Alexis Gray
Ronald Kline
PDP 450
January 7,2017
PDP 450 (Revision)
Personal Education Program
During my senior year of high school I started to receive a large amount of
mail from Bridgewater College. I wanted to attend a large college that was in the
city, I like to be surrounded by people, but most importantly I wanted to be close to
my family. I knew that I wanted my family close enough that if something happened
I could still go home and be with my family or they could make a day trip so come
and see me. I was unsure about attending a liberal arts college I didn’t want to have
to take a bunch of course throughout my time there that did not pertain to desired
course of study was. But I decided to apply anyway I applied to three college and I
got into them all. However once I arrived on Bridgewater’s campus to visit. Once I
got off of 81 the nerves really started to set in; this campus so far removed from
everything that I thought I wanted. Once I got on campus it was the people here that
sold me on coming to this campus; however I was still unsure that this was the right
college for me especially because it was Liberal Arts College. But I came here and got
the chance to meet and talk with a lot of people who would eventually some of my
life long friends.
I knew after having a chance to talk to some people who went here that I was
instantly more comfortable at the thought of going to a liberal arts college. My
family was also really excited when they came to visit the college with me they loved
it very much, they thought that the people here were really nice and the community
was also really nice as where the teacher who took time out of their day to talk to
my family as we walked around. The school was also really nice with the amount of
help that they were willing to help family and I with so that I could actually afford to
study here.
When I first got to Bridgewater College I immediately declared my major. I
choose Psychology as my major. When I came to college I didn’t exactly know what I
wanted to do but I had general ideas of things that made me feel good and that I
thought I could do long term. I knew that as a child I couldn’t work at any job where
I would have to work in a cubical. I knew that I wanted to work in theatre for the
rest of my life; but Bridgewater did not offer a Theatre so I was forced to pick
another subject that I enjoyed. I did this because all I could do was declare a theatre
minor but the majority of my time in class would be spent doing general education
and a bunch of other classes that wouldn’t be something that I wanted to do long
term.
But when I had a chance to sit down with some of the Psychology professors
like Dr. Brian Kelley he was one of the greatest teachers I had ever had. He did not
teach or lecture like any other professor I had ever had, he stood at the front of class
and lectured in an unconventional way, he told stories and made it easy for you to
understand what he was talking about. He even brought an eyeball to class one time
when he wanted to show how strong a human eye was by hitting it with tennis
racked it was crazy and so unlike anything I had ever seen in a classroom setting.
I for the first couple of years I was thinking that I would not be able to
theatre for the rest of my life because the other people I would be trying to get
caught up with others who had spent their four years of college having the ability to
take different classes that have to deal with all the different types of things they
could possibly study, they would have a chance to look at all the different aspects of
theatre but I wouldn’t have the chance to do that because I had not have the chance
to study all these things. But that is when I talk to Dr. Cole and he talks to me for
such a long time and made sure that I knew my options. I knew that I could declare a
theatre minor he helps me to find out what exactly what I thought I wanted to do,
and even up until this point has helped me to continue to follow my path.
My advisors as well as some of the teachers who I have had the pleasure of
being taught by during my time here at Bridgewater; one thing that sticks out to be
Dr. Eby in his Abnormal Psychology class there where a lot of different disorder that
could be conflicting and hard to understand. There was a very specific type of
summary that we had to turn in every once a week after we had read the chapter.
This was so helpful, because it taught me a really great way of taking notes; it is a
really good way to reinforce things that you have learned. To this day, Abnormal
Psychology was the class that I have learned the most about all kinds of things. But
the things that I learned in that class were really important for the rest of my
psychology classes and the fact that I had really great notes to look back on. For
example one of the things I had to do was a summary on was somatic symptom
disorders.
“One or more somatic symptoms that are distressing and or/ result in significant
A.
disruption of daily life.
