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| March 2007 »
The people I look up to have been the people who have left a real impression on me. Sometimes these people are challenging. By their example or by what they’ve told me, I have re-examined myself, what I believe, why I believe it, and how I behave. I looked deeper into how I see the world and how I interact with others.
Not everyone is perfect. Even the people I look up to have some characteristics that are not positive. But one must look beyond these particulars to see the good in the person. If we can see the good in each person we encounter, each person should be example for us. Granted, what one finds “good” or “bad” is a judgment, and who are we to judge?
The people I look up to, without a single doubt, are my parents. My mother has always pushed me to be myself and stand up to what I believe in. She has encouraged me to speak my mind and not just sit back and stay quiet. (Maybe that’s why I’m at Cal ;oÞ ) Although small in stature she can be a force to be reckoned with. She believes that one person CAN make a difference and continually demonstrates this through her progressive community work in my hometown. She gives me courage and is always open when I need serious advice.
I also completely admire my father. Among the many life lessons he has taught me, there is one in particular that I hold close here at Cal.
He has taught me that being the best isn’t necessarily the only goal in life—working hard and doing my personal best is what counts. At Cal, I often feel that competition for the best grades or by comparing myself to others can be destructive; he has taught me that I can only do my best and be proud of myself. As a student himself, he wasn’t the greatest, but he worked hard and became a successful man. I look up to him and hope that I can be a least half the person he is to me.
As I inch my way closer to becoming an optometrist, I have also come to admire many people in optometry and ophthalmology. My cousin, Tim, is an amazing ophthalmologist. I had the great fortune this past winter break to shadow him during his cataracts surgeries. Not only is he an amazing surgeon, but he carries himself with such confidence and grace. He is focused, professional, and extremely talented. He has opened me up to so many things in the “eye department” that I had no idea about.
Like Alex said, come by to our office hours and tell us who you look up to! We’d love to hear from you.
There are many qualities in people that I model myself after, such as strength and independence. Compassion for others, motivation, and perseverence are just a few more that I would put on the list for a well rounded individual. However, it is rare when someone truly amazing displays all of the above characteristics and more. So, I am extremely thankful to have met a few of these people in my life.
Throughout the past three years at Cal, my mother has unconditionally supported me and I have learned many important things about life from her along the way. She is a strong, confident individual who never fails to put forth her best at work and for her family. She is my confidant and a true friend whom I always feel comfortable going to when I am troubled or confused. But not only is she giving, but she also finds a way to juggle work and family. She is one of those career women who wants it all and has tried her best to achieve all her goals without neglecting her responsibilities as a mother. And I sincerely admire her for the strength and passion that she exerts in every aspect of her life.
At this stage of my college career, when I'm finally settling on a career path that I'll actually stick with, the role models that have affected me are becoming much clearer...
My parents have, without doubt, played major roles in molding my character and personal attributes. Despite how much I try to be unique and different from them, I acquired so many traits from them: my interest in the sciences supposedly "comes" from Dad, while my more linguistic side comes from Mom. Their ultra-healthy home cooked meals gave me an interest in nutrition. Regardless, they have served as points of reference for me, as "unrecognized" role models whose traits I have subconsciously internalized.
The people who have played the greatest role in developing my interest in science are Dr. Rasheed and Joel Sachs. I started at Dr. Rasheed's lab as a high school student, when I signed up for a research apprenticeship program run by USC. She was the one who personally taught me how to culture cells, actually read scientific papers, and to make connections between what I learned in class to what I did in lab. My experience at the lab affirmed my interest in research, which led me to work at the Simms lab here at Berkeley, where I work under the postdoc Joel to analyze mutualisms between plants and N-fixing bacteria. Both Joel and Dr. Rasheed have shown me just how interesting research can be, and that a student's experience in the laboratory is often dictated by the kind of people he/she works with.
There are several other key role models in my life. During sophomore year, I had an awesome GSI for an English R1B class that led me to minor in the subject. I interned with an opthalmologist who gave me an in-depth look into his work, which led to consider research in the medical field. And my high school bio teacher, who was awesome, pretty much set my mind on an undergrad major related to biology.
Perhaps I'm just really impressionable, and many people can easily influence my interests. However, I do believe that we all have numerous role models, if we only dig deeper into ourselves to find them. Let us PALS know about your role models by dropping by our office hours (yes, that was an unabashed plug).
