Patrick Famaran

After a few glorious years at St.Louis, (where I would graduate valedictorian) I moved on to bigger and better things, High School. During my tenure at St.Louis, I soon realized that I loved public speaking and performing in general. As a result, I enrolled in Iona Catholic Secondary School's Arts and Culture Pathway Program, with a concentration in the Theatrical Arts. Despite enjoying the program, I eventually fell out of love with the theatre and dropped out of the pathway, still continuing at Iona as a regular student. I took a wide variety of classes ranging from Politics to Accounting to Astronomy. This was a huge problem come applying to universities in grade 12, because I loved everything. I simply could not decide what discipline I wanted to concentrate in.

 

That was until I found out about interdisciplinary programs. I fell in love with the idea that I could learn anything and everything my heart desired. My research led me to 4 main choices for university, McMaster, McGill, Guelph and the University of Waterloo, the first three offering "Arts and Science" and UW offering something called "Knowledge Integration." When the time came for acceptances, I was heartbroken to find out that I did not meet the admission averages for McMaster's Arts and Science (my first overall choice) and after looking deeper into Guelph and McGill's Art's and Science programs I realized that their strucure was not what I was looking for. Instead of learning everything, they were literally learning one art and one science. This led me to take a chance on this thing called Knowledge Integration. Thankfully, I would not be starting this journey all by myself as I would be joined with my very close friend, Samantha Afonso. 

 

Together, we figured out the 1st year of KI and we befriended quite a number of incredible and talented people. I was very moved by the program's philosophy "making connections and problem solving." Knowledge Integration's approach to interdisciplinary education was exactly what high school me was looking for, the opportunity to learn anything I wanted to learn, while giving me the breadth of a renaissance man. Again, I took a wide variety of classes, ranging from Zoology to Calculus to French. My mind was at ease. 

 

Once second year came rolling around, it seemed that all of these amazing Knowledge Integrators were looking to specialize in a certain area, whether it was computer science or biology, it seemed that everyone had figured it out. As a result, in a feat of desparation, I selected to do a Management Studies minor, mainly because I could double count a few KI related courses including: Public Speaking, Critical Thinking, and Statistics. In winter 2014 I started the minor with AFM 123 - Accounting Info for Managers. It was through this class where I realized that I really wanted to make significant changes in the world of business. Conveniently, the Department of Knowledge Integration began to offer a specialization in Collaborative Design, which focuses on real-world problem solving. Together, with my interdisciplinary background and a rejuvenated interest in my Management Studies minor I really felt like I was going to change the world. 

 

At the end of second year, as per the Knowledge Integration curriculum, we had to embark on a trip to somewhere in Europe to learn about museums and museum design. It just so happenes that my cohort was awarded Amsterdam as our destination. The museum trip was amazing, we saw all of the key sites and learned so many new things about design. From here, me and Samantha embarked on our world tour. Starting in Amsterdam, we flew to Copenhagen where we could later on train to Lunde, Sweden. We explored the town as it was a possible exchange location for Samantha. From there we went back to Copenhagen in the midst of what we later found out was Eurovision. After Copenhagen, we met up a few of our friends from KI (who also happened to be travelling) in Berlin. We took a walking tour and saw all of the need-to-see sites, while learning about German history first hand. After Berlin we flew to Prague, where we stayed at the Madhouse Hostel. We did another walking tour and saw the Royal Castle as well as John Lennon's Wall. After Prague we flew to Rome, where we saw all of the historical sites including the Vatican. After our extensive stay in Rome, Samantha and I split up, herself going to South France and me hanging out in Geneva. This was the only time on the trip I truly felt alone. While in Geneva, I visited Jet d'eau and the UN. We would later reunite in Barcelona with our very same friends from Berlin. Here, we did countless beach days and local exploration. After a week in the sun, we flew over to Paris. Samantha, having been there before, acted as a bit of a tour guide and showed me all of the key components of the city. Finally, we would hit our last stop in Dublin. It was amazing learning about the history of Ireland and Saint Patrick (my namesake!). Finally, we would return home. 

 

After an eventful summer working at the golf course, I came back to Waterloo for my 3A term, where I was enrolled in ARBUS 200. A few months into the course and here I am, creating this e-portfolio. 

 

My life's journey was a crazy and eventful one. Everyday I'm so thankful of all the people I ever met and all of the things I've experience. Collectively, all of these people and all of these experiences have shaped me to the person I am today. Whether it be helping me grow physically, mentally and emotionally, I am so thankful for everyone and I'm a little upset that I cannot acknowledge everyone by name, due to the scope of this assignment.