This semester seemed to have flown by, even if there were parts that seemed to move so slowly. Despite the opinions of students in other FYE classes, I think our class could collectively agree that we had a good experience, contributed both by a great teacher, peer helper, and diverse range of students from all walks of life. It united us together to dig deep into (sometimes) controversial topics and breach the wall of discomfort to better understand situations and differing perspectives. The first student learning outcome FYE is designed to teach is to develop and apply information literacy skills in academic and non-academic contexts. As honors students, we are expected to write a thesis before graduating as well as understand that all of the research papers we write are held to much higher standards. We did not really need to spend a lot of time writing an actual research paper because we had definitely done enough of those. Instead, we constructed an outline and found two sources
The last two weeks we talked about Che Guevara, the infamous guerrilla fighter and master of rebellion. But who was he before his surge to infamy? We watched The Motorcycle Diaries in class which explains his background. If you did not know that the main character IS Che Guevara, you would never make the connection. The movie does not indulge in Che's career as a fighter but only his travels as a doctor with his friend, Alberto. Together, they traveled around South America, exploring new cultures and helping people along the way. The movie portrayed as a very nice, kind, sympathetic man, passionate about making a difference to people. To many, Che is still that sort of Saint, but many others see his dark side, leading thousands of executions in his warpath for communism. The movie does an excellent job of turning your point of view to sympathize with this man and making him the protagonist. Even if you knew a little about Che beforehand, you still felt this feeling of "I wa
