My First Semester at College

During my first semester at Touro College, I took a course on the History and Philosophy of Education and Special Education. Throughout this course, I was introduced to many philosophers and their theories, which helped me to develop a personal educational philosophy that I will implement into my own future classrooms. In our very first class session, we examined the word ‘education’. Education derives from two Latin roots, educare: to bring up, to train, to teach, and educere: to lead forth, to draw forth, to guide. In the world of education today, a child’s success in school is primarily dependant on his or her ability to pass standardized tests; this embodies the concept of educare. Knowledge is passed down from the teacher to the

May came around at long last. So did the end of my second semester of college at Florida Atlantic University. Not only did I survive my freshman year, I thrived, passing eight of my nine joint courses with A’s and getting A-minus on the other one. Just like “Neon” Leon shocked the departed Muhammad Ali in 1978, I defied my own expectations and those of a few among my closest friends and family. Did I soon spend the next few months indulging in summer merriment at the beach, getting my tan on while thirteen-year-old boys fawned over pictures of Selena Gomez? Nope. I took summer classes to keep my mind sharp and knock out a few of the requirements towards a degree which I’d earn three years later. One such class = a six-week crash course in public speaking. Everything went well until I got an assignment to create, practice, and deliver a three-to-five-minute speech involving someone who stood out. The possibilities overwhelmed me until I recalled someone with an outstanding life, hit him up on my cell, and talked to him in person one hot Saturday afternoon.

This is my last semester at Governors State University. There were only two classes that were part of my study plan that I needed for this semester, and I created a schedule with four weekend classes so that I could be full time. Instead of taking classes that would just look good on my resume, I decided to take classes that would help to benefit me the most and ensure my future success as a holistic human being. Other students had spoken about the Lab in Personal Growth briefly, and every person shared the same sentiment. They each stated that this was an emotional and eye opening experience that involved a great deal of emotional insight. Outside of that, I was unaware of what I was in for, but I was excited for whatever challenge was ahead.

With any course, especially one with a focus as broad as leadership, the material covered may include a range from useful to impractical. It is impossible to learn the skills necessary of an effective leader completely out of a book, it takes the application of them to understand. The development of leadership is vital to successfully moving forward in any career, so it would be beneficial to cultivate these skills academically.

This is my first semester at Mesa College. I am currently a Political Science major. The term that would best describe my current situation would be “non-traditional” student. I graduated from high school in 2006. Since then I have gotten married, travelled the world, and had two children. While in high school I excelled and took part in many academic extra-curricular activities. In the past ten years I have accumulated work and life experience. Most recently I was able to work as a legal assistant for an immigration firm. Being bilingual was beneficial, as was my interest in law in general. I plan on attending law school in the future which made the job appealing. Although I deferred college for this long it has always been my

I was desperately lost while studying theater during my first semester at Brigham Young University-Idaho. It was what I enjoyed during high school, but I want a career where I am able to spend time with my family and one where I’d be in a position to improve the lives of others. After taking my first acting class I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Since then, I have considered everything from psychology to accounting. Research and volunteer opportunities, advice from trusted mentors, and my education played roles in my decision process. I learned to manage my time wisely in order to spend time with my family. Most importantly, I was able to decide on a career in optometry, and have since planned out what I want to do after optometry school.

"Tomorrow is the first day of what I will become." I wrote this in my diary the night before my first day of college. I was anxious as I imagined the stereotypical college room: intellectual students, in-depth discussions about neat stuff, and of course, a casual professor sporting the tweed jacket with leather elbows. I was also ill as I foresaw myself drowning in a murky pool of reading assignments and finals, hearing a deep, depressing voice ask "What can you do with your life?" Since then, I've settled comfortably into the college "scene" and have treated myself to the myth that I'll hear my calling someday, and that my future will introduce itself to me with a hardy handshake. I can't completely rid my

The first year of college comes with many changes and challenges. These changes can include the food in the cafeteria, study habits, time management skills, and much more. Every student has to find their own way to handle the first year and determine what works best for them. For many the most essential change is living away from home. Campus life provides opportunities to become a part of a unique, diversified community. With these opportunities come challenges, such as having a roommate, being away from one’s parents, and determining self-limits.

