Pathway Reflection Essay
Zhuoqun Cao John
In my first graduate pathway semester, there were various meaningful events, wonderful activities, important assignment and interesting experience that help me engage in Mason campus and American culture.
The first significant event I joined was Orientation week started from 24th August. During that week, I finished many elementary and compulsory activities such as Into Mason and immigration Check-in, icebreaker with my group members, activated Mason Email and get my Mason ID card, finance check and open advising, academic overview and advising of graduate pathway, scavenger hunt.
The orientation is very significant because I am freshman in campus and it was the start point of my life in Mason. Through the check-in, I formally became a member of George Mason University. I also started the Email and got my Mason ID card which were the most useful tools in campus. Through scavenger hunt activity, I was familiar with the location of different buildings in campus. Furthermore, I knew the sources that can seek for help and information. Icebreaker activity provided me an efficient channel to socialize and make lots of new friends from different country. Besides that, with the academic overview and advising, not only I found the basic requirements of my graduate program and the classes I would take in the future, but also I knew the important website such as “mymason” and “patriot web” which were very useful for academy. Although, I cannot say the orientation settled all the challenges I faced in foreign country, it do helped me access to American university and solve many confusion and questions in Mason. I really appreciate.
Another event I participated is “Exam Strategy”. It was mainly about testwiseness and how to prepare for test. In the event, the speaker collected the reviewing methods from each student and discussed about the most efficient way to prepare for test. Besides that, the speaker provided an appropriate way to take note. Finally the presentation came up with many interesting and useful tips that can be adopted in exam.
I joined this event because, as we all know, exam is an inevitable and unavoidable challenge faced by every student in university. On the other hand, since all the classes are taught in English, which is totally different from my native language, and the teaching format might also be unfamiliar for me. This event seemed more significant for international students. Through the reviewing strategies provided by the speaker, I learned the efficient way to prepare for test is figuring out what I know, what I do not know and what am I supposed to do first. After that reviewing with pertinence of the knowledge I have not grasped and do regular self-testing. Besides that, with the strategies and tips for taking test, such as do easy question first, read directions carefully, ending with summary sentence, seek for hints in the question and inference according to common senses. After listening the presentation, I firmly believe I better developed my own strategies for exams and know how to prepare for test efficiently.
In this semester, I also took a useful EAP (English for Academic Purpose) 508 class. According to the class syllabus, the aim is for students to be able to identify linguistic structures and rhetorical features common in their discourse communities and for students to gain confidence and strategies for contributing to the scholarship of their fields.
It consist of two primary areas, GCLP(Graduate Classroom Language Portfolio) and MCP(Multidisciplinary Colloquium Project). In GCLP part, I read, annotated and analyzed 5 academic papers. I also looked into the way that scholars did their research and finished lots of writing assignments. I firmly believe that through this project, I increased my complexity, adequacy, and accuracy in English language production. On the other hand, MCP part focused on exploring my field and writing a literature review of my own project. Until now, I have finished the curiosity journal, research plan and synthesis, independent analyze etc. This experience helped me with preparing for and presenting at a professional conference. The outcome is pretty wonderful, not only I improved writing skills but also knew the process and key steps of doing research. The more important thing is I learned how to synthesize other sources and come up with my own argumentative edge.
Besides the wonderful in-campus experience above, I also visited MCI arena recently to watch a NBA game between Washington Wizard and New York Knicks. During the game, although Carmelo Anthony, the famous guest team player, performed an unstoppable shooting show and gained 37 points in the whole game, John Wall and Bradley Beal together made greater contribution to the home team’s win.
As we all know, the love for sports is a significant part of American culture. By watching the NBA game on live, I was deeply affected by the audiences’ enthusiasm. They cheered for the wonderful performance of home team and made lots of noisy when guest team player standing on the free throw line. I loved the hot atmosphere on court, and I firmly believed I have access into American sports culture by watching sports game on live.
Academic Advising and Plan of Study
- Introduction
My discipline is Earth System Science witch seeks to understand the Earth as an integrated system, including its past, present and future behavior, from the environments where life evolves on the surface to the interactions between the crust and its fluid envelopes (atmosphere and hydrosphere), with interests extending to the Earth’s interior. My program addresses the growing demand for trained professionals in the Earth sciences.
The degree emphasizes a research-oriented, global systems approach to studying the Earth and its systems- atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere, including their interrelationships and interactions with the biosphere.
From my personal perspective, excepting the aspects of earth system, I prefer the research project related to the geologic and geographic topics. Because my undergraduate major is geology and I also master the tools and knowledge in GIS.
- Plan of Study Table
| Course Title and Number | Number of Credits | Semester |
| CLIM 690 Scientific Basis of Climate Change (course only offered in the Spring semester) | 3 | Spring 2015 |
| GEOL 513 – Hydrogeology (pre-requisite for lab-science courses in geology, calculus, chemistry ) | 3 | Spring 2015 |
| GGS 533-001 – Geography of the North Africa and Middle East | 3 | Spring 2015 |
| GGS 553-001 – Geographic Information Systems(pre-requisite for GGS 550) | 3 | Spring 2015 |
| GGS 670 – Introduction to Atmosphere and Weather (course only offered in the Fall semester) | 3 | Fall 2016 |
| GGS 900 – Colloquium Earth Systems Sciences (course only offered in the Fall semester) | 1 | Fall 2016 |
| GGS 680-DL1 – Earth Image Processing(course only offered in the Fall semester) | 3 | Fall 2016 |
| GEOL 601 – The Lithosphere(pre-requisite for graduate standing) | 3 | Fall 2016 |
| GEOL 536 – Paleontology Seminar | 1 | Spring 2016 |
| GGS 650-001 – Introduction to GIS Algorithms and Programming | 3 | Spring 2016 |
| GEOL 799 – Master’s Thesis in Earth Systems Science Credits: 1-6(this is the culminating experience) | (1-6)random | Spring 2016 |
- Program’s requirement
credits requirement:
Candidates must successfully complete 30 credits outlined below, being mindful that 10 of these credits must be GGS courses and 10 of these credits must be GEOL/CLIM courses (“Culminating Experience” credits do not count towards this requirement). To be specific:
Earth Science Core (9 credits)
Techniques (6 credits)
Colloquium (2 credits)
Electives (10 credits)
Culminating Experience (3 credits)
Choose the culminating experience of either a thesis (totaling 3 credits) or a project (totaling 3 credits)
Grades requirement:
- Minimum Overall GPA: 3.30
- B or better in all courses, at least one A
- No grades of NC, W, or IN permitted
- Letter of recommendation from ESS Faculty Advisor
For graduation, I am supposed to finish a project or a thesis. There is no intern requirement.
My Academic Advisors are Emma Cutrufello, Jones James, Robert Graham.
The Academic Advisor in my discipline is Ruixing Yang
I am supposed to meet my academic advisors when I am confused about the discipline requirements and courses. Also to make a good study plan suiting for me and fitting my level, I need the suggestions from the advisors. Finally, if I want to have a minor field or even change my major, I should ask for the permission of my advisors.
I believe I will meet my advisor at least 3 times per semester.