Semester 1

During my time in CPSA100 during Fall 2022, I gained a lot of experience and knowledge on topics that I wouldn’t typically be exposed to in my courses required for Aerospace Engineering. Compared to my other classes, scholars colloquium was different in a few ways. The points associated with each assignment were very small, so missing even one has a much larger effect on your grade than you would expect it to. The class structure was pretty unique to my other classes as well, since it was an hour once a week where we had experiences varying from campus field trips to workshops, speakers, or group activities. I enjoyed this change, since it really helped to vary my experiences from STEM heavy classes to learning about the nuances in art.

So far, not a lot of my major related courses have directly reflected a lot of things we’ve discussed in colloquium, but if I had to choose one, I would select ENAE100, my introduction to aerospace engineering course. In this course we were able to select specific topics of aerospace engineering that we were interested in, and conducted research applied to that topic. I feel like this reflects arts scholars in a way, since I learned in ENAE100 that the nuances of what engineers build is actually more dependent on what they are interested in. I learned that the appearances and meanings behind what many engineers make have deeper implications than what many people assume, which I feel is also a message that resonates well with what we have learned about artists and art during colloquium.

During colloquium I didn’t expect to have so many guest artists and visit so many different artistic areas on campus. I both enjoyed it but also disliked the fact that we did not get the opportunity to perform as much art ourselves than I was expecting. I had assumed that the class would be doing various hands-on projects and maybe one large project that the entire class did together. Pentathlon was pleasantly flexible with the many different activities that it covered. I enjoyed doing it since all of my pentathlons ended up being events that I would have attended regardless of whether it was required or not. I even got to explore the performances at the Clarice, which was a good excuse to bring myself all the way across campus.

Compared to high school, life at UMD has been pretty different. I live on campus in the Cambridge Community, and I have enjoyed the relatively smaller community we have. My life here is pretty much the same as I expected it to be when I was younger though. I had assumed that I would focus a lot on my studies and be a pretty goal oriented student. However, I was not expecting to make so many wonderful friends. In my classes I have collected a friend group that I did not expect to have, but am very thankful for. Hopefully, as the years and semesters pass I will continue to stay focused on my classes but also grow closer with my friends. Once I’m unable to continue to live in the Cambridge Community I would like to room with some of them if it is possible.

Pertaining to COVID-19, I cannot speak about the University’s reaction during the midst of the pandemic, but during this semester I do wish the health department had been more informative about resources and possible viruses going around campus. I feel that misinformation about COVID-19 is easy to come about, especially while in semi-post pandemic. Otherwise, the procedure for it has been pretty on par with my expectations.

For me, the most noteworthy thing I gained from Art Scholars this semester was my visit to the Sandbox maker space in IRB. This was an amazing place that didn’t not just promote artistic expression, but also gave a lot of resources to students for free that are usually blocked behind a paywall or clearance due to one thing or another. I definitely intend to return to the Sandbox and make many of my future ideas come to life, both artistic as well as engineering pursuits. I’m very excited that an area like this exists on campus, and thankful that I was able to find it through colloquium, since I doubt I would have been able to find it myself (at least until much later).

Semester 2

Throughout my time in Arts Scholars this semester I believe that I have gained many valuable experiences and skills that I would not have otherwise been exposed to. I am thankful for all the people that I have met through the scholars program so far and look forward to continuing my journey next year as a Sophomore as well as a peer mentor.

This year I was fortunate enough to be selected to act as the freshman representative for the Arts program in the Scholars Student Advisory Board. Through this board I was given the opportunity to come in close communication with Ben Parks, the Associate Director of Student Affairs for College Park Scholars, which is an opportunity that I greatly value and have enjoyed. I admit that coming into this program as a freshly turned adult was very intimidating. I was initially very anxious interacting with faculty in the Scholars Program since I felt that I was over my head in many of these situations, but the welcoming demeanor with all the staff I had come in contact with helped me mature and grow my confidence successfully. For that I thank everyone that has been so supportive of me in my freshman year. I am still not as fluent socially as I would like to be, but I have come leaps and bounds this year and will continue to improve myself in the future. My advice to incoming freshmen pertaining to this would be to take the leap. Everything about college is intimidating when you first arrive, but trusting yourself and the people around you to take care of you is an important step of growing beyond your comfort zone.

