2022 - 2023
taking lead
Winter 2023
Courses Taken: A A 299, CSE 474, CSE 496, HONORS 391, MUSIC 381, MUSIC 489
video of conducting Lincolnshire Posy 6th movement
new musical endeavors
As part of taking the conducting sequence, I had the opportunity to conduct UW's band ensembles. The piece was the 6th movement of Lincolnshire Posy. I have been wanting to conduct ensembles for a lot of my musical background. This was particularly because I have lots of musical ideas and visions for how music should sound, so I wanted to be able to shape music through conducting. In the process of conducting, I've learned about many of the nuances of what it takes to be an effective conductor. It's almost like learning a new instrument, with the instrument being an ensemble. However, it has been a super rewarding experience and I've had lots of fun throughout it. I'm excited to continue being a conductor and create music with others. I'm planning on taking another quarter of conducting next year, as well as finding opportunities outside of class to conduct as well. Making music is simply so rewarding to me, and I love it so much.
putting it all together
This quarter, I took CSE 474 - Introduction to Embedded Systems. We learned to use microcontrollers to create physical computing projects. This was a really fun class for me because I got to build on my past robotics experience in a more formal curriculum. It helped to fill in the gaps of what I didn't learn from just hands-on experience in extracurriculars. For our final project, we had flexibility in building anything we wanted, so I decided to build a small RC car. I used concepts from the class to make the wheels turn from wireless control from my laptop. I also explored 3D printing to build the frame of the car itself. This class had a big impact on strengthening my identity as a maker. Ultimately, my grade in the class wasn't as high as I wanted it to be because I did poorly on the final exam, but it also made me really realize that I cared much more about the concepts and projects than the specific grade I received.
picture of RC car (CSE 474 final project)
picture of Downtown Seattle in 2023
reexploring seattle
For my Honors course this quarter, we explored the history of Seattle and how it relates to the history of Indigenous communities in the Seattle area. This was a meaningful course to me because it encouraged me to look at somewhere I'm familiar with, Seattle, through a completely different lens. I learned so much about the places in which I have grown up, as well as the challenges that Indigenous communities have faced. We embarked on quite a few field trips to locations across Seattle, which was meaningful as we could directly see how our topics from readings and discussions correlated to life and culture in those places in Seattle. My overall perspective on Seattle and its history has broadened greatly, and I can appreciate its communities and geography even more than before.