2016 Senior Stories
Six students took Math 412 Connections Seminar in Spring 2016. Here are their short personal stories.
Matthew Chen
I’m a senior with a math/physics major and minor in music. Initially, I came to Goshen College with an intention to study art and music. However, being deeply curious about physical reality, I was drawn to the disciplines of physics and mathematics, and shifted my focus after the first semester of freshman year. Throughout my time in Goshen I’ve been blessed with wide arrays of diverse experiences. I’ve sang in men’s choir for 1 semester. I’ve played violin in the GC Orchestra for 5 semesters, performing in both the regular spring/fall concerts and also the annual Festival of Carols. I’ve participated in the physics project of Maple Scholar program, working with Professor John Buschert on the topic of marimba tuning, in both the theoretical and experimental aspects of it. I’ve also been a member of the GC cross country and track & field team for two semesters. Due to my strong interest in the performance and repertories of classical music, I’ve chosen composition to be the focus of my music minor. I’ve given a recital comprised entirely of my own compositions. In addition, my music had been premiered by professional ensembles in both the U.S and Europe.
Although I did not participate in the regular SST like many other Goshen students do, growing up in Taipei, Taiwan and moved to the U.S when I was 14, my experience as a foreign student had offered me rich intercultural experiences. I find Goshen to be a small yet comfortable community where meaningful and rewarding social interactions occurs. I can never forget the conversations I had with fellow participants of the Maple Scholar program. Those are among the countless moments I had in Goshen College that have deeply challenged and shaped my faith.
I plan to attend graduate school after my graduation from GC, in either electrical engineering, material science, some area in applied mathematics or some other physics/ engineering related field. In the future, I hope to apply my knowledge in solving real-world problems, preferably in a multi-disciplinary setting.
Abby Flickner
I am a senior majoring in environmental science and minoring in mathematics. Coming to Goshen I originally started as just an environmental science major. I had no intentions of majoring in math because I did not think there were many careers in math. However, after taking calculus in college I realized how much I enjoyed math and all the possible careers there could be. So then I decided to pick up a math major.
I have had many great opportunities since I went to Goshen College. I have been a part of the Goshen College softball team since my freshman year of college. It has been a good experience and I have made many close friends by joining the team. I have also had the privelege of going to Kenya for a Mayterm class. We did research in the savnnah.
I have had also the opportunity to complete two internships since college. The first one I worked at MerryLea Environmental Learning Center in the summer banding birds. We would collect data such was weight, species, and age. We would also anaylze the data that we collected. The second internship I worked at Goshen College composting. We would work on determining a way for worms to survive in cow manure so that they could turn the cow manure into compost.
I am not sure what I will do after college. I would like to go into graduate school eventually, however I am not sure what I would what to go to graduate school for. For now, I am just looking for possible job opportunities either in environmental science or math.
Lucas Harnish
I am a Math and pre-Physical Therapy major. I started to enjoy math in early high school once I realized how creative and flexible math can be. Before high school I saw math as a strict set of rules that must be followed in order to come up with “the right answer.” But I soon realized that math was more about finding patterns and that there were often many ways to arrive at any given solution. When it came time for me to choose a major math was an obvious next step, to keep doing more of what I enjoyed.
Throughout my time here at Goshen I have had many memorable experiences. Among many of those experiences is my time spent on SST in Peru. There I spent the first six weeks studying Spanish and Peruvian history/culture in Lima and the second six weeks were spent in La Marced, a lush, green, and mountainous part of the country. There I helped at an orphanage working on construction and after school tutoring.
Part of the reason I chose to come to Goshen was that I was able to be involved in many different extracurricular activities without having to invest all my time into just one thing. I have been on the track and cross country team all four years and have learned to push my mental and physical limits to the extremes. I have been a part of the Men’s Chorus and Jazz band, both of which have continued to cultivate my love of music. I also enjoyed my time competing at the ICMC math competition.
Some of my favorite math classes so far have been Game Theory, Graph Theory, and Differential Equations. I really enjoyed the programming aspect of Graph Theory. In Game Theory I thoroughly enjoyed working on the final project and using much of what we had learned both in Game Theory and in other classes to dive into complex allocation problem. And lastly I enjoyed the applications that I learned in Differential Equations and how it related to physics and game theory.
My future is still quite uncertain but I have some ideas of what the next few years might hold. I plan on spending a year abroad, learning Spanish and doing some sort of voluntary service… so far I’ve managed to narrow it down to somewhere in South or Central America. After taking a year off I plan on going to graduate school for physical therapy, after which I plan on becoming a physical therapist somewhere where I can use my Spanish. Hopefully I can use the problem solving skills I’ve learned taking math classes throughout my life and in my career. I have also tossed around the idea of becoming a math teacher should my plans to become a physical therapist fall through.
