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I come from a background in humanities; writing, reading, editing, philosophi-zing, unfortunately none of the critical thinking skills employed to those disciplines have helped me with Math in higher education. Quantitative subjects, furthermore, have been a struggle for me my whole life. I cannot wrap my head around size, spacing - desensitized to all things numerical. I scraped by high school with straight A’s because I can memorize formulas, understand foundational skills on application, and effectively decompose word problems - all of which become necessary for short quizzes and unit tests.

When you examine the details of my test-taking though, I find it hard to conceptualize beyond the curriculum for which I’m learning; Meaning cumulative exams are a struggle for me. What I’ve learned this semester especially, however, is that the critical part of the clause “a struggle for me” eliminates any notion of it being a larger systemic problem. Students learn at different rates, and the pacing of high school may have been compatible for my own pacing, but it wasn’t for others.

Coming to UC Berkeley and pursuing a degree in Economics I became the “other,” unable to keep up with the speed of Mathematics classes. My ultimate goal, therefore, is to create a space where tutoring takes place for students that is specifically adjacent to the course they are taking.

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I want to create a system so that no one feels like they,  exclusively, are struggling in school. When I first started classes I was riddled with imposter syndrome to the point where I wondered if I should switch majors. It was not until I was enrolled in an Adjunct course that I could really start to feel confident with the material. In an ideal picture of the world, I see students who never even have the “imposter”  apprehensions, because, as I’ve learned through Berkeley Changemaker, those fears are simply a materialization of misrepresentations: Everyone is just as nervous as you are.

Therefore, if I were to create an environment conducive to academic success, I would create a site where class notes can be shared, and students who feel successful in the class have direct access to help individuals who feel less entitled to claim confidence.

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Students who put in the additional effort to understand class material can be rewarded, by learning at a pace that is individualized.

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The structure of teaching in higher education facilitates an unmodernized standard to learning.

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In the short-term, there may not be visible consequences. The unique quality of UC Berkeley lies in its motivated student body. Even if students are retaining the lessons of lectures, they still strive for success, but they ultimately may not be producing their most maximizing level of contribution because they struggle to apply things from class into a vocational environment.

In the long term, however, UC Berkeley may join a number of colleges who are disintegrating on their principle of learning: to create students who have both the ability and confidence to be successful. If students cannot properly learn, they cannot properly apply the teachings that are so coveted here. We may become a school where the degree is meaningless in everything but name - an extreme take but a plausible future nonetheless. If students are not given the degree of help for which they require, then classes will only begin to count toward their units instead of their understanding.

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The reality is that now that the external employment force is looking for candidates that go above and beyond expectations, Berkeley students must take this not as a challenge but as an opportunity. We need to become  a force for high quality individuals and set standards for work and application that we directly gain from learning at the University.

With a wave of health-inclusive naturalization we need to realize that the aforementioned expectation can only be achieved if students are learning at appropriate rates.

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I want to make it so that core, known “weeder classes,”  have access to a site where students can help other students- therefore improving their grades by introducing a system where academic success is truly based on the degree of effort and time put into the class. The success of which will be measured by three things:

1. Average grade improvement based on past classes (which may now serve as a control group)

1. The scores and average grades of past classes may now serve as a platform by which to measure the distance of improvement. With the help of this service, it would be projected that averages of class scores would improve.

2. Feedback

1. We all whine about the unending pile of surveys we have to take, but from a qualitative perspective this evidence is possibly the most empirical, and people are more likely to respond to surveys under the pretense that the service was actually beneficial to them.

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The minimum viable product in this case is that we improve one student’s placement in the course, both in confidence and comprehension. However, in order to invest in the real improvement of every participant's involvement, I think it might be realistic to create a scholarship opportunity for those who volunteer as tutors. With the involvement of members of the class teaching their classmates parallel to their own learning they may both improve their own understanding of the topics and gain the opportunity to better themselves financially. The more incentive there is for students to truly understand a class’s curriculum the more likely it is that the improvement is system-wide.

