Livia's First Year Seminar

In Maurice Asheley’s Ted talk, “Working backwards to solve a problem” he spoke about retrograde analysis and how master chess players can see moves in a game before they even happen. He said something along the lines that “It pays to look forward and back.” This applies to both chess and planning ahead for your degree. I will have to plan ahead to accomplish my goals. Two examples of this are planning your core (areas A-F) and prerequisites. For example, I will have to take psychology 1101 in order to begin a psychology minor. An example of a personal goal although weird for me is to never hit a juul. I am in the arts focus area and am a music major in the BA program with a focus on voice. The words that I picked from the extensive list that I would consider my core values are compassion, independence, loyalty, honesty, and genuineness. I also read the article, “Creating and Living by your own values” by Chris Guillebeau. One main takeaway from the article for me is that only you can...

This week in Fye we watched the film that followed the young Cuban American Elian Gonzalez.  In earlier weeks we discussed this little boy. We accessed this documentary through Kanopy. The film showed how Elian and his family were treated after he was found. The documentary follows the story of how the American Government, Fidel Castro, and the people of both countries responsed to Elian being found in United States water. While watching the film I thought it was really sad how Elian was forced to parade in front of the press at odd hours during both day and night. I think that this situation would not be healthy for any kid and put young Elian in a compromising situation. Ultimately, Elian’s father got custody of him and took him home to spend the rest of their lives in Cuba. As a result of this, Elian remained loyal to Castro who had grown fond of him. Many Americans then questioned whether or not the American government made the right decision. Allowing the child to go home ev...

This week in fye we were asked to finish reading Crucet’s novel, “Make your home among Strangers.” This novel follows the story of a young Cuban American, Lizet and her journey of navigating through college and her ties back at home. Many of the struggles that Lizet encounter in the novel have to do with her background and heritage. Her mother’s attachment to a young Cuban boy who was having issues of custody and residency causes her to feel resentment towards this situation. I looked online at the common reads tab and the issue and themes tab. The theme that I focused on the most was the subject of first-generation college students which was addressed in the book. I think it is fantastic that the university places a book like this in front of students who might feel uncomfortable or out of place at first in college. I personally think that first generation college students are very inspirational. The other thing we were asked to do this week was to attend the authors seminar. The sem...

This week we were instructed to watch the film, “Instructions not Included.” No one warned me not to watch this late at night. As a result, I ended up crying until one thirty in the morning Sunday night….thank you Doctora. All jokes aside, I actually really enjoyed the film. The story follows the relationship of a dad and daughter who were brought together unexpectedly. The child, Maggie’s mother left her at her Father, Valentin’s door. Once Valentin realized that the mother had taken off in a taxi he begins to consider the pros and cons of the situation. In an effort to avoid the responsibilities of parenthood, Valentine attempts to return Maggie to her mother in the United States. Valentin falls in love with this magnetic little girl. Throughout the movie, several people question the quality of Valentin’s parenting style. It isn’t until the end of the film that we realized that Maggie is terminally ill. Other than being a tear jerker, this movie is also a thoughtful reflection of ...

This week we extended our discussion about Diversity and Inclusion. The class had discussions about immigration with Mathew who is from the Caribbean islands. We also talked to Enysa about her family and she told us that her mom tried to learn how to speak more “American.”  This was very interesting to me because I love to hear people with accents talk. This week I watched the film “Documented.” This film follows the story of an undocumented american journalists name Jose Vargas. Jose immigrated to the United States when he was twelve years old. Jose lived with his grandparents and went to high school and college in the United States. Mr. Vargas eventually became published in several magazines before coming out as an “Undocumented American.” This video provided me insight on the struggles that many undocumented people or people without papers face in the United States today. This document also sprung forward a campaign called “define American.” There is a website for the cause of ...

Diversity and Inclusion This week we talked about Diversity and Inclusion. The main thing we discussed was the film, “which way home.” This film focused on the story of young Immigrants from South American countries like Honduras, Guatemala and Venezuela. This film had a huge impact on the class. Prior to watching the videos we discussed our opinions about immigration into the United States. There were many different opinions on this topic especially since recent government activity relates to this issue. The film which way home showed several people trying to get to the “Estados Unidos” and them riding on “la bestia” to get there. This journey to the United States was very dangerous. Many people died falling off the train and were stopped by corrupt police. Dangers for women on this journey were massive and one of the boys, Kevin, gives a re-account of how he witnessed two women being gang raped on the train. After watching and hearing of the horrors these people faced, I aske...

WEEK 4: Academics This week in Honors FYE we talked about academic integrity, fixed inset, and growth mindset. Fixed mindsets are when people feel like they have no reason to try to improve. For example, like I mentioned in class is that I feel like I will never be good at math. I don’t personally enjoy math and I feel like it isn’t essential for my life. Due to this I typically avoid math classes. This would be considered a fixed mindset because I am closed off to the idea of being involved with math. A growth mindset would be to work harder in math class or to be open minded towards that subject. Doctora did agree with my opinion on math. According to the document shared with us, a fixed mindset “Intelligence is static” and in a Growth Mind-set “Intelligence can be developed”. However, it was brought into question how can we change the way we think or fix our problematic habits. In the video, Neuroplasticity, it is explained that the brain is capable of shifting and can be re...