B. Excessive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to the somatic symptoms or associated health
concerns as manifested by at lease one of the following:
1. Disproportionate and persistent thoughts about the seriousness of one’s symptoms.
2. High level of health – related anxiety.
3. Excessive time and energy devoted to these symptoms or health concerns
Although any one symptom may not be continuously present, the state of being symptomatic is
persistent (typically more than 6 months). (Abnormal Psychology. 3-12-15)
In other class having this type of organized notes where really helpful and
important. These notes carried over into a lot of different of classes, and it made it a
lot easier to understand and follow for classes where there were a lot of readings or
very complicated or complex information. An example for this is Dr. Sheridan’s
Arthurian Literature, there where a lot of different authors who wrote stories which
had the same character and really small details that made it different. So since I had
this new way of taking notes and details what happened in all of the different
stories, which we read in that class; taking my notes in this way as helped me do
really well in the class and really helped me to do well on the papers which were
assigned.
The story of birth of the once and future king of England has been told many
times, and during these retelling changes have been made some small and other large. In
2008 the British Broadcasting Company broadcasted a new show called The Adventures
of Merlin, which was loosely based on the Arthurian Legends of Merlin and his
relationship with King Arthur; but this version differs from the traditional stories in many
ways. For example this show is reimaging King Arthur and Merlin are young
contemporaries, but Uther has banned magic and made it punishable by death. This
forces Merlin to keep his powers a secret from everyone in Camelot. The show follows
the growth of King Arthur from a young, egotistical boy to the might king which we have
read about in the legends. Merlin had a very colossal role in making sure that Camelot
was powerful. I plan to talk about the difference that can be found in King Arthurs birth
story between Malory’s versions found in Le Morte d’Arthur and the BBC television
show The Adventure of Merlin. (English 332. 2-27-15).
The best club that I have had the please to join and be apart of during my
time here was the Pinion Players, I have the opportunity to help host and create
different type of seminars, I have been able to stage manage three productions that I
was able to help with getting the show on the table of things to all the way to the
productions of show, I also was apart of the BC Allies which was a lot of helped me
to make a lot of friends and that was fun for me because I like to help people and
make them feel like they have safe people on campus who they could confide in and
knew that they could trust. I did not join a lot of clubs but the clubs that I did join I
am so happy that I did join them.
Engaging Diverse Perspectives
My studies of the fine arts at Bridgewater College are so of what I feel like are
the most important things that I have learned during my four years at Bridgewater.
When I first came to Bridgewater I was a getting an bachelor of science but the I
soon realized that I was not happy with my decision and so with the help of both of
my advisors I made the decision to switch to a Bachelor of Arts which is one of the
better decision I have made during my time here. I love all of the English classes I
got to take but most importantly it allowed more time for theatre. During these
times I was able to take so amazing theatre classes my favorite would have to be
Contemporary Drama, which was taught by Dr. Scott Cole. It was a really interesting
because a lot of the time we ignore new shows for the old ones that everyone knows
all the words to and has seen it preformed a thousand times. But this class opened
my eyes to all the amazing new works that were out there for more people to read,
and the one of the greatest things about Scott is that he never choose the shows you
would expect not expects, they are the one that make you think. One of my favorites
that I read was a show we actually put on as a main stage production, which I was
the stage manager for, it, was called The Ugly One and was written Marius Von
Mayenburg. The papers that we wrote for this class where some of my favorites to
write the challenged my mind to thinking outside what I had done for other classes.
