Reflection on my Colloquium class experience

I am going to be completely honest; my expectations for this class before the semester started were pretty low. I knew that Colloquium was a required class and I had heard rumors that it was a really boring class and was just about the ‘boring’ environment that surrounds us. My experience came nowhere close to my expectations. Colloquium was a class I thought I would dread coming to every week, instead I really looked forward to my Tuesday morning classes (and that’s saying a lot as it was at 8am!!) with Professor Borden, especially when we went on field trips. I’m not sure if I loved it more than the average student because I am not from Florida and so I really was learning so many new things every class, or if it was because I got lucky with an amazing professor and a great group of class mates, but nevertheless I have really loved Colloquium and I am sad that it is over.

I think the thing I learnt that was the most meaningful was my contribution to the environment surrounding me. Everyone knows about global warming and recycling etc and how it impacts our world, however I never really thought that me recycling, or me picking up a few bits of trash would make a difference. How wrong was I?! If I take one thing away from this class it will be that my actions DO have an impact. I really learnt this during people’s service learning presentations and throughout the lectures and field trips during the semester. Every little really does help. So that’s one thing that has definitely hit home with me, and I am going to really try from now on to take better care of the environment around me. After all, it is looking after me too!

The parts I enjoyed the most were of course the field trips! I loved learning about things first hand, and being able to touch, and sometimes even taste, difference plants and species. It really helps me to learn something if I can experience it, so this really helped me when it came to the quizzes. I particularly enjoyed the Downtown Fort Myers field trip, just because I really didn’t know anything about the history of Fort Myers and how pretty it was down there, so it was a really educational, yet also, scenic and enjoyable field trip. My least favorite part of the class was probably some of the reading’s in the University Colloquium text book, just because at times they would drag on and weren’t very easy to understand. However, all parts of a class can’t be thrilling and exciting so it wasn’t bad at all!

What surprised me the most about this class was the knowledge that our professor had. Professor Borden was absolutely amazing and I loved hearing all the extra facts and stories she had to tell us. She is a truly inspiring woman and is doing so much in the environment and with birds, it was a real honor to be in her class. I also loved learning that she was a part of designing the Uncommon Friends Fountain in Fort Myers, I thought that was really cool. Professor Borden made the learning fun. I am sure that colloquium, with the wrong teacher, could be a very tedious class. Not mine though! And I really do owe that all to the fact that Professor Borden went the extra mile every class to make it exciting, innovative and educational for us all.

Overall, I loved my Colloquium class experience! I learnt SO SO much and love how I am now able to identify certain plants and animals when walking around campus and the beach. I am definitely a more environmentally educated and conscientious person after taking this class, and I would really like to thank Professor Borden from the bottom of my heart for making my Colloquium experience so awesome!!!

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