Reflections

After completing my BA degree in Integrated Social Sciences at UW, I hope to broaden my

perspectives on social and ethical issues and cultural horizons. I want to gain translational
skills and proficiency in a variety of disciplines, specifically in philosophy, literature,
psychology, and sociology. I also hope to improve my written English competency in
communicating in different formats and style and obtain a wealth of information in the
historical context. However, my most important goal in this mission is to effectively articulate
an intellectual interpretation of social and ethical issues and entertain the diverse viewpoints
and lenses that others may have.
My interests rest in the human condition in literature--What is our human nature like? How
should we live our lives? What societies be like? A thematic concern in my studies is human
nature or human behavior. I want to know more about the role of individual in society and how
society shapes who we are. A struggling question that plagues my mind is how do we make
ethical choices? For example, did the U.S. make the right choice to drop the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima? Some may agree that it is justified because it stopped World War II, but some
may disagree and say that it is not justified because U.S. had caused many innocent lives to
be lost.
My expectation is to be exposed to key ideas and vital issues of our time and form opinions
on the important influences in todays modern world. Understanding political, economic, and
social and natural issues will serve as paradigms for me to develop a breadth of
intellectual/critical thinking skills, expressive skills, and ethical sensibilities. I hope in the future
I can apply these skills and hands-on research in decision-making of impacts on human
relations in communities and in the global context.

Additional notes and reflections:

I hope to graduate two years from now in the spring of 2016. That is my ultimate goal. I still have around 87
credits left and 40 credits to play around with in order to satisfy my elective credits. I plan to do transfer
course work for all of my elective credits that are mostly centered in lower-division courses in philosophy,
literature, sociology, communication, and ethnic studies.

My transfer course work included a variety of interdisciplinary studies such as in the psychology,
anthropology, sociology, and philosophy fields. I think I am equipped with a lot of information of the
interdisciplinary fields already. My remaining credits give me an opportunity to build a solid theoretical
background in these fields and an opportunity to explore newer ones. I might want to take a course on
geography and globalization to understand how regions are affected from a global standpoint.

I feel like the courses given are very valuable and meaningful to take, but I could only select only a few to
take due to my heavy schedule. I think each course will give me the opportunity to look at the different
issues and opinions grounded from the text from a variety of lenses.

WINTER 2015 LEARNING PLAN UPDATE

So far over the course of this ISS journey, I gained a lot of existing and new perspectives of the
importance of social science concepts such as environmental ethics, womens rights and human rights,
aspects of human behaviors, and studies on historical and cultural films. It also offered me a range of
perspective to see the larger context of society. I noticed there are a lot of external relations (visible
activities in cultural groups such as the concept of haan in Korean culture) to the social science
research and along with internal relations (individuals attitudes and behaviors such as roles they take,
like in many rural communities, women are largely responsible fetch water) affect the collective form
of survival in a society. In addition, there are also a lot of terminology (such as race, culture, gender,
society, association, community, family, status, power, social behaviors, and geographic scope) to
consider in social science studies.
A skill I acquired over this journey is the art of interpretation and integration. There are many different
ways to interpret a film or a text. The interpreter may also be affected by his/her identity and beliefs. I
could also integrate an individuals life experiences or historical concepts that may affect the
interpretation. By doing social science research, it is not easy to remain objective because we are
dealing with many practical and ethical issues that affect not just on other communities, but ourselves

as well. This makes the social science research more complex. In all of my courses so far working with
different groups, I come to realize that that social science research is a collaborative, collective effort
because the context of social science is so broad along with the breadth and depth of practical issues.
Each one of us in the group is valuable to our understanding and knowledge. I also noticed that a lot of
the thematic courses are integrated and interrelated in terms that the issues that arise in the course
materials are influenced by other thematic areas of study such as (womens rights are affected by the
geographic scope, i.e., environment and social behaviors and standards of morality).
2015 Spring Quarter Update

I will be taking my last Thematic course in the Fall 2015 quarter. I do not know which one yet.

What important social science concepts, terminology, methods, or other knowledge did you derive
from each of your courses?
What new skills or capacities did you acquire?
Did the course align with your expectations, or did you learn unexpected things?
Did any of the courses you took change the overall shape of your studies in any way?
In my Winter and Fall quarter courses, I learned that each course has its own value of knowledge that count
for the connection before us and in the contemporaries. The courses I took such as Theories in the study of
Religion, Womens Rights, Environmental Ethic, and others are crucial in my everyday experiences because
they help me understand the world and the people around us. Some new skills I acquire is to manage my
time more effectively. There are a lot of readings and some of the time, I tend to fall behind in my readings. I
started to keep a journal and prioritize my time. I enjoyed my courses, they offered me many new
perspectives about a certain idea or concept.
Overall, my view of social science changed a lot. There is a feel of connection between my studies and the world
that surrounds me. I can apply social science concepts such as environmental ethic, human rights, religion, and
etc. to my life in living ethically and responsibly. The different thematic areas in the courses I take help me gain
an appreciation to the similarities and differences of the world. Each of the courses adds to my knowledge of the
world. Through the courses of religion, environmental ethics, womens rights, I learn that it gave me tools to help
me think critically to reason and ask questions about the world we live in today.

My potential graduation year is June 2016.