Learning Civic Skills through my Senior Seminar
As a final class for my Computer Science major at Dickinson College, I took my senior seminar class which involved frequent class discussions, learning common tools and a year-long contribution to an open source project of our choosing. Overall, this class was extremely interesting, extensively useful as well as efficiently taught. More specifically, this blog is about the most important skill that I obtained through this class throughout the year.
The most important skill that I learned was learning how to the skills that I learned at Dickinson. As I contribute more and more to a life-size project, I realized that I am using more and more skills that I learned during my time here. For example, I learned that I learned how to listen to my team members of my project as well as the community of the project I was contributing to. As I progressed throughout the year, I learned that I possess the skills necessary to make real changes and as I made pull requests, I gained the confidence to interact with others more and be more proactive. As I listen more, I could see myself learning how to see things from other people’s view and I can see myself becoming a better team player. Furthermore, I learned that I possess the skills of problem-solving that I learned throughout my years here. There were some problems that I did not even know where to begin and I saw myself tackling it piece by piece.
Another important skill I learned is the skill of keeping up with the world and thinking critically about current events of the world through the class discussions and developing ideas about how I could do my part, as small it may be. I also learned how to effectively communicate my opinion on issues concerning our field of work/studies. I also learned how to listen others’ opinions on the same issue and change my views when I am presented with contradicting information. Talking to others humbled me a lot.
Overall, it was a great experience. Thank you, CS class of 2021, and thank you, Prof. Siddiqui!