This is my fifth semester at RCC. I am majoring in Marketing. With my major I can lead towards advertising, promotions, marketing manager, marketer analyst, or sales managers. There’s other options but I am not really interested in them. For my major, I will be setting sales goals, analyzing data, generating interest in products, and promoting those products. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers has increased in jobs by nine percent. Which is great for me because that’s faster than average. All you need is a Bachelor’s Degree towards Advertising, Journalism, or Market Research. I want to get my A.A. in Marketing to get into Cal State Long Beach, San Diego State University, University of Stanford, or UC Berkeley. I’m going to apply for more schools but those are the top ones I want to get into. There are steps required to get accepted to these schools, but first I need to finish my remaining classes at RCC and have to go through the transfer application process.

This framework might be relevant to the current study as students in their second year of college have many decisions to make. It is a time when these students are achieving competence and developing autonomy (Lemons & Richmond, 1987). Difficulties arise such as in choice of core curriculum courses or in maintaining interpersonal relationships which can precipitate crises of confidence (Boivin, Fountain, & Baylis, 2000). No longer having the support of “the fabricated society” (Margolis, 1976) of the first year experience, the second-year student must now more frequently rely on their own knowledge and intuition to make decisions. Second year students who have not yet decided on a major, and who have not confronted their situation, will find the process of choosing courses to be increasingly difficult (Gordon, 2010). Many of these students choose not to make decisions, and spend considerably less time doing academic activities (Gardner, 2000; Gohn, Swartz, & Donnelly, 2001; Graunke & Woosley, 2005). Gardner (2000) found that they tend to spend 25% of their time in self-gratifying activities. Time not being on their side, the undeclared second-year student faces challenges if they are not yet able nor willing to make a choice of major (Gordon, 2010). Using the theory of decision fatigue, the process of decision-making will take a toll on these students and soon they will give up (Baumeister & Tierney, 2011).

My first day of college is one of the most important experiences of my life. The semester began on August 28, 2017. In that morning, I had plenty of time compared to high school. I overslept because I knew college starts only at 10 a.m. I had an alarm set for 9 a.m. Once I woke, I took a shower and got ready. HACC is about minimum 8 minutes away from my house. By 9:40 a.m., I was on my way to the Harrisburg Area Community College. I was full of confidence that I will reach the campus on time, but the opposite happened. It was my life goal to go to college, however, there came the complication because I was unaware of the incomprehension and unfamiliarity of being freshmen in college. As a former new student, I got a little lost before I arrived at my math class. Once I reached the HACC parking lot, I wasted more than 10 minutes going around the parking lot looking for an empty spot. While I was driving around, I felt very frustrating. Besides, I was running late to class. Unfortunately, I did not consider a full parking lot. Suddenly I remembered, when I came to college orientation I parked my car across a small bridge where a new parking lot was under construction. I drove there and found out they finished constructing the new parking lot. There were a lot of empty parking spots. I parked my car and quickly walked toward Whitaker Hall rushing to find my math class. I had a map of the campus, which listed all names and locations of specific buildings. In

Reflecting is an uncomfortable yet nurturing journey one must go through in order to recognize the inner workings of one’s being. It is through reflection that one will become more self-aware of what potential problems could develop. I find myself disquieted with the complexity of honest reflection and revealing truths about myself that are uncomfortable in accepting.

When I first enrolled in this course I thought it would be a good chance for me to meet new people with an interest in ballet, but I never thought that it would have a larger impact on myself. For instance, I did not believe that I would relate the world of ballet to my economics and statistic class that I am currently enrolled in as well, but that is exactly what I began to do. During these past 15 weeks I have learn much about myself, life, and ballet. The class is not what I ever imagined; however I would not change a thing about the class overall. Ballet like everything else has a rich history that although it does not seem important, or appear interesting is key to having an understanding of where it

Hearing so many good things and bad things about college I didn’t know what to expect and look forward to. That change my junior year knowing different college come every year I didn’t really pay it any mind what college I wanted to go to until ODU, Virginia State University and Virginia Teach came. It was Virginia State first year of visiting out school and I knew I wanted to go there I start getting e excited for college that were talking about their experience at college and what to look for when we graduated if we decided to go to college. Eager to start a new chapter college sound like it could be a little nerve wrecking but I thought I could handle it.

"Please stop." I whispered, quietly urging Calum my dorm mate to stop snoring from his bed across the room. It was late, the stars were out, the room was dark and I should have been asleep, but I couldn 't seem to get to any shut eye with Calums ridiculously obnoxious snoring practically rattling the bed. Though, maybe it was also because my excitement for the coming day.