Episode 1 Reflection

Justin Diaz

Regarding the first episode of the series, I will say it was very relatable regarding the beginnings in starting in Vex Robotics. In the beginning, I was worried that I struggled to find all the terminologies in robotics and everything. And in this episode, Annika also described those beginnings' struggles and then how she grew from those beginning moments to become better. And it was interesting to listen to a perspective on the UCSD campus and how the college works. It gave me an idea of the timing of the classes or how they function and the points or how the credits are done. It gave me a little fear of hearing how fast it went and the amount of work you may get overwhelmed by. Yet as she said, you must give time for yourself and instead of trying to cram it all because of high school or how you once did it.

Brian Helewa

During her whole robotics experience she didn’t know anything about engineering, but got into it because of Mrs. Salazar's recommendation from her notebooks. During that whole course she didn’t think about becoming an engineer at all, but she still used her experience and notebooks skills in UCSD. However, through robotics she learned that you have to put yourself in that position as a manager of her team, not just someone who doesn’t know anything about robotics. This has helped in pushing herself to learn new things in areas that aren’t comfortable.

Hojin Kim

I learned that you're gonna need a better work ethic in college, because the amount of information given is immense. It's better to understand how much work you are able to handle in order to be able to enjoy other activities like clubs. It's important to have a good mind, and to understand yourself. Put yourself first, and it is okay to be tired, but always put yourself first. I've learned that it is important for your body to be in good condition in order to have good results too.

Andrew Lai

Annika’s interview gave me deeper insights into what it is like to be a student at UCSD as well as how college has affected her. As UCSD is a college I would like to attend, Annika’s experiences were particularly insightful to me. I was glad to hear that UCSD has a unique social dynamic and friendly atmosphere. I also enjoyed hearing about her experience with college applications and her knowledge of what makes a good application. She mentioned things that completely shifted my perspective such as adding an emotional element to my applications. On top of that, I was happy to hear that skills Annika had developed in robotics did help her in her college life such as programming and working together as a team. I learned that I should involve myself with campus life and get used to college life in general during my first year of college and that I should make sure to branch out. I am thankful to Annika for her insights and time and hope they can assist me in the future.

Edward Lee

I felt a kind of similarity as I joined robotics with no prior knowledge. I remember when Mr. Braito asked me to join during middle school, but I was never really interested. The only reason I joined robotics was because I went to the robotics booth during high school orientation, where Max told me information about the club. I can definitely relate with the idea that this was actually the first club that I have joined. I have never really thought about it but a year in the robotics club does feel like a lifetime.

Woojin Lee

In the first episode of the Mustang Robotics Symposium, we had Annika come back to talk about her experience with Mustang Robotics, how it impacted her, and how life beyond it was. One of the first things that really struck me was early on when she stated that she joined Mustang Robotics in junior year of her high school as especially during this time and situation, I thought that I am running out of time to achieve something big in this club and it just helped me realize that I still have time and I don’t need to be so hasty. Another nice reminder to me was when Annika stated that she didn’t really fit in at first in the club because in the world today, I often see people just joining new groups of people and immediately becoming comfortable with them, and it can make me feel alienated when I immediately don’t fit in with a club or group of people. Annika’s statements about mental health were also very interesting to me as they dealt with burnout, which is never something I really thought about as I focused on just doing as many things to make my college application better and set up for my future career, without the thought of overworking my body and ultimately leading to fewer things being accomplished due to the state of my mental health. Another thing Annika touched on in the topic of mental health was taking breaks and making them as long as you need them to be, which was different from what I thought and did when taking breaks, which was to take short breaks based on a time limit after getting a significant portion of the work done. This made me question if I should change this mindset and how destructive it currently is to me, which is something I am still deciding today. Finally, Annika touched upon the changes in college such as the different behaviors within the college and the people within it. The statement about the college professors being more independent and being very different than the high school teachers helped me set my expectations for what I should expect from them and what I should expect from myself during college. The statement about how the college professors might curve grades and how my mindset should be changed from being an all A+ student to just trying my best really impacted me as I have always had pretty good grades, and I have developed this mindset that I think could be very destructive to me in the future and cause a lot of stress. In conclusion, Annika has helped me realize the things in my mindset and ways of thinking that could really make my life harder in the future along with what I should expect from the people around me in the future and how to take care of myself better.

Robert Meza

For episode 1, I found this story relatable as, at the start of my Robotics career, even though we did not have the same start, I felt that my experience starting Robotics was similar as I also felt like I wouldn’t fit in or grasp the idea as well as others. Aside from how I felt at the start, my experience from just watching how the robotics teams functioned before I joined was so appealing to me as it was shown that the robotics teams were just one big family. With this in mind, it really made me feel happy as they would help me do things that I would struggle with. With this help, I have learned many skills like teamwork and communication as it was an important factor in everything, and with this, it sure will help me in the future.