In addition to integrating myself into Arts Scholars as well as the entire UMD community, I do have many of my arts skills to thank for drawing me closer to others. I have dabbled in many different forms of arts and crafts before college and being able to share them with others has helped me find people who I enjoy and have grown very close to. I have become close friends with my roommate through sharing small things such as bracelet making and henna together. Our shared interests in these crafts really worked to bring us closer this year and I’m excited to be rooming with her again next semester. I also used my passion for drawing to find friends in the Board Game Club. I found that creating new board and card games with these people was a very enjoyable pastime and because I was able to create nice looking boards and cards I found a group of friends that I am so thankful to have. Becoming close to these people really helped me with my adjustment to college since I no longer felt so alone or lost. Knowing people who were similar to me and in similar situations was a comforting feeling and building relationships with them where they can be my support through tough situations is a very stabilizing experience. I believe that my greatest trial when making these friends was, again, my anxiety pertaining to meeting new people. I was unsure of how to approach or interact with people I had never met before, but once I had gotten past that I was pleasantly surprised. In order to make the best of the connections with your peers I would recommend finding people who you are comfortable and click with well. It may take a while but once you find a group of friends you get along well with, this group of friends can be both your support system in times of need as well as people who constantly hold you to higher standards. I can’t express how much making my friends this year has allowed me to grow as a person and experience different aspects of life that I have never experienced before.

Based on the community and artistic engagement that I have been previously exposed to before joining Arts Scholars I can say that Arts Scholars is an incredibly welcoming community. Sean was my peer mentor this year and I really enjoyed talking with him and learning more about Arts Scholars as well as college in general. He was super welcoming during my first few months of college and I thank him for supporting me and becoming one of my friends. The Freshman Arts Scholars colloquium has allowed me to connect with so many of my peers as well as existing artists in the industry. Through the pentathlons I have become more willing and engaged in the various forms of art that appear around campus. I have attended many of my friends' musical productions as well as other events that I would not have otherwise and I have really enjoyed it. I have even been motivated to pick up my trumpet again since high school and audition for some groups around campus next semester. I really appreciate the support that Art’s Scholars has given me throughout my freshman year and because of that am planning to stay engaged with Arts Scholars as a peer mentor next semester. I will also be continuing to serve as a member of the Student Advisory Board and am looking forward to being able to participate in more arts events.

My understanding of art has definitely changed during my time in Arts Scholars. I had always had a very form-fitting opinion of what art was in High School, but since being in Arts Scholars and experiencing so many different forms of art as well as being able to meet their artists, I can confidently say that art is a beautifully abstract notion. I have made learning and enjoying new forms of art a new constant in my life as a way to regulate myself. I would suggest future Arts Scholars to broaden their horizons as much as possible when coming into Arts Scholars. The more new art you expose yourself to the greater your experience will be. Whether it be something completely new or building off of previous knowledge that you have, there is something for everyone somewhere. Finding out what art means to you is a personal journey that only each individual person can define for themselves.

I would subsequently say that my experience in the arts was well developed through the Pentathlons. I really enjoyed being able to choose events pertaining to my interests and attend them without feeling guilty. Every event I attended offered something new to me and I was fascinated with the many different exhibits and shows we have not just on campus but also close to us in DC. The main thing about Arts Scholars is that you get as much out of the program as you put into it. For new freshmen coming into the program, in order to reap the best benefits from Arts Scholars, the more you stay engaged and active within the community the better. Meet new people in the program, be proactive in attending Scholars held events, apply for a leadership position in the SAB or Arts Advisory Board, and more.

I am very thankful for my first year at the University of Maryland. Looking back on it I have come to appreciate more the amazing people I have met, the great experiences I have enjoyed, and all the opportunities that have been presented to me.

