THE EXPERIENCE
OF INEXPERIENCE
My Process of Becoming Open-Minded
Over the past 8 weeks, the my mindset has changed in ways that I would've never imagined. My goal is to reflect on this shift and provide advice for anyone else who wants to approach situations differenty.
Start
summary
My college journey so far hasn't been straight-forward or easy. Not in the slightest.
Stepping foot on campus in late August, I was frankly lost. Between the campus seeming foreign and with barely any friends, I had no clue what to do from there. Soon after, I remembered something that my track coach used to tell me; "Be comfortable with the uncomfortable." Even though I wasn't sure what that truly meant, I thought that I should put myself in more uncomfortable positions. That included going to the corny Miami sponsored events during Welcome Week, leaving my dorm room door open, and trying to be more social in general. I never thought taking risks would apply to a physical class at Miami, but ESP 103 has proven me wrong time and time again. Because of this, I went through a stunning journey of personal growth and realization that has changed the entire direction of my college experience.
MY First day In oxford
My biggest issue was thinking that I knew everything
I love to be prepared when it comes to most things. Coming to Miami, I thought I had it figured all out and that I would do it all my way. However, I had no clue what it was really like here. I didn't know anyone here and had no idea what the environment here would look like. At this point, I feel lost. Move-in day goes by fast and before I know it, I'm here to fend for myself. Things looked so much different here compared to high school. Luckily, I remember something my dad always told me.
These pictures were not taken voluntarily
"become invested in your work and your work will invest in you"
- Raymond Bice
Getting invested in college
High school and college courses are jurastically different, and that was clearly apparent from day one.
Walking up those unusually tiring Laws Hall stairs at 7:45am was not fun. Yes I was excited for the class, but also bored with the concept of given busy work for the next 15 weeks. This was magnified in the first week when we made paper airplanes and crumpled-up paper origami. But there was something that I started to feel, something that sparked this curiousity in me. I felt like I was getting more creative in just the first week, partially from all the vague instructions but also from the open ended assignments. Throughout the past 7 weeks, I've done a tremendous amount of growing through my ESP assignments, and I'm here to summarize my journey.
It was in my mind that I was going to invest in my education and get the most out of what is taught to me. Starting with my FYIC, the only class that I didn't know what was going to happen was ESP 103. Still thinking I knew it all, I thought that it would be a busy work class. And boy was I wrong.
Next
A shift in mindset
In order to convey my journey of transforming my mindset, I'm going to break it down into five aspects that I learned in ESP 103 and helped me along the process.
Failure
Curiousity
One of the most important things to do when learning
Getting time to research and express my interests helped me discover more
Application
Uncomfortability
Collaboration
Learning to apply these concepts to my career at Miami is priceless
Working with a group and problem solving proved to be very impactful
Stepping outside my comfort zone multiple times made me exposed to learn
So what?
100+
Explore More
Uncomfortability
People that I have met by simply talking
Putting the effects into tangible numbers truly shows the result
Stepping out of my comfort zone has been one of the most beneficial things that I have done. I credit most of my friends, involvement, and fun I've had here so far to my willingness to put myself in uncomfortable situations. During my Goosechase assignment, I found a lot of odd and abstract tasks that I had no clue why we were assigned them. But after completing them, I realized that all of the kids I interacted with were in the same shoes as me; 18 and 19 year olds who want to make friends. From there, that flipped a switch to approach everything with the possibility to explore any opporutnities that may come to me.
Business Organizations joined
Weeks of fun and memories so far
Explore More
Curiousity
Some people might see finance and numbers as boring, but I see it as an untold story
Curiousity is something that I thought was abstract and you needed to try hard at. Being curious for me always came in what I like to call "brush fires", or short times where I would be extremely invested into a topic just to lose interest in a few days. For my Genius Hour assignment, I was given the freedom to research something I was passionate in. For me, that's investing and picking stocks. Being forced to make time for my interest really helped my curiousity and made me discover lots on new things that I wouldn't have known otherwise. Getting to turn my work into a stock pitch in the Spark assignment also made me think more about future finance careers, and most importantly prepared me for my interviews with the Business Organizations. Overall, learning to channel my curiousity into something productive and useful is a fantastic skill that I obtained from this portion of class.
Stock Pitch
COLLABORATION
Being put into a cohort like FYIC in my first semester is one of the most beneficial things to happen to me at Miami so far. Surrounded by the same 29 people everyday, I've been able to develop lots of soft skills that have taught me the importance of teamwork. Easily the biggest example of this was the Rude Goldberg assignment a few weeks back. On paper, it seemed like a very vague and challenging task to achieve. But after two hours in Dodds Hall working together, we got a functioning machine that we all contributed to. Looking back on it, I honestly think the Rude Goldberg assignment has highlighted collaboration the most compared to any other project so far. Taking away the process itself is wonderful to see the teamwork that we put together and the ideas that we used thanks to the approaches taught in ESP 103.
Did you know...
