Final Reflection

As an incoming student to this college, I was overwhelmed with an immense amount of fear and anxiety. With 2 sciences and a history already on my schedule, the thought of a freshman symposium was almost too much, especially considering I knew nothing about what a class called Secret Communications would entail. I had absolutely no idea what would be expected of me, and I feared that this class would simply be another complex seminar with a rigid criteria and little room for creativity or self-expression, which I’d desperately hoped for in attending this specific college. However, I instantly realized that my negative preconceptions of this class were completely false. From the very first class, Professor Kilic-Bahi made it clear that our unique opinions mattered, and that any ideas we had would be incorporated into the class. One of my earliest memories of this symposium was our first discussion as a class; where we were asked to share our thoughts on the novel, …show more content…
We were asked to complete various art assignments, written pieces, oral presentations, and group activities which helped us develop skills in each of those required fields. Not only were we developing important skills that would remain critical throughout the course of our college careers, but we were also learning about interesting and influential subjects. Through the use of various articles, movies, pictures, slide shows, hand-on class activities, and group work, we learned about a plethora of material relating to the art of secret communications. I found that while some methods work better than others, I was able to something from each method of teaching. I enjoyed being able to research a number of fascinating topics such as ciphers, cryptology, symbolism, coding, and numerous other subjects. All of which would not have been introduced to me if not for this