COEN e-portfolio

Explain the identity from your identity wheel that you want to explore more this semester. Briefly explain why you want to explore it more:

As a Chinese-American, I would like to explore my multicultural identity. The US and China are at a very interesting crossroad. Many people like me are forced to choose one identity over the other. I want to find a way to be able to cherish both.

College Student Goals Statement:

I am heavily involved in education. I currently teach robotics and aviation at a home school enrichment program. Having taught more than 70 students throughout my high school career, I want to make a life out of education and aviation. As a pilot, I noticed that there are no good resources available for aspiring students to learn about a career in aviation. Since I have experience in both fields, I want to create an organization that helps navigate students as they choose to enter aviation.

As an Asian American, I grew up with an expectation of success and perfection. People think of me as someone academically adapted, doing well in school and earning high scores on tests. Although I have been quite successful, some of my peers are less fortunate. They perform less than what our Asian stereotypes anticipate. Thus, they are often marked as a failure of the Asian ideals. However, are they really failures? Putting this situation into our wallet activity’s perspective, I see us as different wallet designs. We all have our own traits, mind that a strength or weakness; this is just like how each wallet has its own selling point and also flaws. We cannot say which one is fundamentally better than the other, but we can make some judgment of our own. The best thing we can do is to decide for ourselves which design fits our needs.

Worldview:

To contribute positively to society, one must work in some capacity. Be it any career of our choosing, if we make our world a better place, that’s enough. For me, I do two kinds of work: one is for supporting my family, and the other is for improving our world.

The first kind makes me money. As I grew up in a low-income family, I was taught the importance of getting paid for doing work. My mother stressed that if I did not make money doing something, I should just stop working there. I agree with her to some extent, that there must be some compensation for working hard. However, I believe that money isn’t the only indication of success.

The second kind of work gives me the pleasure of being valued. At a young age, I found that I am quite good at communicating and explaining. Coupled with my academic ability, I found that my passion is education. For the past 5 years, I have been an avid tutor, helping those who need more guidance aside from their primary education. I do not make a lot of money from this, but I feel valued. In the end, while others are complaining about the low pay of some professions, I can’t help but think about how they are compensated in other ways.

Lifeview:

When the universe was created from none, our stories were written as well. Everything we know is the product of that moment of null, and the billion Kelvin inferno that followed. Us as humans are just an insignificant cog in the machine that we call the universe; everything we do is meant to happen, as time itself is just another dimension.

So why do we even put in efforts in all that we do?

We do this because we are born to do so. Think about those in helpless situations, aren’t they trying their best to divert from danger? But in the end, what is meant to happen, happens. Although I don’t know my own destiny, I know life will give me what I deserve. This is why I wake up every morning, determined to live the best life that is afforded to me.

How does the cycle of liberation and your prototyping plans connect?

• While I read further on the cycle of liberation, I learned that what I strive to achieve will likely make a dent in our world. One of the things I talked about in my prototyping plans was that I want to educate others in aviation. This, coupled with the fact that I am already a pilot makes me able to do it better.

Which prototyping plans will help break the cycle of socialization and help you gain a new perspective?

• I think flying across the world will be the one plan that gives me a truly global perspective. I am already quite different from most people due to my multi-cultural background. Being a pilot further differentiates me. I always strive to be a unique person; I will do more to further insights.

Which plans might perpetuate narratives you have already heard?

• Getting family out of financial hardship

• How can you change your prototyping plan and challenge yourself to learn more?

• Unfortunately, I do not think this is something I can quite change. I guess I can try to explore jobs that challenge my own understanding. However, with my current skill level, I am unlikely to take up jobs that are much different than what I work.

