semester to be over. Having a test every single day of the last week of the semester also made it incredibly difficult to do well, and after all that I had a 3-page essay due with references on the last night at 11:59pm. My GPA did decrease this semester because of how much I had to do, it made it difficult to be precise in everything. It would be criminal to say I didn't learn a lot though. I know some students took a night class just so they wouldn't have to choose the more difficult teacher. If I had the choice to choose again, I wouldn't change anything. As I have advanced in my subjects, I have found something quite disturbing about our educational system. That students would rather try to find a teacher that grades easier than a teacher that is willing to teach the students everything that they should know in a digestible manner. In this way I find that getting a higher GPA can actually be detrimental to students who aren't willing to take the risk and learn more from their mistakes because they are scared to be punished for it. In the same way I find that final tests are only detrimental to students, besides the mental stress it puts on students, the final can never actually cover all the important information of the course because of the time constraints. Not to mention that these tests usually are never given back to students to see where they went wrong and improve themselves. For all the student knows, the teacher pulls out a random number generator and assigns them that grade for their final. I will continue to do my best in our flawed educational system, but it's hard not to see through the cracks sometimes. It's not to say that all was bad this semester, I met new people in clubs and was still able to participate in fun College events like earth day or mini golf on the putting green. I also got to go on two field trips this semester. I learned more about the field of biology on the Taconic Biosciences trip, and I had a blast with Honors peers on the trip to Nederlander Theatre to watch my first ever Broadway performance "The Who's Tommy". I never got out of the house much so getting to explore New York City with friends and watch an amazing performance will be a memory that I will always cherish.