This course has benefitted me greatly in professional development. This document is a goals reflection sheet that I worked on to show how i’ve grown in skills and experiences as an environmental science major.
Dylan Scordellis
March 11, 2021
Mid-Term Reflection
As I began my freshman year here at Longwood University, I felt like I had some substantial experience and skills prior to coming to Longwood, but I was wrong. When I began my classes, I learned so much within my first and second semester. I learned skills in research, data analysis, and so much more! As I think back from where I am now as a junior, I definitely feel like I have grown so much in my ability and experiences which will benefit me greatly for my future career.
When thinking about the first goal, I understood it as defining and acknowledging the fundamentals and framework for an environmental scientist as well as conducting research. My first year as a freshman, I learned some matters on environmental issues and scientific reasoning, but it wasn’t until my sophomore year where these topics became a strength of mine. I began taking more classes that pertained to writing research papers (because of LIFE STEM) and I also took atmospheric science which related a lot to environmental and atmospheric issues. I began to learn how science relates to natural occurrences in our day-to-day lives. My current semester (Junior year) I am learning how to relate scientific studies and research to the general public as well as analyzing scientific works. I began to focus a lot on visual perspectives and how human health is affected by a lot of environmental issues. I’ve noticed a lot of impacts that humanity has created due to technological advances.
Multiple courses throughout my time here at Longwood so far has allowed me to gain multiple skills in data collection, organizing work, and being able to evaluate and/or analyze work. Beginning as a freshman, I began to slowly collect and organize data during labs (mainly chemistry labs) and I believe that although it feels like a very small skill to me now, it was a great way for me to gain the foundation for analyzing and collecting data and scientific works. As I began my sophomore year, I learned more about how to interpret data as well as conclusions within articles. Furthermore, I began to learn how to interpret my own data and then using that data to compose my own research paper. I believe that I progressed my best in goal two during my junior year because I took a GIS and Cartography course. I really began to interpret graphs, maps, and other forms of figures that re used to display data. These courses made it a lot easier for me to be able to understand what is being shown in a map or graph.
When looking into goal three, I believe that this was the one that impacted me the most. I was never a good writer throughout my years in general education, I was just an average writer. However, once I began classes here at Longwood, I began to realize how convincing and factual a piece or work can be. For instance, during my sophomore year, I took some classes where I was able to conduct research based off of some research that I did. I was very excited to be the person that informs a crowd rather than just the guy who sits and listens to learn. I enjoyed teaching people about migratory patterns and sudden growths of algal blooms. This is a skill that I’ll always appreciate because even when I’m older I’ll have to write multiple research proposals, write-ups, etc. Along with writing, I began to grow as a group member and efficiently work with a group to conduct research and to compose solutions and suggestions for further research. I found this very beneficial because you won’t always have the answers if you work alone. Sometimes it is good to get another person’s perspective on things. One thing that I learned is that validation or to get another person’s opinion is super important when it comes to writing and composing work based off of data and research.
With all of these skills and goals considered, I don’t believe that I am perfect or that I have mastered these. There is still much room for me to learn and to grow. I will continue to pursue more classes that’ll help me greatly during my last few semesters here at Longwood and I plan to gain more knowledge and experience even after I graduate because there is always room to learn. I plan to use these goals and skills to help me in my future career as well as help me work towards conducting my own research and publications. I can’t wait to see what the future has for me.