USC is definitely known for having a very collaborative environment, and this semester is certainly a showcase of that mentality! My classes this Spring have certainly placed a focus on group work and I constantly find myself running from one group meeting to the next.
First, in my Technical Writing for Engineers class, my group of five students is working to create a science and technology curriculum to be featured in the Green House, a local historical home owned by the LA Parks and Rec committee. It has definitely been an experience having to work all semester on this project, having to work around everyone’s busy schedules and rely on people completing their parts. Luckily I have a great team and have had a lot of fun generating ideas with them.
If all the challenges of meeting with other USC students wasn’t enough, my iPodia Global Innovation class has even more group work with a very different set of challenges. For this class, we are partnered with a class in Korea and China, and last week each campus had to create a video demonstrating culture on this campus. For us, it was Spring Break, so we had to really all step up and come together to make a worthy film! It was definitely a challenge coordinating everyone from their different spring break adventures, but it was a great experience. Now the class is shifting into our cross campus team projects, where two students from each school will come together to identify a sustainability issue across all campuses and work to come up with an innovative solution. As you can imagine, the geographical distance makes this quite a challenge, but an exciting one!
Beyond that, I find I am always in a study group for both my chemical engineering class or my organic chemistry class. We have all discovered how much easier it is to work as a group and bounce ideas off each other, and really enhance our learning and understanding by filling in the gaps of what other’s don’t quite get. I love that this collaborative environment is fostered at USC and I have made some amazing friends and colleagues through my various study groups.
