Sociology 331

For my first time, I decided to enhance a course with the help of Professor Sue Carter, for her course, Aging and the Life Course. I immediately loved this course, which explores aging and how society treats the aging population. We looked at many different aspects of aging and had guest speakers from programs that aid the elderly in Farmville. We also had the opportunity to interview an aging person and present to the class. For my enhancement I decided to go outside my comfort zone and write a paper on how different civilizations and cultures have treated their elderly over time. I presented at Symposium and wrote a 9-page paper. This was nerve wracking for me since I have not done a research paper since my sophomore year of high school, and researching and creating a research paper while doing my first clinical rotation as a nursing student did not make things easier. However, I will say that writing my paper and presenting at the Symposium gave me more confidence than I could have ever imagined. Presenting has always terrified me, so presenting for 15 minutes was unimaginable to me. Somehow I managed to present passionately and didn’t read off of my script, which is unusual for me. I realized that my longtime fear of public speaking wasn’t as unconquerable as I thought it was, and I hope to do more research in the future.