College Level Reflection Paper

As Epiphany once said "I’ve found that growing up means being honest. About what I want. What I need. What I feel. Who I am." As I came into the Junior year, I didn't expect as many setbacks as I encountered. It was definitely a challenging year academically and personally because I hit many bumps in the road that made me fall into a never ending spiral of pessimism. I have definitely improved myself since the beginning of the year and have learned a lot of valuable lessons. This year has definitely been about growth and finding a pathway from darkness to light that has shaped me to become a stronger person with the ability to be challenged and not doubt myself but rather to overcome the obstacles and strive for

Many are raised and taught by their parents certain morals and values to live by. As a young boy, I had been educated to take action and work for things myself. My parents strongly stressed that I learn to become independent in order to get ahead in life. At the time, I had never been put in such a position in which my actions had no impact whatsoever. In my own universe, I believed that I, a young boy, was the center of all attention, the most significant factor of my environment. For example, I learned through elementary school, that only I was able to improve and maintain my grades, solely through dedication and perseverance. Through sports, I was able to learn that to exceed, I, myself, must practice often and be determined to become faster and stronger. I could not rely on others to magically improve my intelligence nor physicalities. By relying on others, it could potentially make you weak and useless on your own. Applying this work ethic into the real world, I was able to get throughout my elementary life without any signs of stress nor hopelessness.

Afro-Am 151 has taught me a lot about my beliefs and the way the world operates. When I walked into class on the first day, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. The only reason I enrolled in this class was because it fulfilled my Ethnic Studies requirement. I was handed the syllabus and was told that the class is a service learning course. As a freshman, I had no idea what that meant. Now, I obviously know what this type of course entails. At first, I wasn’t looking forward to doing the 25 hours at a placement site, but after I went and saw just how much they needed volunteers, I started to enjoy it. It was a nice way to escape the bubble of campus. I didn’t realize how trapped I felt living on campus until I went to Packer Townhouses and saw a whole different side of Madison than I was used to. Going to my placement site also allowed me to apply the concepts we learned in class to the real world. It is much easier to understand a class and the topics we are taught when we have real life scenarios to apply them to. Besides gaining a more in-depth understanding of course concepts, I also learned more about myself. I found that there is much more to the world than I am aware of. I was naïve about what happened in the world every day to people who aren’t as lucky as me. It is a much different world to people who aren’t white and don’t get the opportunity to attend college or higher education. The key course concepts that I was able to see brought to life the most are

Growing up I was always told that I was very mature for my age, I always attributed that to the fact that even though I have many siblings I was very much raised as an only child and set in my ways before the first one came around. So as my parents got more and more busy I just started doing things for myself. That and my acute perception skills made it fairly easy to remove the shroud of childhood wonder that blocks the truths of the world. Looking back I realized that’s only part of the reason why, it’s also because for the most part I spent my childhood alone my parents became emotionally distant early on and I only saw my friends at school, this solitude is what caused a false sense of maturity because I had no one to influence my energy. It is the group that determines your current maturity. You can see this best in a day I spent with my friends not two weeks ago, where we almost pulled a Benjamin Button and, in a way, aged backwards.

At this moment there is currently 7,430,931,842 people in the world. Nearly 3 billion of those people are currently living in poverty. Today, 350,000 babies will be born. The world, continues to grow, to prosper, as I sit in my bedroom staring out the window waiting for creativity to strike and give me the words that so effortlessly describe me. There is currently only one person in the world with the name Gabrielle Vozzi, and right now she is attempting to describe something that is indescribable: herself.

As the class of 2018 works towards their last months of high school, those who have aspirations to attend college will spend these last few months filling out endless applications, finding schools to take the SAT or ACT, and putting the machine that high school has forced us to become on overdrive. We will look back at all the long night and countless homework assignments that overlapped our obstacles. For some, the struggles encouraged them to quit trying. For others, the struggles provoked them. For the select few, the struggles are the reason we chose to strive.

Places of worship in New York City are as diverse as the community they are in. Visiting both Park Avenue Synagogue and St. Vartan’s Cathedral, I witnessed a unity of people in which I have never personally experienced before, as I do not come from a religious background. By attending services during prime times of worship for both places, I was able to see the role of the religion in the community along with how the community influences the religion. These experiences have shown to me rather how important they are to growing a place of worship and how important it is to experience religion in action while studying it.