I have several role models, each for different aspects of my life. However, the number one role model in my life is my mom. I have learned a lot from my mom and without her in my life I would not be the person I am today. She brings out the best in me and yet never has expected anything from me. She is caring, compassionate, and giving. I know that no matter what, I can always depend on my mom when I really need her and I hope to return the favor to my loved ones. To sum it up, I look up to my mom because I learn how to be an overall good person from her.
I have a couple role models when it comes to school and my future career. I look up to two of my lecturers, Mary Mead and Katie Clark. I have gotten to know Mary over the past couple of years and have found her to be a cheerful, friendly, and kindhearted person who is always willing to lend me a hand. I also look up to her because she has a wide variety of experience in the field of dietetics. Similarly, when I think of Katie, I think of someone who has done it all. She has many life experiences to draw from and has already accomplished so much at such a young age. For example, she has her own practice a RD, something that I would like to have one day.
Lastly, my aunt has always had a huge impact on my life. She is someone who knows what she wants and is not afraid to go out and get it, no matter what it takes. She understands the importance of having a sense of humor and being able to laugh. She is continuously trying new things and growing as a person. I enjoy spending time with her because I learn a lot by having her as an example.
All of my role models contribute something different and unique to my life and I appreciate them all a great deal.
Hi there! My favorite classes at Cal so far have been Public Health 116 and ESPM 50ac. Public Health 116 is a seminar on social, political, and ethical issues in health and medicine. ESPM 50AC is an introductory course on natural resource management, and about how different culture groups make use of natural resources in different ways.
In Public Health 116, there were different speakers each week who spoke about various topics in health and medicine. It was a very interesting class and I recommend this class to anyone who is interested in ethical issues involved with health and medicine. Overall, both of these classes taught me to look at everything with a different perspective in mind. The discussion component of each of these courses opened my mind to ideas of others.
This topic is way too hard! At least I can pick more than one class. If I had to pick only one class, it would be an agonizingly difficult decision to make. Anyhow, my favorite class outside of CNR is easily German 157, which was on how Luther, Kant, and Hegel (German philosophers) thought out the concept of freedom.
My favorite ESPM courses are silviculture (185), tree taxonomy (108A), forest ecology (102A), and forest operations (182). These all involve exciting, adventurous field trips. Tree Tax had the best field trip. It was taught by Ralph Boniello, an ESPM grad student. We took a field trip through the Sierra Nevada and looked at tree species and their ecosystems, from oak woodlands to
high-elevation coniferous forests. We stayed overnight near a river. We set up tents, and we had this secluded site all to ourselves. It looked like a shanty town. I didn't sleep in a tent. Rather, I stayed out and gazed at the heavens.
Joe McBride's forest ecology course was cool. Joe always shows slides of what he's talking about. Now he's into PowerPoint, but I liked the good ol' slide projector too. During our field trip, Joe showed us how to use different field instruments. That was the one really hands-on field trip that I've been on. Field trips are usually observational, but this one was different.
I remember one silviculture trip with Kevin O'Hara, we went to Green Diamond timberlands and to their seedling nursery. We met a couple of the Green Diamond employees for breakfast at this neat restaurant that has been featured on Huell Howser's California's Gold. We had lumber-jack portions of pancakes and eggs. Loggers used to frequent this place back in the day, and now there's a museum within the restaurant for old logging camp equipment and photographs. There was another field trip at Blodgett, one of U.C.'s research forests. Kevin and the forest manager, Bob Heald, made us pancakes for breakfast (and for snacks throughout the day--hey I don't let leftovers go to waste). I think this was also the trip during which an owl hooter called a spotted owl and it swooped down to catch a mouse on a student's arm. Maybe this was all during one weekend trip. It was two years ago. At any rate, both of the field trips were memorable.
But the best classes were during the summer of '04 at Forestry Camp....
There are a lot of classes that I enjoyed at Cal. For my upper division classes, I would recommend NST 107 and NST 301. The reason I choose to talk about these two classes on my blog is the uniqueness and fun experiences I had from the courses.
NST 107 is a food science class, which is a food lab class. We studied the science of food. We cooked and baked, using different ingredients or cooking method to study the science of how different factors would affect the end product. The most important thing is you got to taste both the good and bad products. It is one of the interesting labs I have ever taken in my college years studying science!
NST 301 is a Nutrition Education class, I got the chance to plan and deliver seven lessons in Nutrition to elementary school in Berkeley School District. It was a really fun experience to have in a dietetics study. It was very memorable and building my confidence in a big group of people and being evaluated by the class teacher.
