Honors Experiences
Internship PD and Reflection
Internship PD and Reflection (INT1000) was an online class Ashley took to complete her first semester of employment at her school's Learning Commons. This course assisted those in learning how to become better at their positions, whether it be a Learning Assistant, Peer Tutor, or part of the MASS Center. One of the Modules from this class included students having to create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) for ourselves. This allowed Ashley to reflect and ponder what she wanted for herself in the future. In this assignment, Ashley realized she wanted to work harder in her courses to raise her GPA and show to herself she could get a B or above in all her classes. She also wanted to be on her school's Dean's List. Ashley learned this was a challenging goal that allowed her to use her resources more and reach out to her professors for her to become successful. Due to unfortunate circumstances, she was not able to get higher than a B in all her classes, but she was able to achieve her SMART goal in most of her classes. Ashley learned how to be able to be determined to achieve a goal that may be easier said than done.
Learn to Start by StartUp Studio
Learn to Start was an online class Ashley took to complete her second Honors Experience. This course taught those about the hard truths one may endure when pursuing a career in Entrepreneurship. One of the Lessons from this class included students reflecting on who they are and what they should bring to the professional world. This was a hard question for Ashley to answer since typically she goes with the same statement of "Hi, my name is Ashley Kirby. I'm a (insert year here) year Engineering Student at the University of Cincinnati. I'm President....". Ashley had to look inside herself, taking away her age, where she's from, and what she's currently doing in life to find out who she is and wants to be. Ashley thought long and hard about this question and she is still unsure of who she is as a person. Ashley wants to be helpful, selfless, caring, and driven by her ambitions. She wants to be the person that roots for everyone to succeed at doing what brings them pure joy and happiness. Recognizing this would be challenging to apply in the corporate world, Ashley will continue to explore the different ways she can make these traits her reality, as well as bring them to her future business.
UHP Welcome Experience Mentor (Welcome Experience Leader)
The UHP Welcome Experience Mentor (Welcome Experience Leader) was a leadership program where mentors were assigned new UHP students to guide them through the first half of their freshman year. This experience taught students to make sure they create their own communities, learn to be less dependent on others, and ask for help when needed. One of Ashley's lessons from this experience is that communication is very important. When she and her colleague often planned meet-ups with their mentees, their schedules did not align. On top of this, Ashley experienced many personal problems and issues that made it hard to attend the meetings. She made sure to communicate this with her fellow mentor, and they were able to work with each other accordingly.
Ashley is seen as a leader/mentor in many different aspects of her life; however, she believes she could have done a better job keeping up with her students. Being in her fifth year has been a big change in her life that she did not account for. At times, life became very busy, and the mentorship program had to be pushed back. If she could do one thing differently, it would have been to check in with her students weekly to ensure they were doing all right and also let them know they are not alone. Many of her students were engineering students, so there was an opportunity for her to help them more than she did. In the future, Ashley will check up on her mentees more often and make herself more available.
MTEN3013: From Soda Cans to Smart Phones - How It’s Made
MTEN3013 was a course Ashley took during the last semester of her college career. She was interested in this course because of her co-op at Ethicon Inc., a Johnson and Johnson company. One of her many mentors, Stephen Torrain, worked in one of the Materials Departments and this interested Ashley in how she could incorporate a surface-level education in Materials for Medical Devices. Luckily, there was this honors course available for her last semester, so she jumped on that opportunity.
In this course, students were taught about what things were made of. During the lectures, they would learn about the four different categories of materials: metals, polymers, ceramics, and composites. One of Ashley’s favorite memories from this course was when her professor would show the students videos on how the different products were made. It reminded her of when she used to work at GE Appliances, where she learned how dishwashers were assembled on an assembly line. This course required students to create a presentation and activity workshop for high school students. There were four groups of students for the four categories of materials. Ashley’s group was to share a presentation and create an activity surrounding composites. One of the most difficult challenges in this presentation was to keep the high school students engaged and willing to learn. It had been a while since she’d been in high school so the composites group made sure their activity brought out the inner child in everyone. At the conclusion of the course, Ashley realized the importance of knowing materials and how they can affect the world around us.
AFST3197: Uncomfortable Truths: From Africa to #GeorgeFloyd in "American History"
AFST3197 was another course Ashley took during the last semester of her college career. In this course, students learned about the Uncomfortable Truths about Race in the world. She was interested in this course because it was different from all her other classes. The only other Africana Studies course she took was Blacks in Science and Technology, which was required by her LSAMP scholarship. Ashley did not have an opportunity to take a course that covered Black History. Her goal for 2023, or new year’s resolution, was to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. This was a massive challenge for her, but she was willing to put herself in that situation to become a better global citizen.
During this course, students learned about the Atlantic Slave Trade, how Black History Month wasn’t for Black Americans, the importance of reading Federal Bills that dictate her education, and much more. One of her favorite memories was the 28 Days of Black Excellence celebrated for Black History Month. During this time, Ashley’s views were impugned but this allowed her to reshape her thinking to better understand others. A project that students were tasked with was leading a class discussion on a book of their choice relating to the black experience. Ashley read “The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and The Stories,” by Nella Larson. In this book are various realistic fictional stories on the black experience during the early 20th century. This class was one of Ashley’s favorites and she’s so glad she was able to take it before graduating. After she graduates, the class will be taking a trip to Washington D.C. where they’ll be engulfed in the history of Black people in America.