Ahmad Jaradat

Dr.Cavin
PS 1010

PS 1010 Reflection

PS 1010 changed my perspective on how the government works

and made me realize how much power an individual or group has.

Throughout the semester, I learned about the various agents, structures, and

institutions that shape our society as we know it. After breaking down how

power is distributed in our society, I was surprised at how possible it was to

create change. Nearly every decision made towards creating policies is done

by either one person or a small group of people. Looking back on how I

started the semester I noticed how much I grew as an individual and as a

member in society.

Starting off the semester, I despised this class. I did not like the fact

that we must work in groups and the fact that we were required to do ten

hours of service. I expected this class to be a traditional class that involved

lectures and some essays. However, my perspective slowly started to change

as I listened to KDK lectures and started to do my assignments breaking

down the problem. I slowly started to get motivated to solve the problem of

air pollution with my group. I learned the way that policies work and with

that knowledge I was not afraid to attempt on tackling the problem. As I was

working on to improve air regulation, I was surprised by the fact that power

plants emit so much pollution that it makes other efforts seem negligible.
Also, the fact that states and power plants are too reliant on coal that they

do not want to change. Since there are a lot of obstacles that are faced, I am

striving to keep working on this problem. I learned a lot on how the country

utilizes energy and I plan to use this knowledge to good use.

The course taught me many skills that I would use in my private and

public life. The first skill that I learned is that I am able to change the world

around me. The concepts and lessons learned throughout the course taught

me how to analyze the problem and be able to bring forth a workable

solution. Another skill I learned is how to work with a group of students to

tackle a problem. I thought group work was going to be challenging because

from experience only one person would do all the work. However, I was

completely wrong. Yes, there was some cons like getting a time where

everyone could go but at the end of the day we worked together to solve the

problem. PS 1010 opened the doors of opportunities for me. With the help of

KDK and Dr. Cavin they helped me on the path to success. The lessons I

learned in this course will always be carried with me throughout my life.