If you are interested to know more about my favorite courses I have taken at Cal or get to know more about classes in the Dietetics curriculum, you are welcome to talk with me during my office hours at 11-12pm and 3-4pm on Mondays!
Berkeley has so many different classes to choose from that it can be overwhelming when it comes time to sign up for classes. I tend to like all of my classes in some shape or form because I always learn something new or come to some sort of realization.
My favorite classes so far have been from the Theater, Dance, and Performance (T, D, &P) Department. I have an interest in the arts, especially dance, so I hope to minor in Dance and Performance Studies. One of them is T, D, &P 52AC, which has a really long title, but all in all, it’s a dance history class. If you have an interest in dance, it’s a really easy class, in which you watch examples of dance and analyze different aspects of dance, including race, gender, and ethnicity. I also love T, D, &P 40 Beginning Modern Dance, which is a technique class. I have missed having a dance class everyday, so I absolutely love it! Plus, it makes me feel more awake afterwards.
As for the sciences, I think I appreciate all the classes I have had, but have not necessarily found one to be my favorite. I am looking forward to some upper division classes such as Medical Ethnobotany and some plant ecology or biotechnology classes, finally classes that will be related to plants!
My favorite classes here at CAL are Ethnic Studies 150AC: People of Mixed Racial Descent, NST 171: Toxicology Lab, PH150A: Intro to Epidemiology, TAGALOG 1A: Intro to Tagalog, THAI 1A: Intro to Thai.
The ETHSTD 150AC was a great class that really was eye opening. The teacher was Prof. Allen. He is a great teacher because he makes what you are learning interesting and he really engages your attention with the way he presents it. It let me learn about racial history from blacks to asians to native americans to mexicans and showed me different experiences of interracial people. The work load was not too bad. We had to read novels and write a one page paper relating to the novel. We had one midterm which consisted of mostly being able to define terms used in class. And we had a final project which they gave everyone the freedom to design their own project. There were really no requirements, excepting discussing it with the professor or GSIs to make sure it would be an appropriate project for the class. My final project really opened my eyes to the experiences of my friends and family and how they had been treated as an interracial person or a person in an interracial relationship. It was so much fun!!
The Intro to Epidemiology class I took was very interesting as well. The teacher was Dr. Abrams. She was really nice and did a good job of presenting the material and making it interesting. She did her best to make sure we understood because she wanted everyone to do well in the class. I thought I would learn about diseases, but it also taught me about how they were discovered, how to conduct research to determine the cause of certain diseases, and what epidemiologist do. That class was really interesting because it incorporated some statistics with medical issues of the population. There were Lab/Homework assignments due in discussion every week to two weeks. We had 2 midterms and a final. And we had a 2 page Fact Sheet to turn in towards the end of the semester. The work was definitely manageable and made sure you understood the information because that's what we were tested on. It was a fun class too!
I really liked NST 171: Toxicology Lab because it gave me lab experience that I probably wouldn't have gotten if this class weren't required. Another thing that was so great about this class was the student to teacher ratio. There was about 1 teacher to every 3.5 students. So we really got to learn a lot from really great Professors: Bjeldanes, Leitman, and DeLumen; with a GSI for each professor. I really liked being in a small group rotating to the 3 different modules. We were able to get to know our group members really well, form a bond, and were able to work well together as a team. We learned lots of different lab techniques from culturing cells, transfecting cells, performing luciferase assay, proliferation assay, ames test, southern blots, comet assays, trypan blue assays, and more! After each module we would write up a lab report, we had 2 quizzes on the lectures, and we had final presentations on the last module we were in. Even though it started at 8am and ended around 12pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, it was such a great class! If you have the chance to take it, you should because it is a great experience!!
I really enjoyed both the language classes I took TAG 1A and THAI 1A because I am Filipino and I am now more conversant in Tagalog than I was before, and I really enjoyed learning about the Thai culture and its language because it is really beautiful. Ginang Pena and Ajarn Kepner were so nice and really did a good job of teaching us the languages. I really wish I could've taken the second semester of both classes but it just didn't work with my schedule!! I'm really glad I took these classes because not many other institutions offer them and I won't get another opportunity, so I might as well take advantage!!
