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Practicum
Just as I did, I highly recommend finding a topic/issue/subject that you are interested about and find an organization or class at UMD that seeks to teach you and help you initiate the change you wish to see. If you are not fully invested in what you do for your practicum, you won't enjoy it as much nor get as much out of it. In terms of contacting a site for your practicum, you should reach out to as many organizations and places that you are interested in and create a tier list of what internships you are more interested in over others. You have to keep trying and don't get bummed out if you don't get an internship that you really wanted. There will be other opportunities to get that dream internship.
My Practicum:
For my practicum as a Media Scholar, I took a class called PLCY388D called: Innovation and Social Change: Do Good Now. It was a class focused on detecting social issues and the roots behind them, and how to effectively create social change that benefits a targeted group. Throughout the class, we went over many different topics such as poverty, racism, and the wage gap and talked about why these issues persisted. We learned the importance of mapping out why injustices exist by looking at the incentives of those who place others in situations of injustice. Without mapping out the various players in a particular social issue, one cannot create lasting social change.
As a complement to what we were learning in class, it was also expected that we researched a social issue that we were interested in and write three research papers about the:
1) Introduction to the issue (who is affected, why is it an issue)
2) History of the injustice (what policies have been tried in the past, how did the issue come to be)
3) Future and proposed approach (what does the future look like, what is your proposed idea to fix/alleviate this issue)
along with an informative way to display our research.
As a complement to what we were learning in class, it was also expected that we researched a social issue that we were interested in and write three research papers about the:
1) Introduction to the issue (who is affected, why is it an issue)
2) History of the injustice (what policies have been tried in the past, how did the issue come to be)
3) Future and proposed approach (what does the future look like, what is your proposed idea to fix/alleviate this issue)
along with an informative way to display our research.
Specifically, my project that I focused on was about teacher supply and demand and how there is an increasing shortage of teachers in Maryland. I came up with this idea for my project as I was very interested in fixing the issue regarding the achievement gap for some time. I have worked at my local Kumon for almost five years. As an educator, it hurts me when I see facts showing that those who live in a specific neighborhood or those of a specific socioeconomic class are set up for failure by our education system. Although provided free education, these schools at those zip codes lack the resources and necessary numbers of teachers in order to tackle issues like large classroom sizes. Since the topic regarding the achievement gap deals with many different issues in the education system (e.g. funding, unions, local laws, etc.), I decided to specifically attack the issues regarding teacher attrition and research about why there are less teachers entering the industry each year.
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What I learned:
Throughout my entire research process, I learned so much about teacher supply in demand. Specifically, in my interviews with several teachers and a principal, I learned that many first-year teachers do not get enough support by the administration and school. As a result, due to the high expectations of these teachers and the large amount of students they teach, a lack of a strong support system often leads to frustration which is often attributed to increases in teacher attrition. To further highlight the issue, in 2013, the demand for teachers in Maryland was around 175,000. Since then, the demand has been increasing with each year which is now reaching nearly 300,000. The long-term consequences of a shortage of teachers will lead to increases in student-teacher ratios in classrooms which will negatively impact students who need special attention from the teacher. This will further throw them behind their classmates and likely extend their graduation year. The societal impact of this could be a lack of experienced, capable workers for large industries like Microsoft which may be forced to recruit people from other countries.
Above is a link to the website I made which summarizes the three different papers that I wrote for this class. I chose this website to highlight the entirety of my practicum as not only does it highlight all the research I did for each individual paper, but it also highlights my growth in conducting research and writing professionally. As a researcher, this class taught me a lot in regards to conducting professional research. This class taught me how to objectively ask interview questions, how to look at an issue with an open mind, and how to express my research in a sophisticated and professional way. I believe that this website I created highlights these skills that I have learned and improved throughout the semester.
Future Outlook:
The various skills and lessons I have learned from my practicum will be very useful to me in the near future. As a math and computer science major, I most likely plan to work somewhere in the fields of IT or artificial intelligence. Both these fields require teamwork and presentation skills. The skills I have learned about listening and understanding other perspectives will help me tackle real-world issues by listening to my boss and coworkers. Keeping an open mind will help me address issues in a project that I may not see or know about. Also, the entire subject of this class, social injustice, is something that will constantly be around me, and it will help me become a better citizen by helping those who are in need. Whether it is walking by a homeless man, or donating to an international aid organization, understanding social injustices and empathizing with those people suffering from it will make me become a better person.
In the next two and a half (5 semesters) years at UMD, I will be continuing my undergraduate studies in applied mathematics and computer science and graduate UMD with a double degree. I plan to continue my education into graduate school and possibly get a PHD as well. I hope in the future to land a job in either the career fields of IT or AI.
In the next two and a half (5 semesters) years at UMD, I will be continuing my undergraduate studies in applied mathematics and computer science and graduate UMD with a double degree. I plan to continue my education into graduate school and possibly get a PHD as well. I hope in the future to land a job in either the career fields of IT or AI.