Karlo Reyes

Annika’s symposium episode shed light on finding the right learning environment to balance academics with social life and mental health. The first thing that stuck with me was when she said, “You can learn a lot from people around you… You learn so long as you put yourself in a position to learn and as long you surround yourself with people who are willing to teach you.” Hearing her say this confirms the adage that you are only as good as the company you keep. I understand now that in order to succeed in college, I will need to find the right crowd to help me wherever I may fall short. In addition to setting the right social environment, her episode enlightened me on the importance of mental-emotional health during collegiate life. I find that even as a sophomore, I occasionally overwork myself and disregard my emotional wellbeing for the sake of academics. But after learning from Annika’s experience, I need to pay more attention to how I feel and take things slowly when needed so that I can then accelerate through my education.

Faith Shin

Before watching this episode of the symposium series, I had almost no interest in UCSD. Although I knew that it was a college growing in reputation, I regarded as a school that I would apply for if I did not get into the colleges I actually wanted to go to. Listening to the conversation between Mr. Pearson and Annika changed this for me. An aspect that I looked for in colleges was whether or not there was a social, heartwarming atmosphere. I did not know that UCSD had this aspect as I thought that it was a more serious, research based school. As a programmer myself, I was relieved to hear that her experiences in Mustang Robotics assisted her in teamworking and programming skills in college. I felt like this could be applied to me as well. To add on, I learned many things about college in general that no one would have told me. Thanks to Annika, when I graduate high school and attend my first year at the university I get into, I would know that I should join clubs, get used to the environment of the campus, and expand socially and academically.

Sinjin Torgaeide

In episode one of the symposium series, the presentation was done well, with background information of the club and Annika Manlutac, and it was great that both Mr. Pearson and Annika presented themselves with a smile. Annika’s experience of Mustang Robotics could establish an emotional connection, or pathos, with the audience, people who are most likely involved in the STEM field. By explaining how Mustang Robotics benefitted Annika in her college life, it could encourage people to join Robotics or encourage people who are in robotics to be inspired by her sophistication. Annika also shows insight into UCSD which could interest people as they might have UCSD as their goal for college. Additionally, she gives many positive aspects in entering UCSD, like a great atmosphere and having a welcoming community. Annika gives exceptional advice and lessons in her knowledge that pertains to any college which is also helpful for people who are freshman in college, or people new to the environment of the school.

Throughout the video, it had decent fluency and formal enough. Each topic was well divided with enough time to thoroughly explain the details about them whilst also not being too long for the audience. The development of the sections, like robotics, to college life, and after college, could help others plan out their futures to a great extent. To add on, the open-ended questions asked by Mr Pearson caused Annika to give more concise and helpful answers to the people listening to the pilot episode. A recommendation for the symposium series is to use more images or videos throughout the podcast in each section.

Keiko Vlaming

I am really surprised to hear that Annika didn’t have a single want to join robotics and was actually basically scouted by her chemistry teacher in sophomore year because her notes stood out to the teacher, Ms. Salazar. Annika wasn’t sure about joining but still took the suggestion and being at tryouts next year made her want to commit. Seeing how all of these alumni come back still showing commitment to the club inspired her, as it inspires me. She was only in robotics for two years but was so successful with her notebook. She studied off of the previous notebooks and returning managers notebooks to understand and gain knowledge on how its done. It inspires me how she jumped in so fast and had the motivation to put her everything into trying to understand everything and adapt by learning from others. With her enthusiasm to learn and keep growing she was able to quickly adapt and go above and beyond expectations with her notebooks and blew all judges away. She qualified for worlds, and global robotics competition in Kentucky her first year in robotics. That is insane to me, I have so much respect for her, her attitude and work ethic.

Shannon Yeow

I really relate to Annika in the sense that I had not joined robotics with any prior knowledge and at the time, I had only known the existence of Mustang Robotics and a few people that participated. My sister was the one that had told me to try out for robotics and I decided to try out for both the programming and managing position. Even though I didn’t know anything about robotics, I gradually grew to love robotics and it became something extremely important from me. Annika mentioned how Robotics helped her grow further because she put herself out there to really try to learn. During my first year, I did not know the basic material, a c-channel, and didn’t know how to write the code to make even a single wheel move. I realized that many people are really willing to teach you as my team really helped me learn the terms of the materials and my fellow members taught me how to code. Surrounded by so many passionate and hardworking people, I really gave my all to learn everything and on our last chance to qualify for states, the combination of my team’s autonomous and driving skills score brought us to the top 15 teams in the state leading us to qualify for states and worlds. My start in robotics is really similar to Annika’s and that is really inspiring to see that someone so accomplished took the same first steps that I took. In addition, UCSD is a school that I will be applying to and hearing Annika’s insight allows me to see first hand the life of a student at UCSD. It is an academically challenging and collaborative environment and students find their own niche. I think it's really interesting that UCSD has 7 colleges on campus and they will be adding 3 more. In this way, you can find your own group of people that share the same interests and learn different skills of being, for example, a global citizen. I had previously believed that it is better to go through college quickly to get a job, but through this episode, college can be a valuable experience and you should aim to get more out of college than a degree.

Euphony Zhou

I really enjoyed Annika’s interview since it gave me a lot more insight on UCSD and her journey of joining robotics with no prior experience. UCSD was a school I never really considered, or given much thought about. Since it’s always hard to try something new without any experience or prior knowledge, her situation really inspired me throughout the stream. It also gave me more perspective on how the manager role has helped and changed her throughout.