An example of that would be a paper that I wrote about The Ugly One
“When I think about what I was expecting to see in terms of the space was pretty
close to what I was expecting. I knew that the seating would be on the stage but I did not
know how close the audience would be to the actors. The audience seemed really close to
the actors especially those on stage left during the elevator scene. You could see how
uncomfortable they were with how close Jordan was to them and with the amount of
yelling that this particular scene demands. In terms of the setting when I first read the
script the setting was a little bit of a challenge for me, there were so many different
places they were there for short burst or for long periods and in those periods different
characters come and go. Just because a certain character enters a scene does not always
mean that the location shift; this was especially true in during the run of the show
because characters would come into a scene to early and this would not chance the
location but instead it continue even if they did address the person who was not in the
scene. The way that each character behaved was different in each setting for example the
boss would check his watch, sit on the edge of desk, and eat fruit; the doctor would not do
any of those things all of his mannerism were completely different.” (Theatre 326. 2-252016)
The things that I had the opportunity to learn about in these fields of fine arts have
been extremely helpful and I cannot wait to see how these things come into play
with helping out as I endeavor to pursue a career in these fields. It has already
proved helpful because in my endeavor to prepare myself for interviews with
graduate school every graduate school that I have look have either recently
preformed one the shows that we read or they will be preform them in the next
season, and I know that it only the being of these classes helping to pursue my
career in theatre.
Ethics & Community Responsibility
I have taken a lot of classes during my time here at Bridgewater College and I
believe that through my Psychology classes I have been able to contribute to not
only at Bridgewater but also to the community as a whole. A lot of the psychology
courses that I have taken during this time; require that go to not only the
Bridgewater Retirement Center but also other Centers like it. We also were sent to
other mental heath facilities in the area; doing this has allowed me to learn what is
working versus what is not working in Bridgewater’s community. Doing work in
this community has allowed me to get a good look at the community. This
community which was not my own originally has allowed for see what I can do to
help the situation.
When I think of doing volunteer work with the community, the class that
most comes to mind when is we looked to help the community I think about my
Neuro-method class which was taught by Dr. Brian Kelley. We talked about the
impact the alcohol has on the brain especially on adolescences. Our class partnered
with a local coalition to work with students to and their parents to let them know
about how the body and the effects of alcohol on them. It was a lot of work because
we needed to educate the parents on how to have this conversation about
adolescence drinking habits, it also taught the adolescents what they could do to
help each other and how they could learn to make better decisions. We wanted to be
as helpful as we could I wrote a group a paper about alcohol’s impact on decisionmaking and performance the section that I wrote had to do with athletic and
academic performance
“Sleep is not the only aspect that will be affected while hung over.
Sport performance will decline with the regular use of alcohol much in part to its
hangover effects. The inability to concentrate will make any sort of activity
massively more difficult to complete, in regard to both academics and athletics.
For an athlete, the effects may not be significantly noticed until practices since your muscles are fatigued, they will have to work much harder to run, catch,
throw, etc. Struggling through a task you normally complete with ease will
potentially harm the view your coach holds for you and your positioning on the
team. Remember that a hangover lasts more than just the first day. While it can
take up to a week for sleep patterns to return to normal, it takes a few days more for
the brain to catch up. This means one night of drinking can result in a week’s worth
of underperforming for your sports team.
On a sports team there tends to be a dynamic. For one thing, social pressures
may encourage one to engage in drinking. A student may want to impress an older
crowd or act older than they actually are. Alcohol disrupts the developing systems
in your brain, especially the balance of neurotransmitters.” (Psychology 425. 3-1016)
This paper helped a lot of parents and students because as a class together
we put a whole paper it created an very great in depth article which would be great
we even had Dr. Kelley there to fact check us and help us make sure that what we
are doing is correct. We tried to be everything reaching out to restaurants and
helping them update there processes on making sure that they do not serve minors
alcohol and all of the others things that would be better for adolescents in this
community.
