My name is Yuwei Ma, and I am a first-year student of Communication, Culture and Technology, an interdisciplinary program at Georgetown University. Toward the general goal of making the world a better place, I am interested in how individuals receive information and make decisions based on the resources at hand, which deeply involves the three dimensions CCT offers.
I try my best to be a diversified and balanced person.
For diversity, I don’t want to limit myself to one style or field of interest. How to interpret and disseminate information, how to influence the way individuals perceive information, and how to impact their decision-making process, especially when facing crises, all require me to explore different disciplines.
A clear image of the whole picture is fundamental for practical solutions, and being versatile led me to gain skills to analyze and innovate. With my background in sociology, I learned qualitative and quantitative research skills， and with my experience in conducting research, directing major events, as well as writing in different formats, I improved my skills in coordination, collaboration, and leadership.
In all, diversity serves as the foundation for my lifelong path. It provides me with tools to follow my passion for different fields and perspectives to discuss diverse issues.
However, this doesn’t equate to not becoming an expert in a particular field. Balance came in to help me stay in the direction when making choices. Balance exists in organizing knowledge from different disciplines, rational evaluations vs. gut feelings, and in all, finding myself and choosing my path. In this sense, studying at CCT allows me to collect new skills into my basket and balance between different opportunities. This flexibility pushes me to make progress while evolving with the changing society.
During the first semester of CCT, I dug deep into the world of personalization. Nowadays, personalized online environment influences how people consume information profoundly. Aligns with my interest in how information is conveyed and received, the mechanism of different forms of personalization led me to learn algorithms, psychology, political science, and communication. And only after a clear understanding of the issue did I find my position to help address the problem.
For so long, I don’t consider myself an inventor of new technologies, but I am creative in coming up with plans that optimize what I have, and I get excited using PQMA and design thinking to solve problems. Thus, I aim to work as a translator between technological ideas and real-world applications to make things happen through different projects.
