During their first few days, students in Renzulli Discovery@UCLA are learning about their strengths and pursuing group and individual projects that tackle global issues.
Here are student reflections on their activities so far including reviewing the qualities of a leader.
Shivana
Isabel
By being here at Renzulli Creativity@UCLA I can push myself to have better and more creative ideas to try to help the environment in any way possible, trying to make a better place for everyone to live in. Even during the first day, I noticed that I have grown as a student and teammate, as I would never imagine reflecting this deeply about something in just a couple of hours. I can see that my teamwork skills have gotten better and I seem to be able to understand how different people are able to work together without conflict. As far as the first day goes, I am really enjoying the program, growing as a student, and hopefully helping the planet.
Mari
Today we also went out and interviewed people we met about the things they feel are important and should be solved as real world problems. It’s interesting to learn about what others think, because it really gives me insight and I can look at the problem in a whole new perspective. After going back and typing all of the data in, an interesting ‘pattern’ of sorts appeared; it was all about what the person’s career and what they are passionate about and truly care about. Their environment and the people they surround themselves with mold their own opinions, and it’s amazing to think about what makes me me. If I didn’t have a certain person in my life, or if this-and-that didn’t happen, would I still be who I am today.
For my project currently, I am looking at plastic waste in oceans. It’s such a big problem because it overlaps a lot of other problems which are complicated within themselves — and to try and reduce plastics in oceans significantly without negatively affecting other factors.
Overall, I think this program will be beneficial to me by helping me step back when a situation presents itself. We may not be separated into our clusters/ our ‘talented areas’ yet, but by developing the right mindset we would be able to improve not just as a student but as a person in general. I hope that by the end of these three weeks I will be able to think more with my head but not as much my heart, and draw inspiration from my soul and not from the logic-based brain.
Ethan
During the Renzulli class, we are learning a lot about world problems, and how we can solve them. We are also learning about leadership, and what it means to be a leader. This also included the traits of a leader. For example, a leader is very passionate about what he or she does, and they are always very positive. They are very intelligent, and outside the box thinkers, Great leaders rise and learn from failure. They are curious and aspire to make the world a better place.
We also learned about world problems, such as poverty, racism, equality, global warming, pollution, and much more. The topic I am most interested in is racism, because I have experienced some of it myself, and I would like to put an end to it. I think one way to help racism and discrimination is to show people that everyone is equal and no one race is superior to the next. I think I can upgrade my leadership skills from this program. I think learned the value of teamwork, and how important it is to success.
Madeleine
The UCLA Renzulli program gives us an opportunity to grow and develop our minds. Every day we do a brainstorming activity and work with others to figure out who is in our world and whether they impact us in a negative or positive way. Today one of the activities was to write about the issues in life that we find bothersome/need to be fixed. We then are able to discuss them in class and get other people’s ideas and what they have to say.
One of the advantages that I have taking the Renzulli program is that I am able to think outside the box and understand how to use my talents in creative ways while expressing an idea/business plan. Over the course of the program, I hope to learn more about business, and how to get started. I want to learn about how to push through the trial and error and find a solution to the problem. Renzulli is a great program for kids to develop their mindsets in a creative way, and without being limited to what we can and can’t do.
Aminda
I hope I get the most out of my individual and group projects. Currently, we have worked on two group projects and one individual project. On the first day, we got into groups of seven and eight and wrote down people who have inspired us to become better. Then today, we out in three groups to interview people on campus about their opinions on global problems and views on world leaders. This interview helped us with our individual projects. My topic is about ending stereotypes. I have a strong opinion about stereotypes because I have been affected by it. Many people are hurt by these stereotypes because they are limited based on their race, religion, gender, etc.
