Karla's Brilliant Blog

I have never before written a “Before I die” bucket list, really I have never written any type of bucket list at all. This is a first for me. Of course, I have set goals in my life and accomplished them. I have always wanted to just travel, anywhere; and I have done it. I wanted to get my Associates degree and I did. I wanted to transfer to SDSU and I also did it.  Now, for the next 5 years I also have some goals that I want to accomplish:  1. Travel somewhere out of America every year.  For this year, I will most likely be accomplishing it during the summer. I am planning on studying abroad in either Prague or Scotland. This of course will be my ideal scenario. Traveling and studying at the same time. But if for any reason things do not go as planned, I will go to Japan sometime before the end of the year.  2. Get an Internship or a Research Assistant position. This goal really has to be met by this year as well. I have already applied for an Intern...

In an article written by Annie Murphy Paul, " Secrets of the Most Successful College Students ", she supports the statement by Ken Bain, that there are three types of learners: surface learners, strategic strategic learners, and deep learners; and that deep learning should be what we aim for. In the article, surface learners is described as people who do the least possible required to get by, strategic learners as people who forget about understanding the topic and focus only on getting the best possible grades, and deep learners as people who actually worked for their grades and understood the concepts they were taught. If I had to classify myself according to these types of learners, I think I would be the three of them. For example, last semester I was surface learner for a nutrition class. I decided to took the class in the first place because I needed as a GE requirement. I though it was going to be an easy and interesting class because it was online. By week 4-5 I was...

After years and years of writing essays that mostly focus on analyzing articles or journals, the idea of doing one that will have to reflect my ideas and thoughts scares me. Even as I am writing this blog (giving my opinion) on what our next paper will be about gives me anxiety.  Although I love writing papers, with the pass of the years I have come to learn that I am better at writing objective essays. It is easier for me to just follow the rules when writing compared to having to come up with my own ideas or expressing my beliefs.  As professor Flewelling states in her  Blog #3 , most English teachers have taught us that “[We] can have an opinion, [they] want [us] to have an opinion,” but that our opinion should never be included in our papers. Also, since I am a psychology student, most of my papers are  APA format , which is super structured. We are always told that the less the better; in other words to not get very creative and just answer what we are being a...

Becoming first-time parents, probably the time that at one point most of us are going to have to fake it. According to Gee we all have Discourses, which he defines as  “an identity kit with a costume on how to act and talk by taking a certain role that people will recognize” (7) or as Professor Flewelling describes it in her blog,  “ it's everything. The way I sound, the way I walk, the way I dress, the values I hold, the way I interact with machines and people and data ”. One time that I had to mushfake was when I got a position as a mentor for students in the  Autism Spectrum . After a series of phone calls and emails, in which I was probably faking it too, I was selected by the Co-cordinator of the program to become a mentor.  There I was, my first day as a mentor, wearing dress pants, a blazer and short “office type” heels. I still did not know what to expect so I was trying my best. I had also read multiple times what the first session with my mentee wa...

This is me, Karla, back in India sharing memorable moments with unforgettable kids. Being part of a community that gave me so much without asking for nothing in return. I left my home about 3 years ago because like everyone now a days I wanted to travel, get to know the world. With no research done and basically no planning, I decided to embark in what, as of today, has taught me the most in life in a way I can't fully express. Before this trip I was an insecure, full of anxiety, non-appreciateable, maybe even stubborn girl. It hurts as I write it, and I never thought of myself that way until after I came back from this trip. In India, I dedicated my time to volunteering in a community after school program. I was teaching English to kids of low income families. This kids would sometimes show up with no clothes other than their undies, others with no lunch but still always with a smile. They always got to the classroom eager to learn and have fun. That was when I realized what...