Wow, time sure flies by when you’re having fun, doesn’t it? It seems like just yesterday, I opened my COSMOS care package to find a veryorange shirt and thought to myself: “Well this program’s going to be interesting.” And it sure was.
Going into this program, I’ll be honest with you: I was skeptical. Between the bright orange shirt and this year’s COSMOS being completely online, I thought to myself: I definitely won’t be able to get the entire “COSMOS experience” — complete with unique learning opportunities, exciting field trips, lifelong friendships, and merch that I’d actually wear outside of the house that my friends who attended COSMOS in the year of 2019 were able to have. However, now that this program has come to an end, I can without a doubt say that I was wrong.
While I may have still missed out on some unique in-person COSMOS experiences, such as getting the opportunity to stay in the UC Santa Cruz dormitories or getting to taste Professor Shaowei Chen’s iconic rice, I’ve gained a plethora of other experiences from this year’s virtual COSMOS, such as having the opportunity to participate in a Virtual Escape Room and getting to enjoy Cluster 5’s wild shenanigans (*cough* silently screaming at the secret word of the day *cough*). While the past in-person COSMOS students may be able to joke about their exhausting treks to and from the dining hall each day and their interesting experiences (or I suppose prior lackof experience) with operating laundry machines, us COSMOS 2021 students have our own special memories as well: from our Great Migration to Discord TM to singing the “You’re insecure, don’t know what for” song (that’s the only way I’ll ever refer to that song from now on) as a group at our iconic virtual COSMOS Karaoke Night, I’d say we’ve had just as many memorable experiences that we can look back on and laugh at as the past COSMOS students (if not more).
Just as a whole, our various experiences with COSMOS have made us learn and grow in both academic and personal ways — I know I definitely learned a great deal from COSMOS, at least. Perhaps the most obvious way that I, and many other COSMOS students, was able to grow academically was through deepening my knowledge within a specific field of study that piqued my interest during my cluster classes.In my case, that was Video Game Design; and I definitely did gain a wealth of knowledge, not only about video games, but on the concept of games as a whole. I joined COSMOS and Cluster 5 thinking that I would learn how to use a game engine or two and then maybe make a small game, but ended up learning how to use more than five game engines, created dozens of small games, and wrote more than 7,000 lines of code for a Visual Novel with hours of gameplay as my final project. Not only did I expand my knowledge of the game design world, but I also gained more confidence in myself and my ability to work in that field… And from talking to fellow students at COSMOS, I can, with confidence, say that many students in other clusters had similar experiences.
My cluster wasn’t the only place where I expanded my knowledge here at COSMOS. I also learned a great deal from other COSMOS events, such as Discovery Lectures and Academic Enrichment sessions. Never in my life did I think I would get engrossed in a presentation about chirality or bioluminescence, especially at 9:00 AM during summer break (I’m more of a “wake up at 12:00 PM” type of person), yet there I was, at those Discovery Lectures, initially trying to stay awake and attentive in order to ask a question that would gain me entrance into the daily raffles, but later genuinely enjoying the lectures and thinking: “Woah, this topic is absolutely fascinating!”
I think one of the biggest surprises, and places of growth, for me came from my decision to participate in the Macrocosm 2021 Newsletter as its editor-in-chief. Upon participating in COSMOS, a heavily STEM-oriented program, I didn’t think that publications, a subject definitely more aligned with the fine arts, would be an area of focus for me. Yet, the Macrocosm 2021 Newsletter quickly found its way to be near and dear to my heart. I found myself constantly impressed by my amazing team of hard-working, creative, and absolutely hilarious individuals who made me realize that, even though we couldn’t meet each other in-person, we could still make lasting friendships through playing Gartic Phone, listening to k-pop, and just laughing about the randomest things.
So as I conclude my speech today, I wanted to say thank you. Thank you to our amazing COSMOS Faculty Director, Professor Shaowei Chen and our awesome COSMOS Administrators, Katrina Ricca and Jessica Rivera for making this whole program possible and working tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure this year’s virtual COSMOS was on-par with the in-person COSMOS of the past. I also wanted to thank all of the wonderful Discovery Lecture presenters, cluster instructors, teacher fellows, and teacher’s assistants who were willing to instill their knowledge upon us and allow us to learn and grow, despite being miles away. Finally, I wanted to thank my fellow COSMOS students. Thank you for your brilliant minds and ideas, and your willingness to share such ideas and create a supportive learning environment for everyone. Thank you for your open-mindedness and willingness to break the awkward Zoom ice and press the unmute button in order to take everyone one step closer to forming the lifelong friendships that COSMOS is known for. Never before have I met such a diverse community of different, yet somehow also like minded people, and I am honored to have had the chance to partake in this program and meet you all.
