Spring Term Reflection Essay

During the spring term of my Health, Happiness, and Human Rights class, my class
addressed all of the UNST goals. These goals include inquiry and critical thinking,
communications, the variety of human experience, and ethical issues and social responsibility.
One of the biggest projects we began tackling this term is the program evaluation of the Cardiac
Arrest Research Project. I believe this encompasses all of the university studies goals and heres
why; we as students are expected to think critically to come up with an over the phone survey to
measure how effective the research program was. Our communications skills are something we
are expected to use/work on since we will be talking to people over the phone and involving
ourselves with the students of the University of Washington who performed the research project.
The next two UNST goals I believe are the most relevant to this topic because we saw how
different the variety of the human experience is. The rich complexity of the human experience
through the studies of differences in ethnic and cultural perspectives, class race, gender, sexual
orientation and ability gives us an opportunity to enhance our awareness through the cardiac
arrest program. The ethical issues and social responsibility aspect of the course defines that as,
...expanding the understanding of the impact and value of individuals and their choices on
society, both intellectually and socially, through group projects and collaboration in learning
communities. By being able to build a relationship with the subjects of the research project, we
can get a better understanding of how deeply this program affected those that participated and
can see more easily how this affected the community as a whole. Communication skills come
into play again since we have been working in groups to complete the survey questions. Apart
from the Cardiac Arrest Research Project, my Health, Happiness, and Human Rights class

participated in ethical debates on a few controversial topics. My group was assigned to argue
why personal privacy should top surveillance when dealing with infectious disease. The research
aspect of this assignment took critical thinking since we were expected to formulated a whole
debate, including a rebuttal to the opposing side, and to anticipate the opposing sides questions to
our argument. During the fall term of Health, Happiness, and Human Rights, my class
approached a couple of controversial topics which fall under the University Studies (UNST)
goals. These goals include Communication, Critical Thinking, the Diversity of the Human
Experience, and Ethics and Social Responsibility. The class gave the students an opportunity to
explore areas beneath those goals. Our opinions and contributions were important to add to those
goals as a class to provide useful input. I focused on the communication goal of the University
Studies goals during my Henrietta Lacks essay, which let me voice my opinion on a controversial
matter. I wrote about how animal testing is unethical and how testing on humans is also unethical
in the most common manners used for experimentation. Another way my communication skills
improved during the course is when we had to do our Food Availability Survey presentation. We
were given the task to go into a neighborhood and examine the food options, environment,
availability, and the neighborhood as a community. This was a different assignment compared to
our previous ones because we had a presentation at the end. The presentation helped with my
communication skills because not only did I have to communicate with my group to organize
everything, I had to make sure my information would come across clear and concisely to my
audience when presenting. This project aided my fellow classmates in understanding Portland
and the Diversity of the Human Experience. Every University Studies goal was met during the
fall term of Health, Happiness, and Human Rights in some way or another depending on the

project or assignment at hand. My opinions of my own social responsibility for my community

have gradually changed and I am more aware because of this class. During the spring term of my
Health, Happiness, and Human Rights class, my class addressed all of the UNST goals. These
goals include inquiry and critical thinking, communications, the variety of human experience,
and ethical issues and social responsibility. One of the biggest projects we began tackling this
term is the program evaluation of the Cardiac Arrest Research Project. I believe this
encompasses all of the university studies goals and heres why; we as students are expected to
think critically to come up with an over the phone survey to measure how effective the research
program was. Our communications skills are something we are expected to use/work on since we
will be talking to people over the phone and involving ourselves with the students of the
University of Washington who performed the research project. The next two UNST goals I
believe are the most relevant to this topic because we saw how different the variety of the human
experience is. The rich complexity of the human experience through the studies of differences
in ethnic and cultural perspectives, class race, gender, sexual orientation and ability gives us an
opportunity to enhance our awareness through the cardiac arrest program. The ethical issues and
social responsibility aspect of the course defines that as, ...expanding the understanding of the
impact and value of individuals and their choices on society, both intellectually and socially,
through group projects and collaboration in learning communities. By being able to build a
relationship with the subjects of the research project, we can get a better understanding of how
deeply this program affected those that participated and can see more easily how this affected the
community as a whole. Communication skills come into play again since we have been working
in groups to complete the survey questions. Apart from the Cardiac Arrest Research Project, my

Health, Happiness, and Human Rights class participated in ethical debates on a few controversial
topics. My group was assigned to argue why personal privacy should top surveillance when
dealing with infectious disease. The research aspect of this assignment took critical thinking
since we were expected to formulated a whole debate, including a rebuttal to the opposing side,
and to anticipate the opposing sides questions to our argument. During the fall term of Health,
Happiness, and Human Rights, my class approached a couple of controversial topics which fall
under the University Studies (UNST) goals. These goals include Communication, Critical
Thinking, the Diversity of the Human Experience, and Ethics and Social Responsibility. The
class gave the students an opportunity to explore areas beneath those goals. Our opinions and
contributions were important to add to those goals as a class to provide useful input. I focused on
the communication goal of the University Studies goals during my Henrietta Lacks essay, which
let me voice my opinion on a controversial matter. I wrote about how animal testing is unethical
and how testing on humans is also unethical in the most common manners used for
experimentation. Another way my communication skills improved during the course is when we
had to do our Food Availability Survey presentation. We were given the task to go into a
neighborhood and examine the food options, environment, availability, and the neighborhood as
a community. This was a different assignment compared to our previous ones because we had a
presentation at the end. The presentation helped with my communication skills because not only
did I have to communicate with my group to organize everything, I had to make sure my
information would come across clear and concisely to my audience when presenting. This
project aided my fellow classmates in understanding Portland and the Diversity of the Human
Experience. Every University Studies goal was met during the fall term of Health, Happiness,

and Human Rights in some way or another depending on the project or assignment at hand. My
opinions of my own social responsibility for my community have gradually changed and I am
more aware because of this class.