Experiential Learning: Original Application

Husky Tetris Club: Officer

Student Name

Anthony Xing

Experiential Learning Category

Leadership

Associated UW Course (if applicable)

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4. Summarize your proposed experiential learning activity, including the primary focus of

your activity and whatever tasks or actions it entails.

The Husky Tetris Club is a gaming RSO at the University of Washington, where members of the

club come together in person every Tuesday to play classical Tetris and modern Tetris together

for 2 hours. Members of the club can talk about Tetris remotely outside of the weekly Tuesday

meetings through our Instagram or Discord. We are also considering having weekly meetings on

both Tuesdays and Thursdays for more flexibility.

As an officer of the Husky Tetris Club, I help out in a variety of ways since an officer's

responsibilities in the Husky Tetris Club are pretty flexible.

So far, I've helped with the advertising and outreach of the Husky Tetris Club to other UW

RSOs. I've also helped to expand the club to over 150+ members, develop the Discord server(s),

and make an automatic announcement system for weekly in-person club meetings.

In addition, I've been showing up to in-person club meetings an hour early with other officers to

help coordinate the meeting and the other plans of the Husky Tetris Club.
5. In your own words, define ‘leadership’. What are the traits of a leader? What past

experience do you have with leadership?

In my own words, 'leadership' is getting and organizing various people and communities together

for one common interest or goal. There are many good traits a leader can have, some of which I

believe are communication, coordination, organization, and teamwork.

I had a little bit of experience in leadership before the Husky Tetris Club.

During the Spring quarter of last academic year, me and some friends came together and formed

a club centered around theoretical computer science. It's still relatively new, but I have helped

grow the club to over 100+ members and make it an official RSO. Currently, I am working with

the other officers to prepare materials and plans so we can start holding in-person meetings soon.

6. Why did you choose to engage in this leadership activity? Why is leadership valuable?

I chose to engage in this leadership activity because I enjoy playing modern Tetris, so I wanted

to benefit the club by helping it to expand and getting to know more people who also like playing

Tetris, especially since it was my 1st year at university, so I didn't know many people. When I

first joined the club, the club seemed to be inactive and the active members were usually just the

ones who've been in the club for a long time, so I believed I could have helped revive and

develop more interest in the club if I were an officer, thus my reason why I wanted to become an

officer.
In general, I believe leadership is valuable because many situations in life, like working at a job

or doing a research project with other people, often require many skills that are most commonly

found in leadership, such as communication, coordination, organization, teamwork, and time

management.

To me currently, leadership experience is very valuable since I didn't get much from my short

time in high school, so I believe my undergrad is a valuable time to develop these leadership

skills that could prove very useful for my academic career.

7. What tangible skills or experience do you hope to grow during this activity? How does

this activity connect to your coursework? How does it speak to your educational,

professional, or personal goals?

I don't think my activity as an officer connects much with my coursework, as there aren't many

courses at UW to my knowledge that have to do with Tetris.

I do hope to gain more soft skills through leadership in this activity so that I can perform better

in a job or on a research project in the future.

Specifically, I hope to gain more soft skills in communication and cross-functional collaboration,

because I believe those are the experiences and traits that I am lacking the most.

When it comes to my educational/professional goals, I want to pursue a research career and I

eventually want to become a graduate student who can lead their own research group related to

artificial intelligence, so I believe that developing skills in cross-functional collaboration would

allow me to assemble an efficient research group spanning multiple departments that could

conduct research with speed and efficiency. I also believe developing communication skills

would help me a lot in passing interviews, as I have struggled more with presenting than writing.
When it comes to my personal goals, I hope to get to know more people at UW who like playing

Tetris through the Husky Tetris Club throughout my time as an undergraduate student.

8. What are the responsibilities or challenges of taking on a leadership role? What are the

impacts of positive or negative leadership? How can leaders ensure their impact is positive?

There are many responsibilities and challenges that a leader must take on, especially when they

are a leader of a big group of people or a big organization. When you are a leader of something

that can affect the lives of many people, even one tiny mistake can often result in major

consequences for the people or organization you lead. However, it's often overlooked that one

positive change can also bring great results to the people or organization you lead.

From history videos, I received messages about a great military commander and administrator

named Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon Bonaparte is considered by many now to be one of the greatest military commanders

in history. One of his positive changes was the reorganization of how France's army was

structured, making it much more mobile and active. Along with hard work and great military

strategy, this change led to several brilliant victories against a coalition of other countries

throughout 1805-1809. However, one of his mistakes was the invasion of Russia, which cost his

army around half a million men and ultimately led to his defeat in 1814.

The history of Napoleon Bonaparte goes to show how small, simple decisions can end up with

great or disastrous results.

These messages have influenced my perception of leadership, and have aligned with my current

understanding of leadership, as I have always believed that you need great analytical and

strategic thinking to be a successful leader. However, you also need to be active as a leader and

keep a balanced thought process behind your decisions to prevent becoming inactive or

indecisive.

Estimated hours per week: 5

Estimated project start: 10/03/2023

Estimated project end: 12/08/2023

We appreciate being able to share thoughtful applications as examples for Honors students.

May we share excerpts from your application and final reflection to use as examples on the

Honors website?

No

Supervisor

First name: Paisley

Last name: Maschmeier

Title/Affiliation

President of Husky Tetris Club

Organization (if applicable)

Husky Tetris Club

UW NetID (if applicable)

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Email

paisleym@uw.edu