Introductions

Hello! My name is Anders and I'm a freshman from Seattle, probably studying English and
maybe Political Science. I'll go with the format and pop in some facts about myself.
I volunteer weekly at the Unemployment Law Project, so if anyone has any questions
about the fascinating topic of unemployment law - I'm your guy. (But please don't
actually ask me anything because it's v confusing)
I am also currently working on a show at Jet City Improv called 'Very Special Epsiode'
based on after-school specials and very special episodes of 80s and 90s sitcoms. My
personal favorite is 'Schoolboy Father' starring Rob Lowe or the Jem and the Holograms
illiteracy epsiode.
I'm sure the Honors Program staff are sick of me talking about Cher but I have to give her
a little shout out. Aside from the Goddess of Pop I'm also a little too obsessed with Carly
Rae Jepesen and Dolly Parton.
The last book I read was 'Price of Fame' an biography of Clare Boothe Luce, a playwrite,
congresswoman, and US ambassador to Italy. It was good, but my favorite biography is
Katharine Hepburn's autobiography which is perfectly titled: 'Me.'
I can't wait to meet everyone!
GoPost#1 - What are you going to do with that?
Deresiewicz presents moral imagination as the capacity to envision new ways to live you life.
In expanding his definition, Deresiewicz focuses on figuring out what people want for
themselves while working toward defining success on their own terms. All of this is presented in
as a contrast to his concept of the tunneling resulting from increased specialization, that is that
many peoples perspectives narrow as they make these choices. In this discussion, Deresiewicz
also harps upon the need for moral courage, or the courage to act on values in the face of what
others say. He presents this as a break from a norm to the point that moral courage makes others
uncomfortable, topping it all off with the hyperbolic quote People don't mind being in prison as
long as no one else is free. But stage a jailbreak, and everybody else freaks out.
Brooks touches upon similar topics but frames them differently. He lays out two types of virtues
rsum and eulogy. The two are as expected, with rsum virtues being those skills brought to
the marketplace and eulogy virtues being those talked about at a funeral, basically the essential
character traits of an individual. Brooks focuses his piece on the incandescent individuals he
admires who rebuke external achievement and focus on their calling within a calling and
focusing their lives on struggling for ideals. In his outlining of the ways to reach the richest
possible inner life, Brooks focuses identifying inner weaknesses and focusing on internal
development but also placing trust in others and strongly relying on these support systems.
Both Deresiewicz and Brooks present similar ideas about how we become removed from these
concepts. They point to the achievement culture and the focus on traditional avenues and
pathways that have been deemed successful by society. Deresiewicz highlights high achievement
fields, especially the medical and legal, to highlight both the chain of choices that lead to them
while discussing how often the choices that lead to these fields are not made with considerations
of passions or want but with considerations of acceptability and prestige. I do somewhat agree
with him here. With the endeavors that are both expected of high achievers, expected due to
pressures of peers, parents, and society in general, there are some who merely pursue them due

to these pressures. But Deresiewicz focuses too heavily on the lack of agency in pursuing these
paths and the idea that they tunnel into struggling to remember who they once were. To
himself narrow the views, experiences, and ideals of those who follow these paths into excluding
self-reflection or understanding is not only a gross overstatement, it also causes Deresiewicz to
fall into the very hierarchical delineation that he pushes against. In his pushing for moral courage
and imagination, Deresiewicz places these paths in a preferred position to others. While at the
end of his piece he does acknowledge that going into the traditional pathways is an okay choice,
it is difficult to accept his belief on this after deriding those very people as embracing cowardly
values.
Much of both Brooks and Derseiwiczs arguments seem to be driven by a self-serving moral
elitism that ironically mirrors the very system they rail against. The necessity to value a certain
existence and world view as well as the laying out of the boxes to check for improved morality
are steps similar to the achievement culture. Brooks creates the resume virtues necessary to reach
the level of eulogy virtues he espouses. He also leaves out the often large overlap between
resume and eulogy virtues. If you take each literally, often times resume virtues are included in
eulogies. If a person had a brilliant mind or reached the pinnacle of their careers, its going to be
mentioned. Even a specified skill set or un-paralleled commitment to a career can be a mix
between resume and eulogy virtues. To say that a focus on external achievement leads to selfsatisfied moral mediocrity is quite frankly not true. The two are not so mutually exclusive that a
focus on one precludes the other. One can focus on external achievement at the same time as
working on themselves. I do not agree that stumbling is the way to be an incandescent soul. It
is a way to follow the path that Brooks lays out, but it does not represent the only way to become
a person like the kind Brooks looks to. Or, to lay it out in the simple, unspoken terms, to become
a fulfilled person. I also contest that feeling fulfilled only when enmeshed in a struggle on
behalf of some ideal should be something to strive for. Perhaps I do not view the world a
constant stream of struggles and stumbles, or perhaps because I feel fulfilled when I guess whos
going home on Survivor fifteen minutes into the episode, I do not find this viewpoint convincing
or something to strive for. Fulfillment itself is an individual value that I do not believe can be
universalized in the ways Brooks pushes.
I agree that a movement away from intense focus on achievement is an admirable goal, and one
that should be pursued, yet proselytizing about fulfillment is neither convincing to me nor
fulfilling. Yes, we should all make the choices we want to make and create the existence for
ourselves that we want, but maybe I want to be a coward and embrace comfort and control.
GoPost #2 - Mini-teach reflection
I was a little nervous heading into the mini-teach. I struggled with what I was going to do for a
long time, and decided on something a little ridiculous - how to dramatically open a fan. Going
in with something that isn't super serious, I tried to play that up, relying on humor and making
sure to stay high energy during the entire teach. I think this was easier to do because I knew that
this was just for my working group, and we had a pre-exisiting relationship. I also dealt with my
main teaching material being slightly broken, so I had to, in the immortal words of Tim Gunn,
'make it work.' I think I did, and this felt like good practice for when things don't quite work out
as planned - which I certainly expect to happen a couple of times. Hannah came super prepared,