Semester 3

During my third semester in Art's Scholars I was able to expose myself to more art forms as well as dive deeper into specific art that personally inspires me. I learned that art can work to contextualize situations that may be intimate to some people but foreign to others. Through my research for my capstone project I noticed that art worked as a universal form of communication, easily interpreted between people of different languages and backgrounds. Art is able to communicate ideas using less information and to a greater degree than almost any other form of expression available to us. Through my research I also discovered that I am personally prone to come across inspiration in solitude. As a more introverted and quiet person I find that sparking my creative process involves time where I can look into myself before looking outward to others. However, the feedback that others impart on my creative process is also very important. This semester we had many peer review activities that helped guide my thoughts and ideas in a more focused direction. I found that by asking my own questions based off of feedback as well as using what others found unclear about my own project to refine my work was very effective in guiding my project. Deciding my methods, materials, message, and final product were all things that were effected by feedback from my peers.

An art piece that has been prominent in the news lately is the latest Studio Ghibli release "The Body and the Heron." I am personally very interested in this film since I am a long-time Studio Ghibli fan. This work, specifically, was very special since it is seen as once on Hayao Miyazaki's latest works in about a decade and potentially one of his last. The film can be interpreted as semi-autobiographical and deals with the pressing messages of life and death in a beautifully abstract and touching way. I believe that my experience in analyzing works of art did help me to interpret this film better since it takes considerably more situational context to fully understand the background of the film and recognize it for more than it appears to be. Learning about how artists themselves are reflected in their work in scholars helped me look deeper into what about Hayao Miyazaki made "The Boy and the Heron," so special.

As an aerospace engineering major, I am pleasantly surprised when I am able to relate my Art's Scholars skills to my major. This semester my ENAE283 class, Introduction to Aerospace Systems filled that role. During my research in ENAE283 I learned of various different systems of flight that have been created and refined throughout history. I found that this engineering process followed the art making process more closely than you would assume. Both proceedings involve the evolution of similar ideas throughout time. Ideas and importance change with the time and the way that engineering designs are refined through the work of various different people, the artmaking process reflects that in the way that art can be seen building off of art that has existed before it. Artists take works they draw inspiration from and add their own, personal connections and skills, which is essentially the same as what engineers do.

My learning has specifically increased due to Art Scholars outside of class. This year I have found myself making deeper friendships and connections with my fellow Arts Scholars peers. I have found various people in Scholars that are in similar majors and classes as me and being able to create study groups and partners has changed the way I am able to effectively complete my work. It was wonderful to have people who are different to me be able to connect and add their personal input on things that I don't often get varied opinions on. My roommate, who I met in Arts Scholars last year, is still my roommate now and we are planning on renting an apartment together again next year. I am thankful for Scholars for helping me meet one of my closest friends in college.

As a member of the Scholars community, I believe that my greatest contributions this semester have been my work as a peer mentor as well as the sophomore representative of the Student Advisory Board. As a peer mentor I was able to get closer to the freshmen and help them acclimate to the college environment. I few of my mentees has become good friends and I am always happy to help them out with anything they may have trouble with. I have worked to help out my mentees with personal projects, fun events, and academic resources, such as connecting them with professors, TAs or offering my own help in classes I am familiar with. I do wish that I was able to connect more with more of my mentees, as only a few were responsive to my outreach, but I am thankful for the ones that I was able to reach. As a member of the Student Advisory Board I represent the Arts Scholars community on a board of other students where we discuss issues pertaining to Scholars as well as college in general. This semester we held discussions on various important matters for the scholars community, including the introduction of new scholars programs and what to do in the wake of a student death within the Scholars program, which included discussion pertaining to the need for a fall break. All of which I believe has worked to increase the quality of Scholars.

I believe that being in Scholars has exposed me to a variety of people that I would not otherwise be accustomed to. Arts Scholars has a variety of different people who I am thankful to know and who I would never have met otherwise. Through these connections I have been challenged in my ways of thinking compared to how I would normally around those of my major. I find that a majority of engineering majors like to think in similar ways, however, taking with people completely unrelated to engineering has opened my mind to how different perspectives can effect the way I tackle my own problems. Recently, during my attendance to the performance "Food for the Gods," at the Clarice, discussing various different interpretations of the production made me realize the various different messages that engineering could also send to the world. While engineers tend to interpret their creations one way, I have noticed that there is large potential for different people to interpret our intentions very differently, which is a large reason there always seems to be friction between science and the media that you can witness at almost any point in history. The value that Arts Scholars has brought me is the ability to see the same situation through various different eyes, which, in itself, is a life skill that will allow me to connect and understand others when faced with different situations. This makes me not only a better team member and leader, but a more compassionate human being.

