S-STEM Scholar Ruth Stowers's Blog

 I really enjoyed the TRAIN Mixer at ASU West last Friday. It was great to see a few people that I haven't seen for a while and meet with new people too. I was able to talk with professors who helped me to figure out some of my next academic steps. There were very few prospective TRAIN students, (two, maybe three). I was only able to speak with one of them, but she expressed concern about getting accepted to the scholarship. I was able to discuss my experience with her and how the process was extremely positive and helpful to me in my transfer process, Dr. Marshall is a super star! She also had questions about what was expected from TRAIN scholars during their time at ASU and I discussed with her the (easily met) requirements including the scholarship class and how it helps TRAIN students to build a STEM community of support for themselves. Last semester was a little different, but I'm hoping this semester will really open up the opportunities to build a strong supportive commu

This semester sees me taking my last STP class (with Dr. Broatch who I have been lucky enough to have a class with for three semesters in a row!), and three Math classes, each with a significant amount of modelling and coding. As someone who has minimal experience with modelling/coding, I am feeling out of my depth. I am trying to have a positive mental attitude about my semester, but in all honesty, I am struggling. I am having a hard time feeling that I have what it takes to be successful in mathematical education or in a mathematical career. One of the reasons for feeling that way is that I don't learn well from reading textbooks. I learn even less orally. I learn best by engaging and interacting with the subject I am trying to learn, and by taking and reviewing detailed notes so that I can remember what I learn. I am finding that a lot of higher level math classes rely heavily on the styles of learning that are weak for me. A current struggle that I am facing with note-taking i

  Over the years I have created many introductory paragraphs about myself, but the latest has been the most fun and representative of my personality. Perhaps that's because it wasn't a paragraph at all. A wordsmith I am not, but I can certainly slap a few photos together about the people and things that I love.