During our Rude Goldberg assignment, we spent over 90 minutes designing and brainstorming compared to 30 minutes of trial and error
Explore More
How to learn from mistakes
Get feedback. Don't be scared to ask where you went wrong and what you can improve on.
Failure
Get Feedback
Expecting to accomplish everything you do is a failure itself
Review your work. Look over what you submitted or displayed and examine. Leave yourself positive feedback, but don't be critical on yourself.
One of my core traits is overplanning; I love to plan out lots of different things in my life like courses, my time, and trips with friends. Coming into Farmer, I already planned out the Business Organizations that I would join freshman year. My mindset was dead-set on certain things with no context or guidance. So when my application for Banking Club, one of the most selective clubs in Farmer, came back as declined I freaked out. Not knowing how to control and learn from failure would've left me in the dark with no clear route to recover. In ESP 103 so far, I've failed dozens of times; whether it be in my early stages of my business models or the weekly reading quizzes that I forget about. Recovering and learning from your mistakes is something that I believe is crucial in any aspect of your life.
Review your work
Apply you lesson. What you learn from your failures makes no difference if you can't apply them in the future.
Apply your lesson
Explore More
As mentioned earlier, all your knowledge and mindsets don't matter if you can't properly apply them to your work. The biggest challenge in ESP 103 in my opinion is learning how to efficiently apply what you have learned. which is why the open ended assignments recapping activites are so challenging to lots of people. Learning to leverage mindsets and concepts will always help you succeed no matter what field, the obstacle is incorperating it.
Application
Approach each situation from multiple perspectives and mindsets
Find ways to apply your traits into research and deliverables
Highlight the unique and refined portions of your work from trial and error
Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of both yourself and the task at hand
Explore More
'Being open minded is the process of taking feedback and repurposing it into lessons that are novel, useful, and surprising.'
How does this all tie in?
All of my learning in ESP 103 has led me to the conclusion that it is not what you learn, it is how you learn it and apply it in the future.
Doing some self-reflection, my overall mindset and approach to life has been forever altered. The opportunities and lessons that I've recieved has shown me the importance of mindset going forward and how important maintaining an open mindset is. In doing this, I hope to tackle situations in a new way moving forward, treating every aspect with value and optimism in order to reach a unique outcome. Applying my lessons to my next three years here will come with challenges, but I hope to navigate it with the wisdom and the greatest gift that we all have: our minds.
Thank you!
ESP 103 Creativity Portfolio
Jacksen Bice
Created on October 15, 2025
Start designing with a free template
Discover more than 1500 professional designs like these:
View
Terrazzo Presentation
View
Visual Presentation
View
Relaxing Presentation
View
Modern Presentation
View
Colorful Presentation
View
Modular Structure Presentation
View
Chromatic Presentation
Explore all templates
Transcript
THE EXPERIENCE
OF INEXPERIENCE
My Process of Becoming Open-Minded
Over the past 8 weeks, the my mindset has changed in ways that I would've never imagined. My goal is to reflect on this shift and provide advice for anyone else who wants to approach situations differenty.
Start
summary
My college journey so far hasn't been straight-forward or easy. Not in the slightest.
Stepping foot on campus in late August, I was frankly lost. Between the campus seeming foreign and with barely any friends, I had no clue what to do from there. Soon after, I remembered something that my track coach used to tell me; "Be comfortable with the uncomfortable." Even though I wasn't sure what that truly meant, I thought that I should put myself in more uncomfortable positions. That included going to the corny Miami sponsored events during Welcome Week, leaving my dorm room door open, and trying to be more social in general. I never thought taking risks would apply to a physical class at Miami, but ESP 103 has proven me wrong time and time again. Because of this, I went through a stunning journey of personal growth and realization that has changed the entire direction of my college experience.
MY First day In oxford
My biggest issue was thinking that I knew everything
I love to be prepared when it comes to most things. Coming to Miami, I thought I had it figured all out and that I would do it all my way. However, I had no clue what it was really like here. I didn't know anyone here and had no idea what the environment here would look like. At this point, I feel lost. Move-in day goes by fast and before I know it, I'm here to fend for myself. Things looked so much different here compared to high school. Luckily, I remember something my dad always told me.
These pictures were not taken voluntarily
"become invested in your work and your work will invest in you"
- Raymond Bice
Getting invested in college
High school and college courses are jurastically different, and that was clearly apparent from day one.
Walking up those unusually tiring Laws Hall stairs at 7:45am was not fun. Yes I was excited for the class, but also bored with the concept of given busy work for the next 15 weeks. This was magnified in the first week when we made paper airplanes and crumpled-up paper origami. But there was something that I started to feel, something that sparked this curiousity in me. I felt like I was getting more creative in just the first week, partially from all the vague instructions but also from the open ended assignments. Throughout the past 7 weeks, I've done a tremendous amount of growing through my ESP assignments, and I'm here to summarize my journey.
It was in my mind that I was going to invest in my education and get the most out of what is taught to me. Starting with my FYIC, the only class that I didn't know what was going to happen was ESP 103. Still thinking I knew it all, I thought that it would be a busy work class. And boy was I wrong.