Global Citizenship & Intercultural Competencies
When I first came to Bridgewater it was required for everyone to take the
placement test for foreign languages, and I unlike a lot of people, I actually placed
out of a majority of the Spanish classes that are offered; however I still had the
fortune of being in two Spanish classes. I also had the amazing opportunity to take a
travel course with Dr. Suter and Jeff Pierson on the interterm trip, which went to
London and Berlin. I enjoyed my experienced on that trip, I learned a lot and
thought I wouldn’t like Berlin, but it was amazing, I had so much fun, helping the
locals work on there American accents and slang. I have always love London and it
was amazing to see how beautiful the city was and we had the amazing opportunity
to just explore the city and walk around to many different museums, and even made
life long friends there. When we where at Heathrow Airport we had to complete an
assignment in which I wrote this paper for Dr. Suter which said
“Ever since I saw “Love Actually” I have wanted to fly to Heathrow, the opening
scene talks about the arrivals area at Heathrow and the joy of being in a new place or
reconnecting with love ones and friends. On the same token I have had a fear of
airports for a really long time, the fact that so many things could go wrong like
missing a flight, getting stopped by security or ending up on the wrong flight; however
improbable that maybe. And while there was no one waiting for us to arrive the
excitement to be there was real among the group it felt tangible. But in order for us to
get to Heathrow we first had to go through Dulles.” (Communications 333X. 1-16-16)
This essay was so much fun to write because it gave us an opportunity to
think back over the trip and the fun we had and memories that we made. I wrote
this while waiting for our flight back to Washington D.C. it was amazing I still felt
immersed in the culture as I was writing this paper and it really helped me and
influenced my writing. It was one of the greatest experiences I have had during my
four years here and in my life as a whole, I loved my time there and the people that I
met and all the things that I had learned.
Experiential or Service Learning
When I think about the classes that I have taken during this time that have
been experiential I think about Biological Psychology that was taught by Dr. Brian
Kelley. In that class not only did I learn a lot but I was also given to chance to do
mice injections. I did not want to hurt the mice, I thought that they were really cute
and small, I didn’t want to hurt them especially sense they were giving them drugs
that where not the best for them, but it was used for research purposes. I was so
worried that I would kill my mice which I loving name A. Hamilton and A. Burr. I
was not intending to cry but Dr. Kelley was very patient with me as I tried to
complete the lab, which is to inject the mice with whichever drug we were testing.
My favorite assignment that I completed was after we watch the move Limitless for
which we had a essay complete, which ended up being around 6 or 7 pages long
because I felt really passionate about the questions we where presented for example
“A medication that cognitive allowed me to radically enhance my performance
and it very limited it would be worth a lot to me. As a student that would give me the
extra edge over my classmates and allow me to do well in all of my classes without
much effort at all. I would hope that they had fixed all kinks with the medication before I
took it, but you are competing against other students for who will get the best grades and
being able to get an A from a class with very little work while that was not the case for
other people would put me ahead of the pack. I like to think that like in the movie I would
try to do my own work without the medication and not become dependent upon it and
still be able to do the work necessary to pass my classes. In the movie he gave up and
went back to taking the medicine he was so desperate that he drank another man blood
because it contained the medicine. I do not believe that I would go this far or that this
medication would mean this much too much to me. Also I don’t like that I share the
medication with anyone else; especially if they had not fixed the side effects before
hand. I would not want to give someone a medication that could possibly kill them if they
take too much of it. I also feel as thought that adds another layer to competition aspect
because not many people would share a medication that allows you to use 100% of
brain, for fear that the effects of the medications effects would work better on someone
else. So while the medication might be seem like it is worth a lot there is a lot that should
be thought about be for making a decision about whether or not to take a medication,
just because of promised effects.” (Psychology 210. 9-13-15)
My time here at Bridgewater College has really been up and down which is
expected when you are dedicated a large and very important time of development in
your life. I am so happy with my decision to stay here at Bridgewater College I have
learned a lot especially in terms of my future I knew that for sure that I wanted to do
was psychology, I wanted to help other people learn what was happening to them
and work with them to find solutions that work the best for them and that hasn’t
changed, I have just learned that I love Theater. I am good, like really good at
theatre, I was nominated by Kennedy Center to win a award for Stage Management
and this wouldn’t have happened if I never saw the show “I and You” which was
really persuaded me to do theatre. Bridgewater has given me some of the best
friends I could I have ever asked for. Despite all of the ups and downs, I am thankful
for the day that I have been given both the easy and hard ones I am living; and the
role that Bridgewater has played in it all.