Episode 8 Reflection

Justin Diaz

In this episode of the series, Janella Pizarro explains how Robotics helped her change the way she would look at her life. SHe originally did not decide to study more than she was trying to go for or just community college. But by working as a manager, she was able to face her fears and become a better person as a person. She participated in Mustang Robotics in the beginning and she was taught a lot about taking the risk and what the capabilities she had to do what she wanted. She decided to work or study in Germany which was a completely different environment to adapt to which took her a lot to get used to but was able to push through and accomplish more. After graduating from UC Irvine with a degree in Computer science, she was hired for working in Google and still works with google on social issues. But even through all the bullying and hardships from her past, she pushed through and became someone better in the end from the past.

Andrew Lai

I was very interested in Janella’s pathway through college and studying abroad with ups and downs as she progressed through life to where she is currently. Choosing my major and simply what I would like to do with my life is a question I can’t really answer so hearing about how Janella found her passion for software engineering after starting with mechanical engineering and electrical engineering was cool to hear. I also liked how she went with “the flow” in life and decided to study abroad and learn German. Thinking about studying aboard like that made it seem nice to me and I enjoyed hearing what she had to say about it and the advice she gave.

Edward Lee

It is amazing how much the Mustang Robotics club has impacted people. It's impacting to see how she was expecting to drop out of high school, but ended up going to UC Irvine as a computer science major. It really shows that the robotics club can drastically change the path in which people take. It is definitely something that I have also experienced. The idea that the robotics club has also helped me realize what I wanted to do and what I was capable of doing.

Robert Meza

Seeing Janella struggle so much during high school with the expectancy from her to drop out was saddening but when Robotics came in favor, it seemed that she has found her second family. With her finding her second family, it showed that robotics teams are more than a working group, they can also be a social group where they help you. Once reaching college, she would begin to struggle. With this struggle, she would enter a point where she would be placed in low-level classes. But with the introduction of these low-level classes, she would discover that she would have a new passion which is computer science. Although this story had a fair amount of downtimes, it does show that there is a positive impact on negativity. In the end, it does put robotics into perspective that it can change people in many ways, even emotionally.

Faith Shin

To be honest, I feel like this episode of the Symposium series with Janella related most with my interests in my future life. There was one point in my life when I was obsessed with learning German and I remember telling myself that when I go to college, I would study abroad in Germany for a semester. Although this fiery desire reached an end, the episode made me reconsider the option. I learned that you can explore multiple colleges when studying abroad and that in Germany, you should look closely at the syllabus because some classes can be taken without a given grade. I also learned about the benefits of studying abroad. Janelle seemed to emphasize that her experience in general seemed to help her learn how to navigate throughout her life. She also said that studying abroad teaches the value of communicating with professors. I also agreed with one of her comments about languages. As a bilingual student myself, I do seem to use both languages when trying to understand. I also agreed with her that learning different languages can help us connect with others and I also learned what to do in cases where I am the only one doing the work for my team. I felt like the fact that colleges focus on teamwork was confirmed first through Avesta's interview, then through Janelle's.

Sinjin Torgaeide

In episode 8 of the Symposium series, Janella Pizarro’s experience of Mustang Robotics is implied that it gave her a path of the STEM field rather than not having a future goal. She also described robotics as a friendly community but competitive with several other countries attending Worlds when robotics seemed small. It was interesting to listen how advanced Janelle was in college due to all the AP classes she took in Otay Ranch, however, it was discouraging how college seemed to be difficult on her, despite her accomplishments. Additionally, Janella’s perspective of traveling abroad Germany seemed great because of what she gained while studying there, like being independent, more open to share political opinions and being more optimistic, and learning more about computer science. Her advice on accountability while traveling abroad in Germany, from experience in a computer science project in college, proved how useful it was, and another lesson students can learn from and apply in their own college. Despite having no internship experience, Janella was accepted into Google, most likely by studying abroad in Germany. Her knowledge of working at Google and choosing different jobs in order to have a good salary, or enough to meet the bare minimum of surviving, gives wisdom to the viewers of the episode and would make more thoughtful decisions after finishing college.