Retrospective

This essay gives me a chance to reflect on my time in the IU Indy Honors College. I was tasked to write about two of my honors experiences during my time in college and how they contributed to the Honors College learning objectives. Through telling the story of these two classes, I connect them to the rest of my time in college and use them as a farewell address to IU Indy as a whole.

A Time of Rebirth

When I was finishing high school, I read The Alchemist for the first time, and it had a profound impact on my life. There was an artwork that I started on towards the beginning of college that depicts an alchemist in his laboratory as he discovers the masterwork. I worked on this project off and on for the rest of my time in college and even incorporated it into one of my projects for the Honors College. In a way, it eventually became the representation of my time in college. My time in the IU Indy Honors College has been a time of steady growth into the person I am, continuously in the process of becoming.

The Alchemist

In some ways, I am both the alchemist and the master work. There is a quote from the book that says, "Every search begins with beginner's luck. And every search ends with the victor's being severely tested." I think the quote also rings true of my time in college. There are decisions I made in my first days and weeks in college that severely impacted my trajectory through college, and it would be easy to look at those decisions as a result of luck. Difficulties sleeping, personal problems, and burnout have all made finishing college a challenge, but thankfully, I have a good support system that has been with me through it all and encouraged me to press on.

This experience provided new opportunities for me because I had never created a full artwork digitally before. I wanted to force myself to finish this project, so that is why I chose to tie it into a class project. My career goals can benefit from this project by the determination I had to finish what I had started, which I believe is a good trait to have for a lot of things, but especially a career. Through my project in Intro to Illustration, I was able to achieve the IU Indy Honors College goals of being an active participant in my intellectual experiences and developing strong communication, problem-solving, and civic-minded skills. I was able to become an active participant in my own intellectual experiences by choosing a self-directed project that I was interested in. I got to meet with my professor to talk through designs for the final project and make changes that he recommended. It also forced me to develop communication because I had critique sessions with my professor, and I had to learn how to talk to him to convey the message I was trying to send with my artwork.

Setting up for the Future

Me at the beginning of senior year

A true culmination of my time in the Honors College comes from my internship this semester. I talked about it briefly on this page, but it has allowed me to combine all of my interests into a single project for a real client. Helping students find specialized projects in fields of study that they are interested in seems to be one of the biggest goals of the Honors College, and that has definitely been my experience. I started my first few semesters with generalized Honors classes that helped me develop my communication, leadership, and teamwork skills, and the ones I took later in college helped me learn and practice technical skills that I will need for a future job in web development and graphic design.

I have gotten to experience a wide range of skills relating to these fields. I have learned brand design, marketing, and illustration to support graphic design, and I have also studied highly theoretical computer science concepts and worked on projects across many areas of the industry, so these skills will translate well to web development. My internship has tied all of this together in a neat bow by allowing me to focus mostly on web development while also incorporating some design principles. I think I have landed in the sweet spot that Aaron Ganci told my class about in Foundations of Graphic Design. “People who can develop and design are rare and are considered ‘unicorns.’” (Ironically, there was another student in the class who was also trying to pursue web development and design at the same time, so this may be becoming more common among designers and developers.) The more time I spend in each field, the more I will have skills that can be used to complement the other side of the coin.

The overlap of designers and developers

This internship has helped me grow in a lot of ways. I have learned how to adapt to working in an office setting, which is good for when I get a job after graduating. I have also gotten to work under some very talented designers, and they have helped me tremendously to learn how to create quality designs. I will be able to take either of these skills and easily use them in any job that I work in.

My internship has aligned with the Honors College’s goals of developing strong communication, problem-solving, and civic-minded skills, and reflects on my growth as a learner through classes and engaged experiences inside and outside the classroom. I have learned how to communicate in a professional setting with people who are significantly older and more experienced in the industry than I am. We have biweekly team meetings, and I have gained more confidence as the internship has gone on. Recently, my supervisor told me that she appreciates the wisdom of a web developer’s perspective that I bring to my meetings, and she encouraged me to speak up more. I have also grown through this experience because I have gotten to be part of an engaged learning opportunity and have applied all of the knowledge I have gained in classes into a real-world setting.

Conclusion

Looking back at my four years in the Honors College is a bittersweet moment. I will miss seeing all of the familiar faces in the Honors lounge and working on self-guided projects of things that I am interested in and want to do. As I move to the next chapter of my life, I will take the skills I developed here and use them in any area that I end up working in. Looking at the list that the Honors College has for each student, I can confidently say that I achieved everything on the list. Because of the Honors College, I was able to study abroad, volunteer around my city, and also go on service trips to Detroit. I have grown as a communicator and problem solver, and I have gotten to collaborate with my professors to create projects that suit my interests. I will be forever grateful for the opportunities I received through being a part of the Honors College. Looking back at the chapter of life that I was in when I started college, I can see that I have changed into a completely new person, and the IU Indy Honors College deserves some of that credit.

Thank you, Daniel

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