Program Outcomes

Communication Competence

"Learners will become effective communicators in their discipline."

For the Communication Competence Program Outcome, I have presented my report essay from ENG-111, Writing and Inquiry, which I took in the Fall semester of 2022. While I had written many essays before taking this course, I had never properly learned how to undergo the writing process from start to finish, including brainstorming, evaluating sources, creating a thesis, coming up with supporting reasons and evidence, and using citation styles correctly and effectively. ENG-111 is the first of three English courses I took at SPCC, and while an introduction course, I still got the opportunity to practice professional academic writing. The purpose of this report essay was to evaluate the overall quantitative value of coral reefs to human society, including both monetary and intangible benefits. Furthermore, the second purpose of the report was to identify the detrimental effects that will be placed on society if no further action is taken to preserve, protect, and converse coral reef ecosystems on Earth.

I selected this particular artifact because it best represents me gathering and analyzing credible sources, making observations on such data, and forming my own statements and main ideas to communicate the importance of coral reefs, which is a discipline-specific topic, as my future career goals pertain to marine science. The first goal I had with this piece was to accurately assess the coral reef destruction crisis, providing the audience with a brief and informative introduction/overview of the issue at hand, as well as exactly what coral reefs entail ecosystem-wise. To achieve this goal I largely used statistics from credible sources to illustrate that coral reefs are deteriorating at rates and that by 2030, around 90% of them around the world will be threatened. I then explained the exact reasons for coral reef bleaching and decay, explicitly noting that most, if not all arise from human interaction with the environment. My second goal with this essay was to illustrate how the loss of coral reefs would affect humans, rather than the habitats and well-being of marine creatures. The latter has been studied countless times, but the exact impact on human society has only been estimated here and there. Taking such data, I created three main areas of societal impact upon the extinction of coral reef ecosystems, being setbacks to the tourism industry and local economies, a shortage of natural resources for the pharmaceutical and food industries, and increased shoreline erosion and flooding.

This artifact relates heavily to my future career goals because it required me to research discipline-specific information, providing a unique and new perspective on a topic that has already been heavily studied. In the future, If I want to publish meaningful and useful research, I will have to look at more environmental crises from such a new perspective. The marine science field is all about understanding new relationships between life and the environment, meaning illustrating more relationships similar to how society is dependent on coral reefs can hopefully make me become an expert in my discipline one day, as well as getting noticed by potential places of work. As for my journey at SPCC, this report essay is what made me become familiar with the APA citation style, to the point where I can draft an entire paper following its rules, such as in-text citations and creating an accurate reference page.

Creative Problem-Solving

"Learners will apply appropriate techniques to solving problems within their discipline."

For the Creative Problem-Solving Program Outcome, I have chosen my proposal essay from ENG-112, Writing and Research in the Disciplines, which I took in the Summer semester of 2023. ENG-112 differed heavily from its precursor ENG-111 because of the types of essays required to be written as part of the curriculum. While both ENG-111 and ENG-112 consisted of drafting and finalizing a report essay, one of the unique requirements for ENG-112 was to create a proposal essay in which you undertook a discipline-specific problem, came up with logical solutions, defined any setbacks or potential costs with the solution, and provided evidence to support why such an idea would have beneficial results. While this specific program outcome is typically represented by a math or science project, I felt that it was not the best representation of my ability to creatively solve problems. The purpose of my proposal essay was to address the widespread issue of sea level rise in Coastal North Carolina, determine the main causes of such, create a primary and secondary solution to the issue, and discuss any monetary costs with implementing such a solution.

