Episode 9 Reflection

Justin Diaz

In this episode of the series, Harwi Jabari talks about the beginning of Mustang Robotics and also how it affected him in the future. He joined in the second year of Mustang Robotics and his team was able to go to worlds but had to go to nationals for lack of funding. Sadly they didn't win anything but the experience they learned from the event helped them grow as people and also gave him and his team a better opportunity to improve and to always shoot for a higher position. He later decided to maybe go to a school like UC Irvine but later changed his mind in the way he thought of the situation and changed his mind of choosing a school from only prestige to what he wants as some schools benefited him as a person and for what they offered. Deciding to continue going to school, he kept studying economics and then left the school afterward as it wasn't the school he was looking for. He later went to SDSU for a better school and also decided to go to Cal Poly and began his life after college and grew as a person further than what he learned from college and before.

Brian Helewa

Harwi Jabari became vice president during his time in highschool and through that he met Mr. Pearson. After meeting Mr. Pearson became interested in Mustang Robotics and joined it. While spending his time within robotics there was a thing that if you won competition you get sent straight to worlds. However, his team focused on nationals rather than worlds to gain more and learn more about engineering as a team. This is where he then applied what he learned about in college in UCI, then applied to SDSU where he is right now.

Andrew Lai

I was very interested to hear what Harwi had to say about college life and how he advised me to choose colleges. It made sense to hear that some prestigious colleges may be prestigious for reasons that may not benefit me if I were to attend them. I was also glad to hear about how he connected with his professors in an environment where they would typically not know every student’s name. Hearing how Harwi was unhappy at UCI for various reasons made me reconsider how I plan to choose what college I would like to attend as I feel like I would choose a college based solely on academic prestige as he did. I am glad to hear how Harwi adjusted his life to his liking by later attending a college he enjoyed and how he is now happy. My main takeaway from Harwi is to go with the flow and interact with professors in college.

Edward Lee

It was the exact same thing I felt when I first went to the state competition. I saw all of these teams and also realized that there was a lot of room for improvement. I remember being in a similar spot where I felt our robot wasn't good. It's really interesting seeing the perspective of how previous club members have experienced in the robotics club. It allows me to be in their shoes and really take in the history of the club and VEX Robotics in general.

Robert Meza

After watching episode 9, Harwi ended up giving really good advice for choosing the right college. For his advice, he would say to pick a college based on benefits rather than prestige. To me, this made sense because it wouldn’t make any sense to attend a college that doesn’t have anything to offer for you. Besides this, he would also explain how much of a learning experience robotics is, no matter where it is, whether it’s in a tournament or in a classroom. This is said as he would often learn from others about many things like programming. In the end, getting to listen to Harwi was informative as he helped clarify on choosing colleges and how you should take advantage of every opportunity, like how he asked for help during tournaments.

Justin Monzon

• SDSU Experience and UC

  • Some prestigious schools may not be for everyone

  • Research projects often lead to jobs recommendations

  • It is hard to understand the student environment at the school without physically being there

  • Prestigious schools are larger and self-student directed

  • “Don’t go to a research-based campus if you don’t want to do research”

  • Medical and bioengineering big part at UCI

• Culture at UCI

  • Dance is big at UCI

  • Conservative culture, strict regulations at times

  • The artificial and sterile planned community

  • GE classes are much more general towards students, less on the student-teacher, and more self-learned

• Cal-Poly Pamona

  • “Learn by doing”, using physical and kinesthetic abilities to learn

    • Projects are also learned by doing

    • Similar to an internship

  • Cal-Poly is a small school, the surrounding community is close-knit

• Q & A That Intrigued Me

  • UCI Dorming

    • Expensive to dorm

    • Dorms based on major

      • Allows to form study sessions and closer friends who share the same classes

    • Dorms for more than 1 year is not worth and not economically sufficient

    • Preferred to rent outside of campus for cheaper

  • Robotics Club?

    • UCI has no robotics program

    • Cal Poly has a good robotics program

  • Advice

    • Community college is good, saving economically and don’t let people drag me down to not take community college

Faith Shin

In this episode of the Symposium series with Harwi, I learned that research on colleges is really necessary to learn whether or not a certain college is really for them. I also learned that all because a college is high in ranks and is seemingly prestigious doesn't mean that it would be the best for me. This seemed to be really hit me as I began to understand the importance of researching about colleges. I learned that one choice could affect the rest of my life and that it could bring about joy but also regret.