Semester 4

Throughout my last semester and entire time in Arts Scholars I feel that I have gained a lot of insight and knowledge pertaining to myself and my own artistic process. Looking back at all of my past pentathlon and triathlon events I realize the way that these events have impacted the way I view and communicate my opinions of art. Being able to reflect after doing something fun allows me to think more retrospectively on my experiences and has allowed me to get better at expressing that in a written format. I find that I often struggle when communicating my personal feelings through writing, but having a way to consistently practice this skill has made me more confident and more expressive in this manner.

I also believe that these events allowed me to better explore my own perceptions of art. I admit that had these not been assignments I would likely have either not attended or thought too deeply about these experiences. However, reflecting on all my events has allowed me to change and challenge my own perceptions. The two most impactful events for me were my visit to the Hirshhorn museum and my attendance at a Band Maid concert.

When visiting the Hirshhorn I was blown away by the immersive experience this museum provided. I often am hesitant to visit art museums because most of my past experiences have been relatively uninteresting to me. As a child I did not like walking around a bunch of rooms with blank walls holding frames and frames of realistic paintings or pieces that all seemed to blur together after a while. I had a misconception that art museums were for a specific type of person that was not me. The way that the Hirshhorn uses light, color, and architecture in order to display their art was an amazing experience and I found myself staying much longer than I planned. It challenged my opinion of how art museums were meant to look like, and I am happy that I went.

The Band Maid concert also was very eye opening for me. It was unlike any other concert I had been to due to the theme of the band playing and the audience they attracted. The band is composed of a group of petite Asian women dressed up as maids who sing and perform heavy metal music. This seems like such a bizarre and unlikely combination of styles, but I was delighted to see that not only was the band unexpected, but so was the audience. I found myself having a great time meeting such a wide diversity of people. There were college students like me, heavy metal fans, korean music fans, and a surprising amount of elderly or middle aged people you would not expect to attend such an event. Being here opened my eyes to the beauty in diversity of music as an art. People of such unique and unlikely backgrounds all brought together under one roof and united by a joint appreciation for one thing. I learned that night that art has no limits to background or audience, if you enjoy the art, there will always be others there to enjoy it with you.

In my own capstone I drew most upon the ideas we had discussed previously about how art is impacted greatly by the artists’ personal experiences and translations of their own art. I drew upon my own life experiences as a farmer to create and send a message with my piece and am satisfied with how it came out. I learned through discussion in CPSA250 that I am a goal oriented worker. I work most effectively when setting goal-related milestones for myself that allow me to pace my work in a healthy but productive way.

I believe that my capstone also deepened my own artistic talent because I challenged myself to create something using techniques that I had yet to see exist. A majority of my work was done using techniques that I tested and developed myself. Being able to do that for the first time was actually very liberating, because many techniques already have preset “rules” you are somewhat expected to follow, it often feels suffocating. I was able to create my own rules and make something I can call entirely my own in a unique way. It has expanded my opinion of what is possible when it comes to the use of materials and I hope to implement something like this again in the future.

I think the entire experience in CPSA250 showed all of our abilities to collaborate with artists of different abilities and experiences. I got the great opportunity to get an inside look at so many different artist processes and projects of my peers, who are all of different backgrounds from each other. I think specifically of being able to watch Michelle’s capstone piece come together. I am neither a singer nor did we grow up in similar environments, but as her roommate and friend, being able to compare how she viewed her art to how I viewed it then discussing it with her was pretty cool. I think we both grew as people because of this.

Altogether, I believe that my experience in scholars has effectively prepared me for how I plan to present myself in the future. Out of all of my other classes, I have done the most public speaking and presenting in these classes. I have been able to work more on my own presentation skills and come back to improve them over the course of these two years in a way that has improved them tremendously. I don’t believe that communication is a skill well taught in the engineering curriculum and being able to have these skills in the field will give me a great leg up compared to some of my classmates.