These are great classes and are really fun!! If you have anymore questions about them come by my office hours on Thursdays from 11-1pm
My favorite class at Cal so far is a class I had taken as a freshman: EPS 39A. It's a freshman/sophmore seminar that teaches students about California geology with weekly lectures and a 3 day camping trip! My camping group's theme was "Fire and Ice" and we got to basically look at glacial markings in Lake Tahoe (ice) and volcanoes near Mono Lake (fire). It was one thing to listen and look at slides in class and quite another thing to actually go on mile long hikes and touch the mountain sides ourselves. We visited a lake where all the trees surrounding it were dead because of the sulfur leaking out from the lake floor and also took a dip in a natural hotspring. As a freshman I was shy and quiet and this class really opened me up.
I learned about other students' lives and how each person brought something special and unique to the trip. Every night we would all help cook dinner and stand around a huge fire, trying to warm up because it was so cold! This class was definitely special; how many classes have camping trips as the final? I recommended it to everyone on my dorm floor and those who took the class loved it too. This class was the most hands-on class I've taken at Cal and one that has really stuck with me. Even though my van broke down on the side of a mountain, I would take this class again in a heart beat.
Although some of my upper division courses in dietetics have been quite interesting, I really enjoyed classes outside of my major. I really enjoyed taking Music 26AC, music in American Culture. This class focused on music history throughout the 20th century. Professor Brinner taught the course beginning with folk music and ending with rock music in the late 1990s. You got to sample music from different cultures as well as share your own musical experiences with classmates. I also enjoyed taking music courses to fulfill my music minor. I took Music 49B and Music 49C. These were musicianship classes that taught music theory, sight singing and basic harmony. By the end of the classes, I learned how to compose my own chorales! Learning about music history and improving my musical skills helped to balance out the many science courses that I was taking. I'm glad I could take classes at Berkeley that satisfied my interests outside of nutrition.
so far, after finishing all the science prereqs for med school and taking some lower and upper div nutritional sciences classes for my nutrisci-physiology/metabolism major, i must say that NST 106 was a blast! I took it last semester, fall 06, with Dr. DeLumen. He certainly is a very nice and friendly guy; too bad i didnt go to office hours or talked to him more. Other than that, i must admit that i learned a lot of stuff in that class pertaining to everyday food choices and eating. I met a lot of cool people and really had a lot of fun. I was never bitter or tired whenever i needed to study for that class because the info was really interesting and fun. I really recommend this class because its not just something you have to learn; it is a fun, relaxing class in which you get to learn a lot of stuff without the stress. How nice! =D
i hope i can take that class again! i really miss it!!!
Word of mouth is one of the top ways to hear about some of the best courses offered at Cal. If you need to fulfill a requirement and have a couple of courses to choose from, I highly suggest that you talk to your peers who have taken the classes or your advisor. It is much better to get an insider’s view rather than choosing blindly. Currently, the PAL Program has a survey out that is getting student feedback on various courses offered at Cal, so soon you will have that resource too. I have enjoyed all my courses (some a little more than others), but a few of them stand out as my favorite classes for one reason or another.
First, I really enjoyed Bio 1A. I took it over the summer, so it was a fast passed, tough class that took a lot of time and commitment; however, it was well worth it. If you are interested in general biology then this is the class for you. Don’t be scared off by its reputation as a hard class because it is so interesting that you don’t really notice that the material is tough. What was refreshing about this class is that it covered a wide range of material, yet it was still detailed enough to get a worthwhile experience.
Bio 1A was my favorite class up until I took NST103. NST103 is a great course because you learn everything you need to know about how our bodies digest, absorb, and use nutrients. Not only is the material fascinating, but Dr. Fleming is a wonderful professor who truly cares about her students understanding and retaining the information she teaches. You don’t have to be a nutritional science major to appreciate this class, it is knowledge that everyone can enjoy (as long as you have a passion for science and have previously taken biochemistry).
Lastly, I would highly recommend PH 162A, a microbiology class that focuses on infectious diseases. This was one of my required courses and I didn’t know what to expect going into it. As the semester progressed I came to love this class. It is a useful class for all to take because you can apply every aspect of it to your life. There were several times in class that I thought, “I have always wondered about that.” This class not only answers a lot of common questions but it goes above and beyond.
There are so many amazing classes offered at UC Berkeley that it is hard to go wrong. However, if you are having a hard time choosing your classes don’t forget to use your resources. Come by my office hours if you would like to hear more about these classes or any other classes that I have taken and would suggest you take (especially if you’re a Dietetics major).
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