Module 2 Professional Development

Ellen Cornelius, M2, 1711BE

#

Reflection on Parable of the Polygon Gear Up
I really enjoyed this Gear Up, mainly because I feel like I have some rebuttal for when people scorn affirmative action. Actions are needed to start changing something that has been embedded in our American culture for centuries. The only thing that could have been better was some better discussion in our classroom - everyone seemed to agree that what the parable of the polygon game preached was true and good. I would have liked to hear some differing opinions, but I feel as though the political culture at Turing is very liberal and people who disagree don't always feel welcomed to share their opinions.

Reflection on Mod 4 Gear Up
I thought the learning through teaching gear up was fantastic and the Mod 4 students did a wonderful job of facilitating discussion. I really enjoyed discussing what it meant to be a good/bad mentor and mentee, especially since I have been both at Turing. I have taken some concrete strategies away from it. For example, if I am mentoring someone I will start the conversation with "how do you like to learn? IE Do you like me to ask you questions about your though processes or share what I think you should do?" I also feel less afraid to go into pairing sessions now as the mentor, because I know I don't always have to know the answer, and finding the answer together as a team can actually help me learn, as well as giving my mentee "access to my brain" and letting them experience how I think about problems. Mentoring and Menteeing is just a great thing in general because it helps you develop your "code vocabulary," formulating specific questions, and become a better technical communicator.

Reflection on Empathy Gear Up
I have always known I am extremely lucky to be in the position I am. I take this knowledge and try to show empathy to everyone, because you are always more privileged than someone else and someone if always more privileged than you. It's a scale. I think it's easy to become resentful at other's who have more privilege than you, but you have to show them empathy too because their experiences are very different than yours. I visited Nicaragua this summer and saw a lot of poverty and not much opportunity for most children growing up there, unless their families were upper class. I really try to keep this perspective in my head when I'm feeling negative about Turing and the workload and its structure, because I know I'm incredibly lucky to even have the chance to attend a coding school like this, and to not take myself and my struggles so seriously.

Individual StoryWriting
I have always been an idealist at heart, and it's something I'm proud not to have lost. I majored in Environmental Studies because on the most basic level I wanted to create a better world. After working in several different environmental non-profits after college, I realized the non-profit world was not best at implementing fast and creative solutions on grand scales. The most out-of-the-box move that my last non-profit did was host an app challenge for environmental health. It was this app challenge that opened my eyes to the world of data and how the growing wealth of environmental health metadata could actually create solutions to curb the growth of chronic diseases, mitigates climate change and help so many other environmental health problems. I excel in my ability to see problems and act on them, which is why I enrolled in Turing to become part of data-driven solutions. Turing has tested my abilities in many ways, but the biggest thing it has taught me is that my conviction to keep pursuing a fix even though I have had to give up a lot of things in the short term.... or something.