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Christina Buck
Professor Bell
UHON 1000
1 December 2016
End-of-Semester Reflective Essay
At the beginning of this semester, I had a specific idea of what a perfect college career
would be and detailed three main goals for myself while in college: to get involved with the UTC
community, become integrated with the Chattanooga community, and become invested with the
Computer Science department. I believe I have made a lot of progress in accomplishing the
community integration goals this semester through joining UTC organizations and the
Chattanooga Humane Educational Society (HES); however, I was not able to meet many of the
professors or my peers in the Computer Science field because my Computer Science course was
online. Overall, I have made much progress in attaining my goals, and I believe that I will have
many more opportunities to further these goals next semester as well.
To get involved with the UTC community, I joined two organizations: Girls in Computer
Science and the 3D Print Club. Joining these clubs was very beneficial to me because it allowed
me to meet many other UTC students, and these clubs each gave me projects to use my free time
on something productive and helpful for the UTC community. To integrate myself with the
Chattanooga community, I began volunteering at HES. In doing this, I have been able to meet
many Chattanooga residents who have a similar interest in helping animals, which has allowed
me to feel more welcome in the city. Academically, I was slightly disappointed with my first
semester. Of course, I feel accomplished having done well in my classes and having learned

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many interesting things all of which are beneficial to my future career plans. I feel, however, as
though I was not exposed to the Computer Science department as much as I wanted to be. I was
able to take my first Computer science course, but it was an online course, so I was not able to
meet many of my Computer Science peers nor was I able to get to know many of the Computer
Science teachers. Although, I had a negative experience with my Computer Science course, I
found all the other courses I took this semester to be incredibly interesting, and they have helped
me improve many core skills such as reading, writing, speaking, and math. My Humanities
instructor, Professor Baker, helped me to become better at analyzing books, more specific with
my writing, and more proficient at verbalizing my thoughts during discussions. As for math, I
was nervous at the beginning of the semester to take a combined Pre-Calculus course, but in
taking this course, I feel much more confident in my ability to take higher-level math courses.
During the Spring semester, I plan on continuing my efforts to integrate with the UTC
community by participating and contributing to the organizations of which I am currently a
member. I hope to acquire a position in at least one of these organizations. Furthermore, I plan on
continuing to volunteer at HES over the Spring semester. I believe volunteering at HES has been
very beneficial to me by allowing me to meet people outside of UTC, and it gives me an
opportunity to donate my time to something that will help the community. I hope to become
more invested with HES during the Spring semester by participating and helping with more of
their events. In regards to Computer Science, I do not anticipate that I will have an opportunity to
become more integrated with the Computer Science department next semester. I attempted to
register for a traditional class setting for my next Computer Science course; however, the time of
the class I registered for was changed, and I was forced to register for a hybrid course instead. I
should have more of a chance to meet more of my Computer Science peers and teachers through

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the in-class portion of the class next semester, but the majority of the class with be online. Being
a Computer Science major, I would like to have relationships within my department. Even
though I had difficulty with this goal this past semester, I am positive that I will accomplish this
in the next few years, and I plan on whole-heartedly working on this endeavor throughout the
Spring semester.