Cohort 24 Take Off

    As our journey begins, this first week kicked off with the history of CSU Monterey Bay. From the land acknowledgment of the Amah Mutsun, Esselen, Ohlone, Rumsen, and Salinan peoples, to the Fort Ord military base, to the founding of the university in 1994 — it was inspiring to see how far the campus has come. CSUMB’s vision, mission, and values are now instilled in our cohort, a group ready to collaborate, learn, and contribute not only to Monterey and the surrounding areas, but to California as a whole.

    Jumping into our first assignments, CST 300 prepared us for academic writing with structured essay outlines. Instead of writing full paragraphs right away, we focused on bullet points for each topic and supporting sentences, which helped keep everything organized and clear.

    In CST 349, we explored successful online learning and the role of AI in academics. My group agreed that strong communication is key, especially in a collaborative environment. Personally, I’ve found that AI has boosted my efficiency, particularly when researching and finding reputable sources to dig deeper into. The big lesson here: the quality of the prompt you give AI really shapes the quality of the response you get back.

    We wrap up week one with a professional meeting with Professor Tao and Organizer Krishna, and I’m already excited to see what week two has in store.