Oscar Avatare

Honors 496
Homework 3: Revised Learning Statement

Prior to going to Rome, I had never had an actionable way to live out my passion for history. As
a child, I would peruse Wikipedia for hours on end, reading about the Dark Ages, the Vikings,
the Roman Empire, and dozens of different history topics. As an immigrant from Estonia, I had
always been acutely aware of the impact of historical events on the individual lives of people, so
I was always fascinated by how history both repeats and rhymes. In Rome, I saw history as a
living breathing organism that we all contributed to and influences us, but also as something I
could directly experience by going to the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Pantheon.
This trip also exposed me for the first time to peers of mine in the Honors Program, who inspired
me and broadened my circle of thinking of what I could do at UW and with my life. Using the
Vatican as a classroom for my art course is an experience I will never forget, and exemplifies the
importance of experiential learning in helping to develop the depth of knowledge that can be
garnered from an experience.

Using the reflection exercise that we did on the first day of class in Honors 496 elicited many
memories in my life, both pleasant and unpleasant, and made me realize how thankful I am for
many of the blessings I have in my life. It also reminds me of the reason why I hate the idea that
college is supposed to be the best four (or five) years of someone’s life. To me, I have always
seen UW, and by extension the Honors Program, as a launchpad towards my goals and destiny.
What my reflection made me realize was how little direction I had prior to Honors, and how it
helped to be a forcing function and guiding hand in making me the person that I am.
Simultaneously, I consider the freedom that it gave me to explore the intersection between many
different topics to be a crucial component in my intellectual and professional development.

During my reflection, the main mental image that I kept thinking of was a decision tree, and I
saw the different branches and roots of the tree as the many different versions of me that may
have come into existence had a certain event occurred or not occurred. Therefore, I will highlight
how Honors has been massively influential in shaping me through allowing me to explore my
intellectual passions, and in pursuing a second degree in Informatics.

Exploring my intellectual passions through Honors has been my favorite part of Honors. I have
written papers on corporate personhood, high frequency trading, cryptocurrency, taxation policy,
and cryptography, all of which have deepened my thinking around the complexity of different
systems, as well as the interdisciplinary nature of our world. It also allowed to me build
relationships with professors, and dive into topics at a range of depth that I wouldn’t have been
able to do otherwise. Additionally, my paper that I wrote on high frequency trading was the
centerpiece of my application to Informatics, and I am convinced that without it, I wouldn’t have
gotten accepted to the major. This paper made me realize the complexity of systems in the
modern world, and how the coupling of different systems means that we are often prone to
incorrectly analyzing and assessing the root causes of problems. As an Informatics major,
examining the study, design, and development of information technology for the good of people
is the ethos of the major. For me, Honors gave me a chance to show that I had the values of the
Informatics through my research and gave me the certainty that Informatics was something I
wanted to pursue along with business school in my undergrad years.

To me, UW and the Honors Program have been about giving me intellectual agency in a way that
I didn’t previous have and didn’t even know I was capable of. While I always had an inclination
that I was “smart”, I had no effective way to channel this in an actionable manner prior to UW
and Honors. Because of this, I intend to use my portfolio as a showcase to this intellectual
development, and to have my audience go on a journey through my intellectual development, as
well as a window into my mind as I was going through college.