Alex V.
About Alex V.
Hello, my name is Alex and I’m a 3rd year Astrophysics major minoring in biology. I’m also one of the Career Team Leads. Even though I’m primarily a physics major, I’m particularly interested in Biomimetic design and how to bridge different areas of science together in-order to develop nuanced solutions to modern problems. I love doing a broad variety of activities: climbing, running, skiing, spending time in the outdoors, cooking, reading, writing, and having introspective conversations. My approach to learning heavily emphasizes curiosity as a foundation. Grades can be important, but if you’re not acquiring knowledge that you can apply, or even philosophize over, a good grade is pointless. When it comes to learning a subject, I personally attempt to build a big picture. This includes understanding where knowledge starts (who discovered it and how), a deep dive into the topics themselves, and their real-world applications or how they can expand your perspective.
The process of building the “big picture” of a subject can be difficult without the right resources and practices. To do so you need to learn how to find transparent and concise resources (textbooks, good professors & TA’s/tutors, online resources: Articles, videos, podcasts). In order to harness the information from these resources and gather them in a digestible manner you then need to develop suitable note-taking systems. This is much easier said than done, and truly just requires plenty of individual experimentation.
That said, if I had to give advice to my younger-self, and even first or second year me, it would go something like this. Firstly, remember that properly learning something doesn’t always directly correlate with a high grade. Grades are at the mercy of how difficult your prof decides to create or grade your content. This doesn’t always align with you diving deeply into parts of the course you’re particularly interested. Which I believe can be a necessary sacrifice for you to actually learn something. Secondly, don’t try to rush through your education, this can defeat the purpose of putting yourself in such an opportunistic environment, on top of making it more difficult to learn deeply. This is a period of exploration, don’t take the shallow way through by overcrowding your schedule to the point that you can’t enjoy the process. Thirdly and lastly, try a whole lot of things. I always suggest joining minimum one club on campus. Ideally a couple at the start just to see which ones you click with. Go on trips, say yes a lot at first. And most of all… talk to people. Most of the amazing connections you could be making fade away into oblivion because you don’t take the first move in engaging with others. Trust me, most people are much more willing and happy to talk to you than you think. So take initiative, live some amazing experiences, and connect with other humans. All these things combined will deeply enrich your university experience.
Languages I Speak: English, Spanish