So the next time I see that bright orange COSMOS t-shirt, I won’t think: “Sheesh, that’s really orange!” Instead, I’ll reflect on all of my unique COSMOS experiences and think of the people I met through this program and smile… and maybe… just maybe… I’ll think about putting it on too.
Jade Wang, Cluster 5 Editor-in-Chief
Graduation Ceremony
On the morning of July 31st, over 200 COSMOS students woke up after getting more than 2 hours of sleep for the first time in over a week (presentation week hits hard). Students and parents alike slid out of bed, or stayed under the covers and grabbed their devices, and logged into Zoom for what promised to be a smooth graduation ceremony.
It was not (it was very entertaining, though!).
As 10:00 AM approached, a steady stream of students and parents began joining the Zoom. Attendees who had joined the Zoom early were peacefully watching the picture slideshow and vibing to the music. Attendees who came late, however, were instead greeted with a message saying that the Zoom was at full capacity. Panicked texts were sent in Discord, and the news soon made its way to Zoom chat. Unable to think of any other solution, Jessica decided to switch the meeting to a webinar, which would allow everyone to join despite making the meeting less personal.
After the participants issue was sorted out, everyone thought that was the end of the technical difficulties, but Zoom had much more for us in store. In the webinar, Katrina and Prof. Shaowei Chen were having camera issues. It was then that Zoom, being extraordinarily generous, decided to grace us with the gift of lag. Jessica, trying to help with the camera issue, channeled her inner Minecraft note block and lagged so badly that only one syllable came out every couple of seconds. After a couple attempts at trying to decipher what Jessica was saying, Katrina and Prof. Chen were finally able to turn their cameras on and introduce our first speaker: Prof. James Whitehead.
Prof. Whitehead gave an inspiring talk about the future of science, COSMOS, and us. He talked about how we are going to shape the 21st century, while also roasting the current political climate and emphasizing the urgency of changing our attitude towards our world’s problems. His cat also made a guest appearance in the corner of the frame, dazzling all of us and stealing the show.
Following Prof. Whitehead’s talk was a speech by the one and only Jade Wang, our very own beloved Editor-in-Chief. Her speech was sweet, funny, contained very much justified slander of our neon orange shirts, horrified all of Cluster 5 through the multiple uses of the word “fun” — sorry — f*n, and was even praised by Cluster 6’s teacher fellow as one of the best student speeches they had ever heard. It truly summed up all the fun we’ve had and everything we’ve learned throughout the past 4 weeks in the best way possible.
After the speakers, we were supposed to watch a sweet video featuring the COSMOS professors and faculty saying goodbye. However, Zoom decided that it was the perfect opportunity to grace us with lag yet again, and we only got through 5 seconds of the extremely choppy video before Katrina decided she would just send it to us through Slack later this week.
This concluded the first part of the morning. In closing, Katrina and Prof. Chen said heartfelt goodbyes, thanking all the faculty and staff that made COSMOS possible. Students also flooded the chat with thank yous, two words that only represent a small fraction of all the gratitude we have towards everyone who made COSMOS 2021 this amazing.
Everyone then split up into their separate clusters to show parents their student’s presentations and say goodbye to their professors and teacher fellows one last time. They were sad, sentimental meetings with far too many goodbyes than anyone cared for, and most people are probably all goodbye-ed out. But, from Macrocosm, here it is, one last time:
Goodbye COSMOS 2021. Thank you for the lessons you’ve taught us and the friendships you’ve fostered. Every time we talk in the COSMOS discord, email our teacher fellows, or even meet people in person, we’ll remember these incredible 4 weeks of passion and fun. Every way-too-early-in-the-morning Discovery Lecture (because 9:00 AM is clearly too early, right?), every confusing cluster lecture, every chaotic evening event where we crashed Zoom from spamming the chat, all of them will forever hold a special place in our hearts. Goodbyes are never easy. But, we are so lucky to have attended a program so wonderful that it makes saying goodbye so hard. Thank you, COSMOS 2021! - Audrey Zeng