For many, the concept of college is a requirement for a successful life. Upon stumbling across many videos that advocated for a college degree, I was too converted into a firm believer in the necessity of higher education. As a first-generation college student, I grew up in a household that did not care for education. What mattered to us was getting an income as soon as possible. Thus, many of my relatives did not understand my decision to forfeit 4 or more years of income. While I understood their stances, I realized from those videos that I could be much more successful with a degree; my talents would be wasted if I went working at McDonald’s. To me, just being in college is a blessing. I received help from many people in my decision-making process. Now that I’m here, I want to make the most out of college. As I said before, my life goal is to change the world for the better. Although it sounds like a stretch today, I can’t help but dream of what is possible; I’ve come in just the past few years. I am certain that I will use all that is offered here at CU Bouler to further my education. Lastly, though my overall experience since enrolling had been positive, I did notice several distractions that undermined many students’ will to continue learning. The most negative experience is the machoness of many students here. Despite COVID health concerns, many students continue to gather massively. They create parties with illegal content, which makes all of us CU students look bad. I hope we can resolve negative experiences like these soon.

While our coursebook was influential in guiding me through my first semester of college, I found the TED talk, “The Danger of A Single Story,” was the most influential to me as a person. The most important concept I learned was how people with different perspectives can misunderstand others, and how cultural biases limit the extent of mutual understanding in our world. Furthermore, I realized that this problem exists in our daily lives.

As a Chinese-American, my community is often misunderstood as a group of nerdy scholars. Although I am also pursuing a scholastic degree, I still believe that I can help change the perception of my people. By watching this TED talk, I realized that I now possess the methods required to do what I am setting out to do. As I said before in life-view, I want to be different and encourage others to chase their dreams. I believe that by studying engineering at CU I will be closer to achieving that.

Although the material in this course helped me marginally, I did gain another perspective on ways to approach learning and planning my career. If I have to describe one thing that helped me grow, I would say the odyssey plan was that. It made me realize that I can in fact achieve my dream of flying around the world while being a successful engineer. Since then, I have incorporated this piece of knowledge into my life planning.

In the end, the insights that I learned from the TED talk and the odyssey plan will help me become a better engineer. I will do my best to change the misconception of my people in the US. I hope to do my part to make our world a better place.

I have quite a few commitments in my life: working 3 jobs, going to CU full time, and training to be a commercial pilot. My goal for prototyping was to plan for my later life. I recognized early on that I needed to work for my dream, so all the work I did up to this point contributes to me achieving my life goals. For me, the most engaging aspect of my work is the fact that I get to teach others about what I already know. This consolidates my understanding of previous knowledge that I did not quite understand the first time I learned it. Thus, I constantly have a-ha moments while I teach. I am proud of all of my achievements, especially when my robotics team got second place in the world.

My big picture goal is to change the world one day. Thus, everything that I do today relates to that. However, while I am progressing through this journey, I do believe that there are greater challenges ahead. I want to make aviation accessible to everyone, and this is how I will change the world. Along the way, I’ve gotten many opportunities from those who believe in my determination. I also get criticism from others. But I view this as a way to improve upon myself.

Skills:

1. CAD:

   1. Robotics: I started CADing in middle school. Having real-life projects really enhanced my ability to work in the real world.

2. Piloting

   1. Flying: I started flying when I was a freshman in high school. I was hooked instantly and I knew that I wanted to be around airplanes my whole life.

   2. Teaching classes about aviation: I got to digest complex aerospace knowledge that was previously foreign to me, and explain it in an easy to understand way for the middle schoolers that I teach.

3. Soccer

   1. Playing on school and club teams: Practice makes perfect

4. Leadership

   1. Captain of a robotics team: I led a team to become second in the world

   2. Captain of a soccer team: We were the Semi-Finalist at State President’s Cup

   3. Regional manager at a start-up: We gained 3000 active users while managing a team of 40

   4. Results speak for themselves

5. Education:

   1. Tutoring for 5 years: I gained different perspectives from different students. I also learned to teach different types of learners.

   2. Teaching at a homeschool enrichment program about aviation: It made me more passionate about aviation.

   3. Teaching English in China over summer breaks: I got to experience education from another culture, which makes me more aware of other perspectives.

All of my learning experiences help me achieve my professional goals. Since I was so determined in my mission, others who see potential in me offer me internships or mentorships. From them, I learned valuable lessons that will be with me my whole life. This class also taught me how to better plan for my future, and I am certain that I emerge as a better engineer.