Taking this class has had a profound impact on me. I have learned how to properly study for a college class. Also, I learned how to effectively communicate and reach out to my professor. This was my first college course which gave me a learning experience about psychology and myself as a student. I have learned how to manage my time, study in ways that are better for me, and focus on the task in front of me. I have enjoyed taking this course overall as I have met my professor, visited campus, and may take more courses at Millersville since I have learned what taking a college course is like. Even though I learned about Psychology throughout this course, I also learned about myself as a student. I learn more effectively in a classroom rather than online, I needed better time management, and to reach out and ask for help. I have also learned that challenging work pays off because when I was struggling, I made sure to take extra credit opportunities which at this point should bring my grade up by at least one letter grade to a B. Taking this class taught me more than just psychology. I learned that I want to go to Millersville and take more classes now that I know how to study and manage my time more effectively.

I truly believe that each person, experience, and surroundings takes someone to where they are. To me it’s been a wide set journey that has shaped me as a reader and writer. I came to the realization that what someone's background is, isn’t a definition of who they are. But instead, it has shaped them to where they stand. Where somewhere came from doesn’t define where they will end up. That just means each piece you read or write comes from somewhere that had meaning to it. In my life it involves church, my family and my teachers. Each have been a significant role in the process of getting to where I am now.

I grew up in a Christian home, a Christian church, and had Christian parents who love the Lord. I went to Sunday school every Sunday and learned all the stories of the Bible. My group would make crafts and eat snacks. I loved going to church and I loved God, but I didn’t know what it meant to truly believe in God. It was scary for me to put all my faith into one thing, for fear I would rely on the Lord and at some point I would need Him and He wouldn’t be there. However, I found out the most important thing to do is to put faith into one religion and believe it entirely.

My self-knowledge of my writing has become more evident throughout this course because I have become aware of certain patterns in my writing and I have gained tips on how to improve for future essays. I struggle with structuring my essays in a cohesive and organized manner and the input from Dr. Doss and my peers helped me produce better flow in my writing. For the second essay, I chose to do a rhetorical analysis of Mike Rose’s Why School?: Reclaiming Education for All of Us because I feel more comfortable with analysis’ than a reflection, for example. After reading my peer review comments, I noticed that Adriana and Maggie both remarked that my essay would make more sense if I split up my second body paragraph into

In the beginning, this class frustrated me. I am the kind of left-leaning atheist feminist that, honestly, does not like to hear other people’s opinions if they differ greatly from my own. I knew that, since this was more of a discussion based class, my hands would be tied because of my lack of knowledge about anything religious. As discussed on the first day, religion is something that people are uncomfortable talking about, and the further I got in the term the more comfortable I became hearing other people’s opinions (I will touch on this even more later) and allowing myself to learn from their perspective. Through this class, I learned to listen to my peers even more and to allow myself to see the world from a believer’s standpoint. I also thoroughly enjoyed studying the nitty-gritty of Judaism, which was a subject that I doubt I would have ever been exposed to otherwise.

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger” Friedrich Nietzsche. One of the quotes that comes to mind if I were asked to represent my junior year in high school. By far this school year has to be one of the toughest I have yet experience. I faced myself with personal issues leading to a lack of motivation for anything really. My personal issues really affected my school work and restricted me from the joys of living for a short period of time. I found myself lacking in energy and enthusiasm for school. School became a burden. I had to juggle my school life with the pain of losing my Godfather. I struggled gaining the strength to get back to who I am truly. The talkative energetic girl who finds her ways to overcome the challenges she faces with a positive overlook. The loss of such an important figure in my life was difficult. Experiencing a hard break of such kind really affected me, but with the support of my loved ones I overcame the hardships and stand stronger today.

When I was about three years old I was no different than any other kid around. My physical appearance was like any other toddlers. Then one day I started walking around with a limp and it didn’t look too bad or my parents would have token me to the doctor right away. It was on and off for about a year, but nothing to severe. That’s what my parents said anyways, I don’t have much recollection of myself back then.

If I had to lead a rally I would choose to have it at Central Park in New York City. This is the perfect place to hold a rally because of the open green grassy space. New York City also has a very diverse community. There would be people of all races and cultures at the rally. It would have a bunch of colorful signs, balloons, and bubbles. The bright and lively rally would help set the mood and vibe for the rally. The main goal is to peacefully end discrimination and to live in unity with different cultures. Discrimination is still a very persistent issue in America. It can be blunt and open or sometimes built into a system. For example, racial profiling by law enforcement officers or unemployment for minorities. Discrimination doesn’t have to stem from race either it can be discrimination against gender, immigrants, sexual orientation, and religion. This rally would be a part of a larger movement that goes all the way back to the fight for civil rights. This movement would share similar attributes of the ones of Martin Luther King Jr. It would be a non-violent rally that focuses on peace and gives hope to people subject to discrimination. In relation to my life racial discrimination is a big part of it. I would fight for the racial discrimination because I am part black and suffer judgement and prejudice for being a person of color. I have never endured an unlawful interaction with the police but my father has.