Sophomore Year - Older, But Not Wiser
CHEM 336 - Honors Organic Chemistry II
Organic chemistry–the one class that makes every life sciences major quake in their boots. Like many students, I found the o-chem series incredibly challenging, but (oddly) rewarding at the same time. I received some of my lowest grades in these classes, which, looking back, was a positive experience for me. It taught me to fail well and doggedly pursue knowledge, even when the situation seems bleak. Additionally, the smaller class format gave extra professorial oversight as we stumbled through chirality diagrams and synthesis outlines.
This persistence eventually paid off. In the artifact to the right, you'll see that I nearly acheived one hundred percent on my first midterm exam in the Winter quarter of organic chemistry. While I never repeated this same performance, I was encouraged to see results after several months of discouragement and exasperation.
CHEM 347 - Honors Organic Chemistry Lab II
If we're brutally honest with ourselves, classroom-based organic chemistry is an incredibly abstract science. It's easy to stand by passively as molecular structures gradually lose their intended meanings, becoming nothing but bizarre logic puzzles composed of lines and letters. I found that the honors o-chem laboratories helped to counteract this tendency, grounding our learning in concrete, real-world examples of chemical interaction and molecular characterization. Lab taught me diligence, precision, and focus as I carried out experiments and wrote about them in detailed follow-up reports.
To the left, you'll find a lab report from my favorite synthesis that we performed in the second quarter of the series, which used a metal catalyst to couple two organic compounds. Nerdy science aside, it was at this point that I felt mastery over the ability to effectively write about scientific concepts. Doubtlessly, these courses prepared me to write about my own research in the Daggett Lab, studying amyloid diseases.
ENGL 310 - The Bible as Literature
My Christian faith has always been an enormously important part of my worldview, but until I took this course, I'd never critically examined it under the auspices of an academic environment. With a diverse company of peers from a variety of eclectic religious backgrounds, we delved into the Book that I thought I'd known since childhood, unearthing passages that I'd never heard and perspectives that I'd never considered. The class was enormously frustrating at times and often intellectually taxing, but it gave me a greater appreciation of my belief system and helped me to learn more about myself. In effect, it made my faith "my own."
Our professor solely graded us on participation and "pop essays" from the previous night's reading. In the document to the right, you'll find my examination of the apostle Paul's seemingly contradictory claims about faith- and works-based salvation.
That one time in 2014 when it snowed. (Photo credit: UW Student Life)