Renaissance Circle ePortfolios

Dr. G. Alex Ambrose

Tuesday 18 November 2014

5:30 - 7:00 pm

Coleman-Morse 217 (Conference Room) 

In addition to teaching me about Da Vinci's life, Dr. Ambrose's Renaissance Circle stimulated my creativity in designing my entire ePortfolio and taught me how to "mind-map." After learning about how Leonardo Da Vinci was able to master so many skills and make advances in a wide range of subjects, I wrote my personal mission statement; it was my way of implementing a Da Vinci-like goal to my research-based education. The most important thing that I got out of Dr. Ambrose's talk was that it is not impossible to be good at a lot of different things. Today's world seems so centered on specializations that we seldom remember that being well-rounded is just as important as being good at something. I liked how Dr. Ambrose used this as a segue into mind mapping; mind-mapping is an organizational method that can help stimulate the imagination and is (in my opinion) the best way to brainstorm. The idea is that you start with a word in the middle and without constraint of color, continuity, or shape, other ideas branch out of it. At the end of Dr. Ambrose's talk he challenged us to find a good mind-mapping program and make a mind map about myself. The idea is that we would be able to share all the things that we are good at and prove to ourselves that we aren't that far away from being "21st Century Da Vinci's" after all. 

 One thing that surprised me while I was mind-mapping was my "artist" branch. I realized that although it's not always the center of my life, it may be an outlet that I could explore in my free time. In the months since, my creative literacy has flourished (as you can see in my theatre tab). I really enjoyed doing this and have used mind mapping when writing other papers and doing other presentations.