Jon Kåsa
I am a senior with a double major in physics and mathematics at Goshen College. I am originally from a small city in Norway and when I was finishing up High School I realized that I was not ready to be done playing tennis on a competitive level. In order to pursue my dream of combining athletics with academics I was looking into studying abroad, the U.S. was an ideal place to do so. After sending out applications and being in touch with coaches all over the U.S. I decided to come to Goshen College because they offered me a scholarship, but more importantly they offered my intended major of interest: physics.
Physics and mathematics had always been the topics that I had found the most challenging and engaging throughout my education, but I was determined to pursue a major in physics with a minor in mathematics. It was in my third year and after multiple mathematics courses that I made the final decision to become a double major, a lot thanks to knowledgeable and captivating professors. Being a senior looking back at these three and a half years of college I have a lot of good memories and experiences to look back on. I have been able to be part of record-breaking tennis performances by the Goshen College men’s tennis team over four seasons. I have thrived from the opportunity to engage with a diversity of people, attitudes, beliefs and faiths at Goshen College that have consequently made me grow as an individual. I have made long lasting friends from all over the world, and I have had the chance to combine travelling and academics through the may term programs offered every year by Goshen College. My sophomore year I went to Greece and Italy to study the apostle Paul, and last year I was able to travel with a group to Ecuador to study ecological economics. Most of the trip to Ecuador took place in the rain forest and living with indigenous people native to the areas we visited. To be part of these trips was a privilege I would not have if not for Goshen College.
College has been fun, frustrating, challenging and giving but it is time to think about what to do next. I want to go to graduate school, but I have not made any final decision of where I want to study, or even what I want to study. In order to figure out what I really want to pursue further I have decided to apply for the OPT and use a year to work or volunteer here in the U.S. It will be the chance to take a break from academics and get some other impulses before I go on to graduate school; most likely in some field of physics here in the U.S.
Peter Schrock
I am a senior at Goshen College. I am a math major and economics minor. During my college career, I have worked for the Information Technology Help Desk, as a tour guide for the admissions office, and as a math tutor for local middle & high school students. I have also done internships at Stair Supplies, a local factory, purchasing parts and supplies and at Everence, a financial institution headquartered in Goshen, working with green bonds.
After my first year, I participated in Goshen College’s undergraduate research program, Maple Scholars, with Dr. David Housman, who was definitely my favorite professor during my time at Goshen. Together, we researched and developed a way of measuring voting power for situations where some parties had more votes than other parties. I presented my work at several conferences, including the annual, national meeting of the Mathematical Association of America.
I took two international trips during college, and they were among my favorite Goshen College experiences. The first trip was a three month stay in Nicaragua as a part of Goshen College’s Study Service term. As part of the term, I spent six weeks living in a crater lake with a host family, working at an environmental center planting trees, building birdhouses, and identifying moths and butterflies. The second trip was to Ecuador as part of my economics minor. Among other things, we went white water rafting and stayed several nights with indigenous people some five hours from the rest of civilization.
As great as my college experience has been, I’m ready to move onto whatever’s next. I plan to move to a big city, perhaps Seattle, Denver, or Boston, and find a job. I think it’s very likely that I will pursue graduate education in statistics, economics, or mathematics in the next couple of years. The things I think I value in a job are autonomy, variety of tasks, intellectual challenge, and having a high, positive impact on the world.
Bryan Yoder
I am a senior Math and Physics major at Goshen College. Originally, I had a Music minor, and throughout my time here, I have participated in many different musical groups. I have been in the Orchestra, Men’s Choir, and the Chamber Choir, and these experiences, while not directly related to my majors, have helped broaden and add to my liberal arts education along with other things. One other thing I have done is working at the RFC climbing wall. I have worked there for 3 years and currently manage the wall. Along with this, I have worked as a TA for the Electronics and General Physics classes here.
Goshen has allowed me to have many opportunities for experiences. One of these would be the Maple Scholars summer internship, in which I worked designing an electronic musical instrument with Dr. John Ross Buschert. Also, I got the opportunity to go to Sichuan, China for a semester through the SST program where I studied and then taught English at a secondary school for six weeks.
As for my future, I plan on taking about half a year off from school after I graduate next December before continuing in graduate school. At this point, I am looking to pursue either studies in particle physics or renewable energy research.