and I really appreciated that, and want to work on reaching that level of preparedness in the
future.
GoPost #3 - High-impact practices reflection
The two high impact practices that have influenced by UW experience the most so far are
Diversity/Global Learning and Service Learning, Community Based Learning. Coming into
college I was excited to be able to take classes both in topics I was interested in, but also in areas
that I may not have thought to explore before. Some of my most valuable academic experiences
have been in classes that explore these "difficult differences" such as global inequality or race in
US politics. These classes have both exposed me to these issues, but also have shown me new
ways to think about difficult issues. I think this will help me going forward in life by ensuring
that I will consider alternate viewpoints and allow them to challenge my first line of thought in
situations where this is necessary.
Service Learning has also been hugely influential in my education so far. Winter quarter I
decided to do service learning through the Carlson Center for one of my classes. Even after the
quarter ended, I've kept volunteering at the Unemployment Law Project, a non-profit that helps
people with their unemployment claims. Not only has this exposed me to how incredibly
complicated the unemployment system is, but also how important it is in helping those who need
it. I have also seen the ability to help others and enact change through the system, which has
inspired me going forward. Volunteering there has also improved my phone skills, which will be
very useful going forward.
GoPost #4 - Group teach reflection
The group teach overall went well. I thought that my group did an especially good job working
with Mitali not being able to participate at the last minute. I think we were high energy while
presenting and worked to keep our audience engaged throughout. Something that surprised me
was how responsive the audience was for our group, which was likely because they were also
peer educators, but it was a pleasant surprise regardless. I think I should have had less text on my
slides, and I wished I had had more time for the activity that I had planned, but the end of our
presentation got a little hectic trying to ensure that we finished on time. The same as my miniteach I think that being high energy and having fun with what you're teaching is incredibly
important. If you aren't, how can you expect your audience to stay engaged? Overall, I think that
both the mini-teach and the group teach went well.
GoPost #5 - Retreat reflection
I had a very fun time on the retreat - great weather and amazing company will do that. I didn't
learn to many new things about my leadership style. While I hadn't used the language before, I've
identifed as a 'driver' for some time now. Seeing the four types, however, was really useful when
it came to examining where we felt weakest as leaders. That weakness is something I'm going to
acknowledge and work on as a peer educator. It was also helpful to have others examine my
leadership through the good experiences exercise. Being able to hear those things spoken about
you was both a nice confidence boost and reframed the conversation into terms that I do not
consider too often. I think incorporating food was a little lightbulb that went off in my head at the
retreat. I know it seems super minor but I hadn't really considered it until the retreat - now I have
to start planning snacks.

PE Profile for Honors 100 web site

Hello! My name is Anders and I'm a sophomore at the UW. I am planning on double majoring in
Political Science and English, but due to a penchant for only classes that interest me (which
doesn't happen to include many pre-reqs) we'll see if I ever get there. My academic interests have
a pretty broad range, and the most accurate description would probably be just not-STEM, even
though I'm very jealous of people who can understand anything related to chemistry, because I
cannot. This fall I'll be directing a longform improv show with the Undergraduate Theater
Society called "Debate" which is an improvised presidential debate, combining two of my loves endless presidential elections and improv. Other than that, I can be found watching what many
would classify as an unhealthy amount of reality TV and following that up with podcasts about
said reality TV. I also love reading for pleasure when I have the chance, which due to my intense
Real Housewives schedule is a rarity. I am so excited to be a Peer Educator in part because I love
the Honors program, and also because I had a great time in Honors 100 and want to make sure
you do as well!