Ciara Gormley

Honors 100 Autumn Reflection

Coming into UW, I believed I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted out of my
undergraduate education. I believed -- and still do -- that climate change is the largest existential
threat of our time, and it will take millions of scientists, innovators, businesses, and
governments, to even begin to alleviate the issue. As an engineering undeclared student coming
in, I thought that naturally, the major most suited to me would be environmental engineering. But
I began to research what types of career and research opportunities other engineering disciplines
usually have, and discovered many more that align most with my abilities and interests, but can
still lead to me having an impact on the climate issue. As of now, I know I don’t want to do
environmental engineering, and am thinking mainly about industrial or human-centered design
engineering. This was a surprise to me because I believed so strongly that I knew what I wanted.
But now, I’m even more excited about the majors that are being offered here, and I find it hard to
narrow down what I want to study to just one topic. I attribute a lot of this reflection and change
to Honors 100, because it really encouraged us to explore think about what classes we want to
take long term, explore our interests, have meaningful conversations with others, and think
critically about other major issues in the world like digital privacy. Having access to the UW
Honors resources, and making friends with other Honors students really opened up my eyes to
the different academic possibilities I could take at UW. I’ve loved getting to know other students
who are interested in completely different things than I am, but who are nonetheless driven and
dedicated to helping solve the issues that are most important to them, and think critically and
broadly about how they might do so. Coming into UW, I thought honors just meant taking harder
classes, but I was really excited to learn about the unique classes, experiential learning
requirements, and the resources available to us. I’m really looking forward to taking honors
classes in the future, as I also didn’t fully realize just how many different topics were covered in
a small environment where professors are fully invested in what they teach. I also didn’t realize
just how interconnected these classes were -- where two topics that don’t normally seem
compatible collide, and professors encourage us to explore our own views and ideas about such
things. This is the kind of education and mindset I thought was reserved for small, private, elite
institutions, if still taught at all, so realizing that I can get this at UW has honestly made me so
much more excited about my time here. By the end of the year, I hope to have a better idea of
what my major will be, fully knowing that my mind could change throughout the year just as
quickly as it did this fall. I also hope to get more involved in the honors community, meet more
honors students and faculty, and really think about how I can apply my interdisciplinary
education to further my impact on the world. Coming to UW has exceeded many of my
expectations, and though it’s not always what I thought it’d be, I know I made the right choice. I
feel like I understand myself better than I ever did before, and feel that my interests in multiple
disciplines is celebrated here rather than suppressed, and that taking risks is encouraged. I know
it’s not always going to be easy -- long nights and questions about what I’m doing and failed
exams are basically inevitable -- but in this environment, hard times are seen as opportunities to
keep growing and learning, and that I know I can get behind. As I look forward to my time at
UW, I look forward to becoming educated not just in engineering, but also in the humanities,
social sciences, and philosophy, to hopefully travelling the world, giving back to my community,
and taking on new leadership roles, to prepare myself and my peers to leave a deep and lasting
impact on the world.