The purpose of this Project was to challenge myself as a UNCC student to make a connection between the

movie Into the Wild, and a self-proposed topic of my choice. After the completion of this assignment, my
successive concentration now is to acquire a stronger foundation on how I can apply my committed
passions further towards a successful life for learning. During my first year at Xavier University, I could
not completely understand what was missing from the experiences at that school. I would struggle to find
complete focus for assignments, and felt as though the programs written structure was lacking value for
improving the society we live in, which has always been a great concern for me. With the transfer from
Xavier to UNCC and switching of to the College of Engineering Department, I have since been more
dedicated to my academic work to ensure that I had made the right choice. Through the experiences
obtained over the course of this semester, I began to see the overall picture of this project as rather than
focusing on a random topic, it actually forces you to find yourself, much like Chris McCandless does in
the novel, movie, and real life. This paper allowed me to spend a great deal of time finding out what my
internal passion was, and what kind of impact I would like to leave on the world when my time comes.
Initially, I conducted very little research because I thought I knew everything about everything for the
topic I had chosen in the beginning of the semester. However, as the semester moved along and I began to
get more acquainted with the campus and the people within, my perspective began to change, and I
discovered that additional references would be needed in order to convey the topic transition properly.
Following, my search was conducted using the Atkins Library database from UNCC, as well as other
useful websites found throughout Moodle in order to dictate the value of each source, thus increasing the
correctness of my final paper. Sources from Zimmer and Dash provided a number of good assets to my
substantive questions devised in my step 2 proposal, but along the way, a number of originally plotted
sources were also discarded, as they had absolutely nothing to do with my newly extended upon topic.
The research entailed for this paper required me to center in on my central passion as well as improve my
knowledge of what I am getting myself into before I start the application of the bucket list item in order to
make the impact that I want. While the aspects researched from others may be very similar in some
respects, I believe that my topics boarding demonstrates a surprisingly better way to seeing society, which
provides me with an outlet for my lifelong passion to do better for those around me with the skills and
knowledge acquired during my years at UNC Charlotte. At first this outlook on life wasnt clear, as the
effects of my research required me to condense and connect the topics to make it a whole (hence the use
of the Whole Life Concept Model). Did you find a lot of information about a certain area of your
study My original topic also provided me with difficulty finding valid sources to evaluate, so I had to
broaden the research questions further to develop a research tracking record.
The writing of the essay seemed to be the easiest part to me after reflecting on my research conducted. I
was able to often find strong connections between my goals, the research and the novel, which was one of
the objectives of the project. Without the research however, I do not believe that I would have been able
to complete the assignment thoroughly. I also found that working within groups and bouncing off ideas
from others also assisted me in outlining and starting the essay. Of course, I was also able to use my prior
experiences from high school and Xavier to develop a synthesized version of everything, enabling the
formal paper mixed with informal feel to your liking.
Ravenclaws contribution to my projects success is greatly appreciated. For the majority of the time, I was
able to ask them questions via text, email, or call, and at a moments notice they were able to convey an
answer, which may have formed bonds between us for the years to come. Excluding the horrible times
were I had computer issues and could not present the work I had done so far, my peers were able to critic
my writing enough to rethink about certain things for my final submission. Its always nice to have peers
overlook something before the finished process, and as a result, my questions for them would be:
How do I improve as a group member? How does your final draft website look?

Dating back to my sophomore year of high school, I have not been a stranger to researching. As a
requirement for an International Baccalaureate within my school, it was required of me to complete an
extended essay much like the one of this class. I have been thoroughly taught how to conduct research,
what types of stuff I should be looking for, and what kind of issues are encountered during this process.
Fortunately, in my opinion the inquiry project you've assigned is not very difficult because of my
extended knowledge on how to go about doing things like this. Id like to describe myself as a strong
researcher, who follows the path of one thing leading to another when researching rather than jumping
back in forth. For me, the way I do it helps me understand my topic much more deeply, and as a result the
writing for the paper comes naturally. In comparison to this project, the only difference I see is the
development of an essay during a transition between topics. This switch presented a degree of difficulty
to me, and with the completion of this paper I feel I have become a better writer.
This paper has been very important to me at this stage of my life as a learner because I was unsure if I had
been really achieving what I had set out to do with my passion: becoming a stronger leader, dismantling
the societal boundaries displayed daily, and improving the opportunities for those underprivileged. The
majority of individuals moving from high school to college are forced into majors they do not particularly
feel like themselves in, and the research entailed for this paper required me to center in on my central
passion, improving my knowledge on what is to come. Prior to completion, I was still undecided on the
transition from Computer Science to Computer Engineering, and after the paper I now believe that
Computer Engineering demonstrates a way to better society, which provides me with an outlet for my
lifelong passion to do better for those around me with the skills and knowledge acquired during my years
at UNC Charlotte, and in the future when I decided to travel. Now that I have completed this assignment I
am much more comfortable with the decision I made to change majors from Computer Science to
Computer Engineering. I have learned that I will uses Computer Engineering as a tool for excellence as I
strive to help develop cultural awareness through world expeditions, networking through sharing
involvements of others, and leveling the working environment for society involving technology
advancements, thus making the world an improved place for everyone.