S-STEM Scholar Kassandra Barrera's Blog

  1. What are your professional goals, 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years into the future? What will accomplishing these goals let you do? How will accomplish these goals impact those around you and what will it make possible for those in your community?  I believe that in 10 years from now I will be working in a nice accredited crime laboratory for a while now. I also would love to help out my family and slowly start repaying everything that my parents have done for me. I also would love to be starting a family of my own. Something that I told myself that I would love to accomplish is, I would love to give back to Phoenix College and ASU. Throughout my education I had so much help from these schools that I feel the need to give back and help others who are barely starting their education journey. 2. What are societal challenges that matter to you that you think it's important to deal with now? What do you think are the challenges that will matter 10 years in the future, and 20 yea...

Picture  1. What did you know about your field 3 years ago, and what have you learned about that has 'wowed' you? (Supplemental questions: What did you use to think was an advanced topic in your subject, and what do you believe to be now? What was the experience that you feel you learned the most from?) Honestly, three years ago, I switched majors to what I am majoring in now, which is Forensic Science. When I first started my college journey straight out of high school, I enrolled in the biomedical program, and I wanted to become a biomedical engineer. For two years, I did that, and in the final semester, when it was time to transfer over to ASU in Lake Havasu, I decided that I was always interested in forensic science. I remember when I was a small kid, I would watch all the crime shows you can think of, and the idea of looking at a piece of evidence and creating a story and examining it was something so interesting to me. So I did the craziest thing, and I switched my major ...

Senior Picture 1. Who are you grateful for who has helped you get to where you are today? (What was your situation? how did they help you? How did that help impact you now and how has it led to where you are today? If you have a picture you'd like to share please do so with their permission.) I am grateful for my family, which includes my dad, mom, and sister. Thanks to them, I can honestly say that I am where I am is because of them. I am a strong believer that support and motivation play a big part in people's success. Of course, many other people who have helped me with my education have been in my shoes and can actually give me advice. For example, my educational career's most influential person has to be my advisor Dr. Robin Cotter. Thanks to her, I have continued my studies and not worry too much about finances and worrying about how I will pay for my next semester. I just think back to when I first started college and how everything was out of pocket, and I was worki...

Well, it is finally that final week where finals are approaching and everything seems so close but so far. The TRAIN class that we are all in made us plan out how we are going to do for our to-do list/ study guide that will help us organize the last few weeks for school. This really helped me a lot because I was able to organize what I need to study and also what I should prioritize.  This has helped especially this week that it is finals week. I hope everyone good luck on their finals! And hopefully, I am able to do good on mine as well. 

Mindset Google Image I remember we had to read the book Mindest by Carol S. Dweck last semester too for this TRAIN class, however kind of skimming through it again there were some main key points that I didn't resonate with the first time I read it. I feel like the first time reading this book one of the main key points that I carelessly neglected to do, was to actually use the techniques on how to actually change a fixed mindset to a growing one. Like I knew what I had to do to get out of that fixed mindset I was in. Not going to lie, I wasn't really doing anything to help better my thoughts, and I really do believe that it was getting in the way of my education, and even my personal life. As cliche as it may sound, however, this pandemic and a lot of alone time being at home, along with other incidents that have happened recently, it has really made me think a lot more about what kind of life I want for myself. Getting closer to graduation, and going back to those long term g...

  One of the assignments that we had to do for the TRAIN course at ASU West was to take an Enneagram test.  For those of you that do not know what an enneagram test is, it's kind of like a personality test. The test asks you a series of questions, and based on your answers it evaluates you and places you in which out of the nine personality traits do you fall under. For me, I had a tie for my number one slot, and it was personality trait number 2 and 9, which are the Helper/Giver, and the Mediator/Peacemaker, respectively. With the results, I received also came a description that described what each individual trait means. So, as I was reading through my descriptions, I started to see why I got these two. I resonated a lot what it was saying like for 2, the helper, it mentioned how I have a nurturing need to help others, and that is very true for me. Whenever I see someone who is struggling I can't help myself and not help if I can at the moment. I just find it interesting how...

Now that we are near the end things are getting a little bit stressful. But I am glad that I feel a lot better this semester than the last one. This semester has definitely been very interesting, and I am sure that I can speak for everyone. Being forced to self isolate ourselves, and convert to online learning was very tough. Hopefully next semester we are able to go back to school and enjoy all the small things. if this quarantine has taught me anything its that I was taking the small things for granted. Next semester, I will be becoming a senior and completing my last year at ASU and I cannot wait to make memories. I just would love to congratulate all the graduates that have completed their studies this semester. And it is unfortunate that they will probably not have the celebration that they were hoping for but they all should be proud no matter what. I hope when all this is done that they will be able to celebrate like how they deserve.