I have selected this particular artifact because it best represents my ability to come up with a unique and mutli-stage solution to a problem currently affecting the marine science discipline, but eventually all of humanity if remedies are not set in place to lower the rate of sea level rise from year to year. My biggest challenge and first goal with this proposal was having to narrow down the topic of sea level rise across all oceans to just the shores of Coastal North Carolina. This was done because in order to find an effective solution, the topic needed to be small enough to see all perspectives and to evaluate the issue's specific causes using local data. However, finding such local data proved to be very difficult, as I found myself scouring North Carolina government websites and local newspaper articles for information on the destruction of homes and property in small coastal communities such as Rodanthe. It was also difficult to measure how much the increased fossil fuel combustion in North Carolina contributed to air pollution and global warming just in the state alone. My second goal with this proposal was to create a realistic solution that wasn't too preposterous or impossible to recreate. After conducting research of similar coastal damage situations caused by sea level rise in other states, such as Virginia, I came up with a two-phase solution to both halt the increasing level of sea level rise in North Carolina and to decrease the level of carbon dioxide and fossil fuel emissions into the atmosphere, slowing down that rate for the foreseeable future. Phase one involved implementing a 10-year plan to improve community infrastructure to stabilize public structures, buildings, and homes. Phase two involved implementing a 5-year plan to plant trees in North Carolina industrial cities to increase the amount of carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere by utilizing photosynthesis cycles.

Once again, this artifact aligns with my future career goals of becoming a marine biologist and conducting research, but it is unique in that it focuses less on actual marine life, but instead on coastal geography and the interactions between the ocean and the land over time, which includes coastline erosion, sea level rise, and wave intensity and height. As for my journey at SPCC, this is definitely the lengiest paper I have written so far, at around 26 pages. It was definitely great to get some practice in with writing such a long document, as I am certain that I will have to complete projects of similar length in the future. Also, this proposal was the first time I had ever defined a problem and went through the entire research processes to develop a practical solution, citing evidence that would ensure that such solution would be beneficial. I am now confident that I can tackle any essay type in future situations.

Understanding the Arts and the Human Experience

"Learners will demonstrate an understanding of the arts and humanities in historical and cultural contexts."

For the Understanding the Arts and the Human Experience Program Outcome, I have presented my midterm research essay from ENG-241, British Literature I, which I took in the Fall semester of 2023. ENG-241 was definitely the most intriguing and thought-provoking course I have taken at SPCC, which is what really makes it stand out. When determining what to choose for this program outcome, I took into consideration how despite being an English class, ENG-241 dove into topics that really define what it means to be human, such as religion, gender, culture, and heritage. It departed from teaching the basic writing conventions taught in ENG-111 and ENG-112, instead focusing on specific authors' works from different time periods, including fresh and unique perspectives on such aforementioned topics. Perhaps the largest topic conveyed in the many works read and discussed in class was the progression of religion in early England from Paganism to Christianity. And so, the purpose of my essay was to convey the synthesis of early Christian religious faith through one of the earliest works recorded, titled The Dream of the Rood. The narrative follows a speaker, who recounts the events of a bizarre dream in which they find themselves seeing the gleaming apparitions of a tree. As the mesmerizing sight begins to morph into one of blood, gore, and death, the speaker is instantly filled with a sense of horror and misery.

The reason I have presented this specific piece is because it conveys the complexities of religious faith, doubts, and woes felt by the Christian people during the Anglo-Saxon Period through grandiose metaphors, which can even extend to the Christians of today. It represents my ability to piece together a specific literary work and pinpoint its exact role in the development of the humanities we know today. Specifically, the poem explores such ideas and feelings through the setting of a dream to provide an ample explanation for the literary exaggeration of reality, the character development of the speaker throughout the story, and the comparison between the pain felt by the tree to the suffering of Jesus Christ himself. Understanding arts and humanities requires one to look at specific cultures in a historical and spiritual context, which was my first goal with this essay. This piece was written during the Anglo-Saxon period, a time when individuality was still developing, and when religion was the defining trait of many groups of people. While the text has no confirmed author, the poem conveys ideas of religious commitment and guilt for one's own sins in just 156 short lines. The main literary device achieving this are the symbols of both the speaker and the tree, which represent the ordinary man and the glory, suffering, and pureness of God respectively. My second goal was to understand the emotions and melancholy embedded in the piece, in an attempt to better grasp what religion truly meant for Christianity in its early days in England. For example, the speaker first feels filthy from sin and moral dismay in the presence of such glory at first, but then realizes that every Christian has a job that is expected of them, which is to share the word of God. Essentially, such renewed emotions evoked from reading the piece would increase individuals' own faith in Christianity.

