Personal Narrative: My AP Calculus Class

My AP Physics C classroom is filled with whiteboards. You can start writing a problem on one board, circle around the room, and find the answer right next to where you started. With a small class of just eight students, application of physics and calculus to real world scenarios is gripping. I remember contemplating during the MLB World Series fervor how long batters had to react to a pitch. My physics class and I were intrigued. We all grabbed Expo Markers and began solving for velocity, acceleration, impulse, all the while keeping in mind cross-sectional area of the ball, the stride of the pitcher, and other minor variables. I modified the problem by asking the class to use Aroldis Chapman (the fastest pitcher) as the pitcher. We spent hours

As a proud feminist, I was thrilled to discover that Columbia Engineering is a 47% women, and that the Dean of Engineering, Mary Boyce, is a woman. My AP Physics C class is heavily males and almost all the girls sit together in the back corner. When I sat front and center in the classroom, boys surrounded me because no other girls braved the front row. At Columbia, I know that I will be in an environment with enough women that we can all sit proudly wherever we feel comfortable, and if women are outnumbered, they will work together to have their voices heard just as loudly.

Junior year at Tucson High Magnet School I was enrolled in College Algebra a class I was having difficulty in. First semester had already passed and I received the letter grade D. I knew I had to work harder and study more especially if I wanted to get a better grade point average in order to get excepted into Universities.

show. The layout of the activity plan went on schedule; it was a brief forty-minute workshop to introduce painting as a fun activity with multiple beneficial traits for male college students. Most important, was to educate all members if they would consider painting in the future, its about the idea and the mental preparation one gets to do before committing the action to the canvas. By the end of the session, the group and I discussed thoughts and feelings about painting and we all agreed that school can get in the way to paint, but you can always dream or prepare an idea in your mind that you would want to paint and when the timing is

Growing up, I was always one of those students who never got anything less than an A. From proudly receiving stickers and praise notes in elementary school to non-stop studying for an algebra test, I’ve always expected an A on my assignments. But then came junior year of high school. I had signed up for one of my school’s most demanding courses, AP Calculus AB. On the first day of class, the teacher explained the depth of the material we would be learning, telling us that it would cover a wide range of math, and showed us a brief introduction to it. He also mentioned that it was a course where we would have to take time and learn the material on our own. Having gotten straight A’s since the day I started attending school, I had no worries towards these statements.

When I was in fifth grade, I was taking third grade math. I could not, for the life of me, figure it out. Math was a huge struggle, and it still is. However, now, I am in Algebra II. Algebra II is a junior class and I am taking it as a sophomore. I have worked very hard to get where I am. This situation has made me realize a couple things. Number one: it is OK to ask questions. Number two: If you work hard, you will accomplish something.

Gifted in problem-solving, my sister was able to fall asleep in her math classes and still get an "A" on all her tests. On the contrary, I suffered from a deficiency in this department, instead excelling in language arts and humanities. Despite my talents in the liberal arts, my true passion lied in mathematics and the satisfaction that problem-solving provided.

I used to quote Henry David Thoreau when my parents scolded me for scribbling on tables, walls, even myself. “This world is but a canvas to our imagination,” I said, not understanding the meaning of the quote. In 2008, the scolding ceased when I won my first art prize: a Third Premium in the K-12 art competition at the Minnesota State Fair. Ignoring the food, rides, and ponies, I combed the galleries for my masterpiece. I found it in the corner: a drawing of a lopsided elephant and a ribbon. For the rest of the day, I sauntered through the displays, convincing myself that my work matched the quality of others’. After all, I was a winner. The Grand Prize display stopped me, but not for long. My winning-induced arrogance convinced me that earning

We started the day off by showing the students the slideshow on what is a self-portrait. They were extremely engaged answering questions as we moved through the slides. I started off asking them questions about the first slide. "Is there any artist they recognized?" I snuck in one of my own self-portraits on the first slide to see if they could guess it was actually one I had painted. In addition, some of the students were able to guess Van Gogh, Picasso, and Frida Kahlo. One of the students pointed to my portrait and said it looked like me. It was fun because I replied back, "yes it was me." We then went into a discussion on what makes up a self-portrait and how one could express themselves through a self-portrait. As we further discussed the self-portrait I continued through my slideshow. One of the topics was the difference between

I never thought I would be labeled a vandal, but one day, my mother returned home from work early and noticed a mess of art supplies scattered all over the tiled floor. After suspiciously following the trail of permanent markers, crayons, and colored pencils, she foiled my attempt to create my latest mural on the bathroom wall. While my actions infuriated my mother, my grandfather was delighted with my artistic endeavors. He attributed my creative destiny to his strong, artistic influence rather than his inability to watch my twin sisters and me simultaneously, a feat successfully accomplished by no one.

Everyone has been a few minutes late to a class, however not so many have been four weeks late to a class. I am one of those lucky few. Senior year my schedule was supposed to consist of College Algebra and Elementary Statistics, as part of the Dual Enrollment program at Pensacola State College. Because there were enough students taking the course at my high school, the college allowed a teacher in my school to teach the courses. Due to a few complications I had to drop out of the courses and then had to enroll in Pre-Calculus Honors. I dreaded the very idea. It ended up being quite a challenge. Notwithstanding, I passed the class. This is the most satisfying accomplishment I have ever achieved.

"Once again Congratulations to the class of 2014" When I begin to exit the room circulating with applauses, scattered nick names, and screams , it finally registered. This is it! ''This is the first step on the road of adulthood, and all I could think about is how my Art could impact the world. I've always been a creative, and artistic. When I was young growing up my play time was crafting or drawing on the sidewalk with chalk rather than tag or hide and go seek. From cutting fabric from old clothes to making houses out of construction paper. Art has always been a natural skill for me , however as time went on I began to get frustrated in my lack of skills and my urge for further improvement.

Ever since I've been old enough to have the job, I've taken my role on the mural crew seriously but this year was particularly important to me as I was an older veteran member of the crew. Earlier this summer, when I had come over to ask my boss about a certain outline of a hand I'd sketched onto the wall when she gave me her expectations for me that summer. While working hard along with everyone else and doing a thorough job painting were to be expected, the most significant piece of advice she gave me to was to be a

The hardest part of my entire project was not actually in painting, but in thinking of things to paint. For me, painting is far more time consuming than drawing with pencils

These previous weeks have been a roller coaster ride for me in calculus class. We covered several derivative rules and applied them during lecture and even homework. On discussion day, I took the quiz for these rules and managed to get a perfect grade. On the 27th of October, I managed to sleep past eleven o'clock. Unfortunately, I missed on the introduction to the chain but I was still able to get a note from a friend of mine. That night I decided to attempt the assigned homework. I felt that this concept was easier than the time I learned it in high school. I managed to get through the homework in roughly two hours. The following week we took our midterm and heavily discussed the chain rule along with examples. As for why this week is a rollercoaster, I was certain that I will pass the midterm without any difficulties. The homework and quizzes gave me high expectations. These expectations eventually hit the ground (very quickly) once I saw the actual test.