This year from Fall, Winter and Spring term, I have accomplished many great aspects in the University Studies class of Cyborg Millennium.  Starting out as a freshman, I began to wonder about where my interests were intended to set off.  I was then fascinated about “Entering the Cyborg Millennium: Transformation In Technology and Human Society.”  With this class I expected to learn more about the changes in relationships, work, privacy, reproduction, and personal responsibility in technology genetics and in diverse cultures.  Studies in human awareness to artificial intelligence, the dangers of opportunities and ethical interpretations of new technology are examined in this course.  This class focuses on mainly readings of stories, books, articles, viewing and analysis of films, speeches, group projects, discussions and written work.  
    Initially, I had considered some possible goals to outline this course.  I outlined what goals I wanted to accomplish by the end of this year.  Some goals I had in mine where to be prepared for this class and to learn everything I can obtain.  I mainly wanted to improve in my reading, writing and specking abilities.  Aside from my own goals, four goals were discussed particularly for University Study classes.  Those goals were: communication, critical thinking and inquiry, diversity of human experience, and social and ethical responsibility. This Cyborg Millennium class prepares students to reach these goals and to apply them to what they have learned so far. 
    Throughout this first term, I have progressed in areas where I needed to work on.  I strongly felt that I had to work on my writing the most.  When it comes to writing papers, I normally tend to not focus on writing my papers. However, this class has many writing assignment.  After my first paper assignment, I felt overwhelmed with all of the writing assignment I received.  With the next paper, journal writes, and online e-discussions, I had gotten so sick and tired of writing and my writing was not improving.  Soon I realized, in order to improve in my writing and to be satisfied with it, I need to start focusing on the quality of the paper instead of jamming in information where it doesn’t make sense to get it done on time. 
    With this course, I have developed an understanding of communication and discussion.  I felt that I have progressed in the area of participating in the group discussions as well as communicating with others.  I have a clear understanding of communicating with my peers and working well with them.  The mentor class is a class that helps me with the main University Studies class.  It also helps me with being involved with group activities.  Icebreakers are fun to do and I think that that is a great way to know a little more about each person, and become comfortable with each other.  I thought I worked well with my group in our group project.  Everyone agreed on the same things and I thought we did a great job with our topic. 
    As far as communication and discussion, I felt that I have accomplished a lot this quarter.  I have managed to keep up with the class as well as get all of the assignments done.  Me, a huge procrastinator,  I will always put off work till the last minute. If the work does not interest me, it will never be done until it is due.  But I have worked my way to use my time for homework in an efficient way.  I realize that doing my work when it is assigned gives me less to worry about. 
    This term, college has made me more independent and responsible.  I became a better student then I was in high school.  College affected me academically and socially.  I started to focuses more on my grades and thought more about which direction I was headed towards.  I have always believed that you meet your life long friends in college, and I have met many people this term.  I look forward in meeting more people as years to come.  Most of the people I have met this year are on the PSU Cheer/Dance team.  Being on the Cheer/Dance team and starting as a full time student, I thought that I would go by the first term with no complications.  I stared out with 18 and then I realized that it was too much to take and that I shouldn’t of challenged myself.  I eventually dropped two of my classes, then I was a part time student for the first term.  I learned to not try to take too many credits a term, especially when you’re involved in an activity or work.
As for winter term, I have begun to acquire the idea of college and what I need to do in order to pursue my goals.  This quarter focused mainly on the developments of genetics, medical advances, the issues of ethics and how to understand the views of ethics and social responsibility.  Some of the new technologies that have arisen through the discussions of ethics and judgments are cloning, genetic engineering and other biotechnologies.  
    This term my skills have improved greatly with communication.  Since I have gotten to know my classmates better, it is a more comfortable environment for me to be in.  I find it easier to speak my mind to others without being so concerned about what they think about me.  We were given more opportunities to present information to the class with our group presentations and leading discussions.  I’m used to being lectured in classes, and by leading the discussion, I got to feel how it is at the other end.  I was nervous at the thought of having people listen to me lead a discussion and I didn’t realize how comfortable I was with this group of people.  Communication skills are also necessary when working with other people.  
    Though I have improved somewhat, I would still like to improve my writing skills.  I was overwhelmed at the thought of having to write a 10-12-page research paper. However, the topic I chose caught my attention so it wasn’t as dreadful as I had expected it be.  I would like to add some variety into my writing, such as using different sentence structures and improving my vocabulary.  Another thing I would like to work on is being more productive.  I am able to get all my work done, but I want to use my time more efficiently to get it done earlier. My goals are to do assignments when I have time available instead of doing them when time is crucial.  I also want to be more involved in-group discussions in the main session.  After being with this group, I think I should vocalize my opinions and express my knowledge, rather than giving off the impression that I don’t understand anything.  
    A struggle that I had this winter term was with designing a web page.  I have never had experience with web design or Netscape Communicator.  Creating my web page was also frustrating because of my little knowledge with web design.  Once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed it more and became more satisfied with my work. I also would like to become more familiar with power point presentations.  It can be such a simple or complex program; there are many things to add to slides to make it an interesting presentation.  I would like to learn how to add music or video to my slides.
    I feel that I have demonstrated the knowledge and understandings of ethics and social responsibility as far as the issues concerning the technological aspects that were covered in this course. I mainly thought that the issues regarding cloning and genetic engineering were the most interesting to me.  Cloning and genetic engineering has always been an interest to me.  Those topics were part of the reason why I took this class because I wanted to learn more about them.  I feel that I have learned a lot about those topics and expanded my knowledge on other issues on biotechnology.  
    For the last term of Cyborg, we focused mainly on the goal, Human Experience and Diversity. This term focused on racial issues, sex and gender differences.  There were much more group projects then I expected. From those group projects, I learned more about working together as a whole with different people in the class.  Group work has given me insight to other opinions other than my own. Our projects focused on Oregon Uniting Dialogues, a Community Base Learning project, and a midterm project with the choices of surveillance, digital divide, and a video project. 
    Overall, I thought that this class was a great class to take.  There is so much to learn and discuss in this class.  Being a freshman and almost a sophomore, I have progressed greatly towards my goals and my understandings of my future, and education.  I now know what to expect in college. I’ve experienced the first year of college, and now going forward, I know what I need to do in order to maintain my grades and my goals. This has been a great year and a completely new experience for me, and I look forward in the next years to come.

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