As for my journey at SPCC, this course has definitely made me a more well-educated and well-rounded student. Prior to this, I had little knowledge of literature from a specific country, along with the culture and history that ties humanities like religion together. The course was a semester of exploration, reflection, and formation of my own conclusions and possible meanings of historic British works and authors' intentions to call out societal problems, inequalities, or tests of religious faith. This artifact also relates to my goals of conducting future research because it has made me more observant of obscure and unique viewpoints on already well-established topics. It also has made me more confident in trusting my own thoughts when reading a piece of text, rather than attempting to only credit views that have a mass amount of support or popularity.

Social Scientific Literacy

"Learners will demonstrate an understanding of social science methodologies in order to explain the consequences of human actions."

For the Social Scientific Literacy Program Outcome, I have presented my pair of final essays from HIS-132, American History II, which I took in the Fall semester of 2023. While I have taken past world history and American history courses in high school, this was my first official college history course. I will definitely say that it was quite the challenge, testing my time management, writing, and thinking skills to the extreme. The course consisted of American history from the Civil War era to the present, including industrialization, immigration, the Great Depression, WWI, WWII, the Cold War, and modern social conflict. This course also placed a heavy emphasis on analyzing the significant political, socioeconomic, and cultural developments between such time periods, which was the basis of my final exam essays. The purpose of the essays was to pick two distinct time periods in post-Civil War American history and to answer a prompt given about an event in each. When selecting prompts, I went for two completely different eras in American history, being the New Deal and the Vietnam War. For the New Deal essay, I wished to convey just a few of the laws enforced and the programs formed during it, which created permanent changes to the political culture of the United States. Once a country that swore by individualism as the key to general welfare, the role of the federal government in people’s lives was greatly expanded. For the Vietnam War essay, I wished to account for the increasing involvement of the United States in the conflict from the years 1960 to 1965, citing specific events that did so.

I have chosen this particular artifact because it best represents my ability to analyze all sides of past historical events to explain their impact on modern-day society and also to understand why they were justified, supported, or discredited by individuals alive during that time period. Also, these essays reflect my ability to put into perspective how such important events reflect the consequences of human actions on both government, social, and emotional levels. My main goal with the pair of essays was to accurately paint the respective eras in a credible and objective light, despite them carrying a lot of subjective opinions both back then and even today. To achieve this, I had to locate appropriate database sources through the SPCC LibGuides, specifically consulting Gale U.S. History In Context and Gale Virtual Reference Library. It offered both primary and secondary sources on the events I had chosen, and I made use of both in my essays to draw the line between the impact on today's society versus the impact made on past Americans. After all, in order to stay objective, it is only fair to include both past and present viewpoints. For example, for the Vietnam War essay, I accounted for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which is often viewed today as a large expansion of power to the president that further escalated and justified the Vietnam War, despite it not being one hundred percent morally correct. However, at the time it provided a quick scapegoat to further rally Americans against the principles of communism but also provided an opportunity for the United States to violently deal with the Vietnam conflict, which could make it come to a quicker resolution. My second goal with these essays was to make sure to address even the negative consequences of the New Deal and Vietnam War, so as to not sugarcoat human actions to any degree. For example, I included a section as to how the New Deal was discriminatory and set such discriminatory precedents in the labor force that can still be seen today. The newly founded programs did not reach all minorities and demographics, also leading to wage discrimination. Turning such a blind eye is still persistent in modern culture for political gain.

This artifact relates to my goals because in order to produce credible research in the future, regardless of the topic, I must make use of both primary and secondary sources to ensure my information is accurate and will stand the test of time. Getting practice with this artifact has further developed such skill. As for my journey at SPCC, this course really opened my eyes to the world of social science, and just how important understanding the people and events of our past can be to understand just how context can influence behaviors, attitudes, and actions. Using the knowledge of history, we can work towards a better society, one which represents and aids all individuals.