2023

I am Logan Freeman, I am set to graduate from UC Blue Ash with an Applied Associates of Business in Information Technology. From a young age, I have been interested in the advancements in technology. With my free time I make a hobby out of understanding interesting developments in the wide field of Information Technology. Technology and nature have always been my two many interests I have been filled with passion for. All throughout school I have worked hard to do my absolute best and push my future further. Graduating high school, I had around a year and half of college completed if I were to attend the University of Cincinnati for Information Technology, so that is the path I took. I achieved this with a combination of UC’s Early IT program offered at my school and various college classes through UC and Cincinnati State via Ohio’s CCP program. I hope to continue this momentum throughout college, into my profession, and all throughout the rest of my life.

This year, I attended UC Blue Ash for the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters. During my time, I have worked to graduate at the end of the Spring 2023 semester with AAB in Information Technology. Following this achievement, my ambition is to further my education by earning my Bachelors in IT at UC Uptown, so I will be able to better reach my goals in life. My main goal in life is to work towards finding a career which has a meaningful and positive effect on the world. I want to achieve this goal because I see so much potential in using the medium of technology to improve people’s lives. Everyday that I learn more about various topics, I am able to better picture this goal. Learning is not only important to me for this reason, but it also fulfills my interest in knowing what all is out there. For instance, in high school, I took an online college astronomy course because I was beginning to delve into learning about outer space. Being one of the first college courses I had taken, it taught me the importance of pursuing my passions and interests. From there I looked forward to continuing to develop my main interests of technology, nature, and space. The courses and programs I have participated in since then have certainly allowed me to do so. I have learnt that pursuing a college education will certainly be worth it in the end. Since I will be able to gain a better understanding of the world and how I can do my part to make it a better place. 

With my time at UC Blue Ash, I made a goal of participating in the UCBA Honors Program. Throughout my time in the program I have gained knowledge, improved personally in certain areas, and had experiences I know will remember and cherish for a long time.

For my first UCBA Honors Program experience, I took the Honors Section of English 2089: Immediate Literature with Professor Ruth Benander. In this asynchronous Intermediate Composition course, I worked to create a community project with the goal to make a difference in a community. All while I practiced and developed my skills in writing, specifically building up to creating my final research report. My overall goal for my project was to show students the importance of slideshow presentations and give students a glimpse of the possibilities. I wanted to inspire them to practice these concepts so that they have the knowledge in the future. With this knowledge, they will be able to add a creative degree to their work in ways that they have never considered before. I piloted my community project to three IT classes of 10-20 students at my previous high school with the opportunity the IT Teacher provided. This course proved to be a valuable learning opportunity, in a way I have never experienced in an English course before. I felt that the goal of having developing a project piece by piece over the course of semester was an excellent engaging way to learn this difficult structure of english. Meeting one-on-one with Professor Benander every two weeks gave me the constructive criticism and guidance I needed to go beyond in this learning. I am grateful I had the opportunity to take this course. 

For my second UCBA Honors Program experience, I took Honors 2091 (Honors Seminar II): 21st Century Media Literacy with Professor Drew Shade. To better explore 21st Media, I developed various projects throughout the course, such as Who Said it Best, Cultural Artifact, Media Commentary, and Mediated Minds. My favorite project was a podcast I created to analyze a specific instance of media. I chose the media format of educational content that is entertaining, also known as edutainment. I specifically focused on content found on YouTube, where I explored the format through an honest and critical lens. As a final project, with my findings from this specific project, I developed an individual-oral presentation which I gave at UCBA's Mediated Minds. Due to the nature of a seminar course, we developed weekly discussion questions where we posed questions regarding a particular information piece related to the weekly media topic. Then, in class we asked our questions and engaged in discussions about these various topics. I feel as though I’ve gained a wider perspective of modern media and through that grown a connection with my fellow classmates through our discussions. I grew to quite enjoy and look forward to engaging in these discussions as the semester progressed. The kind of connection this course offered positively changed my view of seminar courses, which I was weary of prior. I am glad I was able to participate in this course. 

The accomplishment I am most proud of in my year at UCBA was engaging in and trying new things that I was otherwise afraid of. I am proud that I was able to create and pursue a community project where I saw potential for learning. I am equally as proud that I participated in research and the mediated minds presentation, as I believe I would have been too afraid of doing it otherwise. Both of these experiences were a part of the courses I took for the Honors Program, which I now hold much value in. I have long wanted to pursue these kinds of experiences, especially in the forms of a community project and a research conference presentation. I believe participating in the program gave a reason and opportunity to pursue something like this! Which was a major weakness of mine, thinking but not actually doing. I hope to continue this kind of momentum farther into the future, as these experiences have shown me I have the potential to do more and I should not let my fears and anxieties through. Moreover, I feel as though these experiences have also helped better define me as a person. They gave me an outlet to improve skills and foster strengths where I have lacked prior. Particularly, these experiences have not only allowed me to try new things and take a step of courage, but to jump out of my comfort zone in more ways than one. These experiences I have shared with others have given me a dimension to improve my overall self, which I believe is of immense value. It has made me feel more whole as a person and in ways allowed me to learn more about the world and the amazing people in it. 

As well as this, I put a key focus on learning and engaging further in all of my courses. I put forth this effort as I have realized over my school career that learning is an incredible and fulfilling process. Wherever I could, I made my goal to go farther than what is typically expected in order to further my own knowledge. In particular I have put my efforts into my major focused courses in order to familiarize myself with potential work in my future career path. With each project and assignment I have done my best to polish them further than what they require. This focus has given me the chance to practice and develop my skills, in order to take more away from the process of learning.  Along with this, I have grown connections and networks by assisting and teaching fellow students who have expressed trouble in understanding certain topics. I am proud to use my knowledge to help others and I see much benefit in continuing this endeavor in the future!