In honor of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies 25th anniversary, some students and I created a video describing 25 reasons to major in LACS. I produced, filmed, and edited the video, and it was featured at the LACS's 25th Anniversary Fundraiser and Gala. I am the most proud of this artifact because it took two quarters to complete and it was mostly me who took the initiative to make it, even though it was not an assigned or mandatory project. I helped organize everyone and it was amazing to see how we were all brought together by our common interest and love for the major. Our main goal was to help promote the major to prospective students and show the UW community how we much we care for LACS.
During my fall quarter of my senior year, I took CEP 460. My classmates and I were assigned on a team project to find a location for a potential new mini city hall in the city of Bellevue, WA. We spent a lot of time surveying potential locations, which I found the most fun because we got to explore different areas of Bellevue. Our research included studying case studies of mini-city halls throughout the U.S., reaching out to community stakeholders, and learning the history and demographics of the area. This was also the first project I had ever done that actually used our findings and applied them to a real-world setting.
During the 2018 summer quarter, I studied abroad in Son Servera with the Anthropology Spain: Discovering Ancient Mediterranean Spain: Landscape Archeology in Mallorca program. During my time there, I was able to excavate 2 different historical sites and survey several fields for pottery. The program focused on the history of Mallorca, with the purpose of learning about the groups from around the Mediterranean that have come and gone from the Balearic Islands. This study abroad gave me the opportunity to participate in the recovery of these traces through the science and practice of archaeology. Through this program, I made a childhood dream of mine come true: become an archeologist and travel somewhere new.