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Sustainability often connotes the environment, green-living, emissions control, etc; However, the environment of college is just as important to sustain with the concession that amendments are necessary. The tradition of learning is to give rise to successful students, a system riddled in a misallocation of resources. For students to be successful they don’t need new libraries, school-wide events, or other results of misappropriated funding; they need an environment that allows them to and facilitates the process of learning outside the classroom. The unparalleled connection of the site to students within the class will give them this space.

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classroom reward, I will be underlyingly addressing the root cause for all scholastic struggles: that students are not the same.

The site, furthermore, may appear to just be an extension of the services offered from the Student Learning Center, but the environment induced for hands-on learning, running concurrently with students' own schedules will allow them to both expand socially and academically.

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This test is already being run. With the help of my Adjunct class I’ve been able to see steady progress in my comprehension of course material. Myself along with thirty other students who were lucky enough to enroll in it, could all attest to how helpful it is to have an additional source for learning that is not the lecture hall nor discussion room. Our gradual improvement can be directly related to our placement in the Adjunct class and I only hope to extend this improvement to students who are just as willing and available to conceive a place where effort means success.

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The most foreseeable possibility for resilience is where the school itself is concerned. They (administration) may not see a need for this “additional” site to connect students when resources like the SLC and discussion section already make learning more accessible than just pure lecturing. However, I would point out the good of scholarships as a reflection on the University, and the high demand for students to have this resource outside of the ones already available.

As 40% of the undergraduate population utilizes the services employed by the SLC it's imperative that those resources be extended to class specific instruction, not merely the question-answer model taken up by the Center. With the site running on a peer oriented, curriculum based format the percent of students seeking help will be better distributed so nearly half the undergraduate student body will continue to overwhelm the Peer and Professional tutors belonging to the SLC.

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The key changemakers will be my intrapreneurs: People who understand the consequences of continued un-individualized learning and take these systemic steps to fix it. My experience taking a school sponsored Adjunct class to a math subject has been greatly contributive to my confidence in the discipline, but I was terrified to find out that the second series in the class would not feature the same access to class specific tutoring. Ultimately, therefore, I am but one person, and without the support of people who believe in the same cause as I do - to improve the academic standing of students through class specific connections and tutoring-  I cannot hope to achieve everything that has allowed me to be successful thus far.

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The most important advocates will belong to those with voices in administration. My team and I may come up with the ideas, develop the site, and project great progress, but without a professor's endorsement or Dean's demand for implementation, it will be a struggle to see the widespread change that this network could eventually create.

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I would be serving not only the student body by giving them a tool for success and academic understanding, but also relieving the plight of SLC sponsored tutors. Already they are overwhelmed and understaffed. As a patron of the Center as well as a colleague to a few of the Peer-tutors I know the struggle they are facing with no light at the end of the tunnel.

Change doesn’t seem imperative as currently there is no physical consequence for the overconsumption of SLC employees, however, the use and perpetual occupation of the tutor’s time will only eventually lead to their decay. They further attempt to hire twice per semester without avail and this is an additional sign that there needs to be a secondary resource, like the site I propose so pieces of the responsibility land back on students.

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I believe a percentage of the people who might care will surprisingly be the Alumni of UC Berkeley. If they graduated under a standard of academia, they would conceivably contribute to the maintenance of that standard. We could propose the site in the alumni newsletter, ask for scholarship funds as a portion of their “Giving Tuesday” event, and purpose their support to the expansion of our site and those participating.

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The most important Changemaker mindset necessary for the establishment and cultivation of the site would be managing my “Identity as a Superpower.”  Learning at a different pace is not a hindrance, it's a platform for which to grow and initiate other students' growth as well. I needn’t be so upset by the fact that my style of academia differs from the standard at Berkeley, however, it is then my responsibility to do something about it.

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The Role of Resilience as a part of the Changemaker leadership model is especially important because I foresee many people questioning the need for a site that both shares notes and connects students to peers who feel more confident with material- is this not the precedent established with services like the SLC and communication networks? The difference here is that peers learning with one another will help properly pace classes and facilitate an environment of learning style inclusion. Thus the Role of Resilience is crucial to ensuring administration, who we’ve cited in this assignment as Evangelists, is persuaded on the same lines of importance.