Next
A shift in mindset
In order to convey my journey of transforming my mindset, I'm going to break it down into five aspects that I learned in ESP 103 and helped me along the process.
Failure
Curiousity
One of the most important things to do when learning
Getting time to research and express my interests helped me discover more
Application
Uncomfortability
Collaboration
Learning to apply these concepts to my career at Miami is priceless
Working with a group and problem solving proved to be very impactful
Stepping outside my comfort zone multiple times made me exposed to learn
So what?
100+
Explore More
Uncomfortability
People that I have met by simply talking
Putting the effects into tangible numbers truly shows the result
Stepping out of my comfort zone has been one of the most beneficial things that I have done. I credit most of my friends, involvement, and fun I've had here so far to my willingness to put myself in uncomfortable situations. During my Goosechase assignment, I found a lot of odd and abstract tasks that I had no clue why we were assigned them. But after completing them, I realized that all of the kids I interacted with were in the same shoes as me; 18 and 19 year olds who want to make friends. From there, that flipped a switch to approach everything with the possibility to explore any opporutnities that may come to me.
Business Organizations joined
Weeks of fun and memories so far
Explore More
Curiousity
Some people might see finance and numbers as boring, but I see it as an untold story
Curiousity is something that I thought was abstract and you needed to try hard at. Being curious for me always came in what I like to call "brush fires", or short times where I would be extremely invested into a topic just to lose interest in a few days. For my Genius Hour assignment, I was given the freedom to research something I was passionate in. For me, that's investing and picking stocks. Being forced to make time for my interest really helped my curiousity and made me discover lots on new things that I wouldn't have known otherwise. Getting to turn my work into a stock pitch in the Spark assignment also made me think more about future finance careers, and most importantly prepared me for my interviews with the Business Organizations. Overall, learning to channel my curiousity into something productive and useful is a fantastic skill that I obtained from this portion of class.
Stock Pitch
COLLABORATION
Being put into a cohort like FYIC in my first semester is one of the most beneficial things to happen to me at Miami so far. Surrounded by the same 29 people everyday, I've been able to develop lots of soft skills that have taught me the importance of teamwork. Easily the biggest example of this was the Rude Goldberg assignment a few weeks back. On paper, it seemed like a very vague and challenging task to achieve. But after two hours in Dodds Hall working together, we got a functioning machine that we all contributed to. Looking back on it, I honestly think the Rude Goldberg assignment has highlighted collaboration the most compared to any other project so far. Taking away the process itself is wonderful to see the teamwork that we put together and the ideas that we used thanks to the approaches taught in ESP 103.
Did you know...
During our Rude Goldberg assignment, we spent over 90 minutes designing and brainstorming compared to 30 minutes of trial and error
Explore More
How to learn from mistakes
Get feedback. Don't be scared to ask where you went wrong and what you can improve on.
Failure
Get Feedback
Expecting to accomplish everything you do is a failure itself
Review your work. Look over what you submitted or displayed and examine. Leave yourself positive feedback, but don't be critical on yourself.
One of my core traits is overplanning; I love to plan out lots of different things in my life like courses, my time, and trips with friends. Coming into Farmer, I already planned out the Business Organizations that I would join freshman year. My mindset was dead-set on certain things with no context or guidance. So when my application for Banking Club, one of the most selective clubs in Farmer, came back as declined I freaked out. Not knowing how to control and learn from failure would've left me in the dark with no clear route to recover. In ESP 103 so far, I've failed dozens of times; whether it be in my early stages of my business models or the weekly reading quizzes that I forget about. Recovering and learning from your mistakes is something that I believe is crucial in any aspect of your life.
Review your work
Apply you lesson. What you learn from your failures makes no difference if you can't apply them in the future.
Apply your lesson
Explore More
As mentioned earlier, all your knowledge and mindsets don't matter if you can't properly apply them to your work. The biggest challenge in ESP 103 in my opinion is learning how to efficiently apply what you have learned. which is why the open ended assignments recapping activites are so challenging to lots of people. Learning to leverage mindsets and concepts will always help you succeed no matter what field, the obstacle is incorperating it.
Application
Approach each situation from multiple perspectives and mindsets
Find ways to apply your traits into research and deliverables
Highlight the unique and refined portions of your work from trial and error
Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of both yourself and the task at hand
Explore More
'Being open minded is the process of taking feedback and repurposing it into lessons that are novel, useful, and surprising.'
How does this all tie in?
All of my learning in ESP 103 has led me to the conclusion that it is not what you learn, it is how you learn it and apply it in the future.
Doing some self-reflection, my overall mindset and approach to life has been forever altered. The opportunities and lessons that I've recieved has shown me the importance of mindset going forward and how important maintaining an open mindset is. In doing this, I hope to tackle situations in a new way moving forward, treating every aspect with value and optimism in order to reach a unique outcome. Applying my lessons to my next three years here will come with challenges, but I hope to navigate it with the wisdom and the greatest gift that we all have: our minds.
Thank you!