Edana Wilke

HNRS1010
April 1, 2015
Reflection on Personal Passions and Interests
What?
Physics is the science of everything. Physics breaks down into an almost infinite number
of subcategorizes from mechanical physics to astrophysics to medical physics. People use
physics every day without realizing how important it is because to some, this topic is difficult to
understand. I am not a physics genius but I am passionate about physics and want to be able to
explain it to other people so they can appreciate it just as much as I do. Now I am at the
University of Cincinnati hoping to eventually obtain my doctorate degree in physics.
So What?
This passion is significant for me personally because I am a female. Females in a science
field with a leadership position such as teaching are very important for feminists like me. I have
received scholarships for being a woman trying to obtain a STEMM degree. This passion is also
significant on a larger scale because there is a shortage of physics professors while there is an
increase in engineering students. Most, not all, physics professors are old enough to soon retire
and someone will need to step in and take over. I want to be that someone.
I first was interested in physics my junior year of high school when I took physics with
Mr.Brickner and have been obsessed with it ever since. I knew I wanted to be a teacher and was
in a teaching professions class which allowed to become a teaching assistant for Mr.B. Physics
captivated my interest when Mr.B did experiments that could be explained by physics. I did not
discover that I wanted to actually teach physics until I went to college and took my first physics
class. In that class is when my interest became a passion.
Now What?
I took physics 1 and 2 at Cincinnati State, where we only discussed some of the many
branched of physics. I want to learn as much as I can about as many branches as I can handle.
Specifically, I would like to know more about astrophysics, which is the study of physics in
space. I have even thought about changing my major to astrophysics but that would limit me on
other forms of physics that I may not even know about.
When I went to Cincinnati State, I was a teachers assistant, physics and mathematics
tutor, and the physics lab attendant. I hope that at the University of Cincinnati I will have the
same opportunities to connect with my passion. While being an undergraduate, I hope to connect
with the professors that I will have so that I can obtain a teachers assistant position or a research
assistant position. These opportunities that exists will allow me to connect with my passion for
physics directly. I know that in the future, when I work on my masters degree, I will have to do
research and, hopefully, become a teachers assistant. If I could connect with someone in this
situation while I am in the undergraduate degree, I could be more prepared for my future.