Now that I have completed all of my general educational requirements with New Century College I plan to start my course work and get a jump start on completing my undergraduate career. I have designed my own major through integrative studies. I am studying National Security, Counter-Intelligence, and Intelligence Analysis. This major incorporates a variety of classes from various departments within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. As far as fall 2008 semester is concerned I am taking sixteen credits. My classes include Elementary Arabic, Introduction to International Politics, Conflict Resolution and Transformation, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. All of these classes are requirements of my major that I must take in order to be able to take advance level courses in my area of concentration.

          I am interested in courses pertaining to global international relations. I am also determined to learn Arabic fluently for as long as it takes me to achieve my goal. There are some fun electives like Basic Coastal Kayaking that I want to take because I believe that there is a balance needed and for me, fun needs to mix with hard work. Studying abroad is an option as I am looking at programs in Israel, Palestine, Syria and so on. If I do study abroad, it will either be sometime in 2009 or 2010. I enjoy learning and I believe that NCC has played a big part in developing my skills as a scholarly academic.

          When I originally began drafting my major there were so many classes I wanted to take from different departments. Creating a concentration in NCC allowed me to pull classes from Government and International Relations, Global Affairs, History, Geography, Anthropology and the Center for Conflict Analysis and Resolution Studies. With the help of Sarah Sweetman, my academic advisor, I have been able to construct a very strong and integrated major. I plan to use my undergraduate education to work for the government as a civil servant even though I am not completely sure where I will end up. My path centered firmly in New Century College will lead me to success in whatever career I decide to pursue.

          Out of class experiences are frequent when dorming at Mason. During my first-year experience I had the opportunity of dorming with individuals who were also New Century College students. I liked the environment because I really got to know people on my floor because I spent days in class with them and stayed up on several occasions at night working on assignments. Next year I will be living in the dorms that were just finished and opened for the 2007-2008 school year. I am very exited but not sure what a non-living and learning community dorm experience will be like as I will also have a completely new roommate who will most likely will not be an NCC student.

          Communication, valuing, aesthetic awareness, global understanding, effective citizenship, information technology, group interaction, critical thinking and strategic problem solving are all extremely important parts of the learning process. If I lack in any one of these areas, someone else that is competing for the same job as I am might get it if they are better at any of the aforementioned criterion listed. The experiences of sophomore, junior, and senior year all have yet to be accounted for. The competencies connecting my interests together by providing a foundational basis on which I can build in the future. Being efficient and producing quality work in all of these areas is a goal that I have set myself to be proficient in my future assignments.

          In the future, I hope to specifically advance my global understanding, critical thinking, and communication skills. I want to develop in all the competencies but I believe that my efforts will best be used in these three competencies. Global understanding is needed to understand the world around me with greater comprehension. Critical Thinking needs to develop so that I am able to analyze in finite detail any material that comes my way. Communication is needed to spread various ideas and information to further consider different points of view. The strategy I am going to use to further develop my competencies is to make the most of every hands-on experiential learning encounter possible. If I study and work hard I have no doubt that my competencies will improve.

          There are many things I want to accomplish here at George Mason University. The work that I have put forth in this year-end portfolio speaks of the effort I make to ensure quality. My three goals of my continuing education are to increase my effectiveness in group collaboration by becoming a better communicator in the process of, investigate global understanding as I demonstrated in my first electronic portfolio, and participate in different forms of civic engagement such as volunteer service.