Drew Morse

Honors 100 AJ
Assignment 5 Portfolio Statement
November 24, 2014
The first couple of months living in a large city were quite overwhelming, and
provided an abundance of new experiences. I ate my first bowl of real Pho, took a
ferry out onto Puget Sound, and spent countless hours exploring both the city of
Seattle and the UW campus.
Coming into UW, one of my goals was to take advantage of the office hours
each of my professors held, and while I havent visited every single one quite yet, I
have had a few very impactful discussions with both my Spanish professor and my
Democracy and Dissent professor. I had a very interesting discussion with my
Democracy and Dissent professor, Dr. Lagos, about the importance of balancing
STEM and the humanities in ones life, and I thought this exchange had a similar
theme to the Honors programs interdisciplinary approach to undergraduate
learning. This quarter I am taking a mixture of math and science, and also Spanish
and an interesting seminar. This combination of classes has solidified my primary
goal for my UW undergraduate experience, which is to make sure I continue
exploring many of my academic interests such as language, history and political
science, even though I am pursuing a major in Biomedical Engineering,
I knew UW was a very large university when I decided to accept my
application, but upon arriving, I didnt except the feeling of being lost in the crowd.
This being said, I have found some ways to minimize this feeling. I am very invested
in my academics, but during my first quarter here I had the goal of exploring the
wide variety of clubs and other RSOs offered here. On a whim I joined the Yacht
Club and because of that, I have had some incredible sailing experiences out on
Union Bay. I also joined the Husky Winter Sports Club, and hopefully will begin
teaching little kids how to snowboard starting this winter. In addition, I am going to
partake in the Mens Glee Club starting next quarter, as music and voice have played
a huge part of my life up to this point. Another thing that helped in making the
school feel smaller was my decision to join Honors housing, as many of the people
in my Honors 100 group, or my other classes, live on my floor.
One resource that I learned about while in my Honors 100 course is the
Center for Experiential Learning and Diversity. By the end of this year I most
definitely will have utilized this newfound resource at least once. One aspect of the
university experience that I absolutely want to experience is undergraduate
research, and by using the Center for Experiential Learning and Diversitys
Undergraduate Research Program I can start exploring which labs or professors I
might be able to work with next year. I also have very clear intentions of doing a
study abroad trip, whether it be one of the Honors Study Abroad Exploration
Seminars, a Direct Exchange Program, or a Summer Program. Using the EXPDs
Global Opportunities scholarship resources, hopefully I can start applying for
scholarships for my study abroad trip either this year or next year.
By the end of this year I will have completed my first Honors course, Honors
394 B, which hopefully will be an awesome experience to reflect on. I decided to

take this course because Karam Dana was a guest on the teacher panel during on of
the Honors 100 lectures, and I found him to be very intelligent, insightful, and
interesting, so this pushed me to join the class on a whim. I also hope to begin to
establish a bond with one of the Honors advisors, as I have heard they are a very big
help with both regular academics and Honors specific classes.