My Journey As A College Student

My journey as a reader started even before I entered school, as my parents gave me books to read in the days before the inception of pre-school. My love for sports helped to develop my reading skills, as I would, with great anticipation, wait for the paperboy to deliver the daily news, so I would be able to devour all the information within the sports pages. Spurred by my passion for sports, I would go to the library and try to muster as many sports magazines as allotted, and garner as much information as I could about my heroes in the athletic world. As I become older, this led to my curiosity about the history of the sports legends that I followed and I wanted to garner more information, and began to read any biography about sports that I could attain.

I have defiantly not had a normal or a comfortable life. I have lived in RVs and cars on the streets of NE Portland, been homeless twice and I have left the country on multiple occasions cause of my family financial situation. As recent as two years ago I was in Central America and Southern Mexico looking for a safe and decent place to survive in. I missed a year of school. Currently, I live in a leaky, moldy, single-wide trailer home in Rockwood Neighborhood in Gresham. My parents are divorced; my dad, who I live with, is unemployed, has health issues, and has no formal education. So I provide for him and myself.

Growing up as a Latino in a community where most of the population are Hispanic had made me blind, detached from the reality of the world and the reality of the college experience, especially in Santa Cruz. Looking at the world I have always known to an extent who had more privilege than others, special attention, and more rights. I have also vaguely known which groups have been treated with less respect seen as less, but all of this didn’t really seem to matter to me in my immediate world. Coming to Santa Cruz on trips such as ORALE and JUSTICE has made me see, made me realize that it does affect me, my family, and my community that privilege is something that isn’t gifted to us but which we fight for, which causes us to be looked at differently

The student population is diverse but it’s interpreted in a different context. I noticed that many students come from different backgrounds from mine and it seems that I started comparing my attributes and skills to others but one of my friends told me to not do that since it would lead nowhere good. My parents don’t have any educational background and as a first generation student I must learned to adapt quickly and work twice as much than others. I came from a school where I had to self teach myself the material the teacher was teaching because the teachers taught the class but went on a slow pace. This puts me in a disadvantage of other students since most of the populations of students here have generations of family members who got a higher education and know what their doing. Even with that I also have more barriers because of society affects my daily life due to their decisions they make and as minority among a society where it’s primary dominate by Caucasians, there’s already barriers in place for me to be more difficult to succeed in this country. Sadly these barriers are invisible to many and breaking them might take years but I came this far and I know that I’m breaking the social norm just by being in this university. My journey to get here wasn’t easy since I had to go network and find the resources for myself, such as finding an internship during my high school and applying for scholarships. While other students didn’t need to find it since the parents already have establish those connections for them. But even so, I also learned that we all have disabilities during my internship since I noticed that my boss said that being a minority as well brings advantages later in life. He told me that after you graduate some organizations might here you due to your ethnic background and they will bluntly state due to them wanting to “diversifying their

The month after graduating from high school I watched six seasons of the CBS show “Survivor”. When my dad insisted I socialize with my friends, I invited them over and we all watched “Survivor” together. I was obsessed. Winning the game involves a certain finesse that changed from season to season, yet the key elements remained consistent. This show offered a new perspective on how to approach and adapt to challenges.

After recently graduating from Fullerton College with two associate degrees in psychology, I could have not accomplished this goal all by myself without the proper guidance that I received from EOPS and FYSI at the time. These programs were established to support former foster youth at Fullerton College in their education as long as they met all the conditions for each semester. As a result, this was valuable for me during my time as a community college student, allowing me to guarantee that I would finish all my requirements on time to transfer to a good university, and becoming more involved with the campus each semester. That being said, this is one of the main reasons as to why I am applying to your program, so I could receive the support

It happened all through-out college. I had always heard stories about body-shaming with overweight individuals, but I never thought that it would happen to myself or the millions of other young women on college campuses.

Going to a private school with my brother, I wasn't prepared for the financial difficulties that would arise for my family and I. After getting accustomed to the my classes, professors, and curriculum my freshman year; I fell in love with Baylor. I didn't think my family would struggle to make ends meet. By my sophomore year, my parents got into an accident and hospital expenses would force both my brother and I to a community college. Due to the uniqueness of my major in Texas and my goal to graduate in four years, I was determined to finish at Baylor. I began working as much as I could to help relief some of the finances off of my parents. My summers went to balancing classes and working full-time to raise money for the upcoming school year.

My life has been like a dark maze. I have absolutely no idea what's around the next corner. Each path I've taken has lead me to one of two things. Something fantastic that I'll enjoy and remember or something I wished never happened that I can forget. That's why I'm scared to take the next step because I don't know what will happen to me. However a few years ago I learned to give to give each step a chance, no matter how far back that step will take me. Being a senior this year a cartoon word has been shoved in my face a hundred times a week. That word is college. Just getting into college is a challenge. Thinking about all my test scores, GPA, applications is enough to give me a migraine. If just getting into a good college is this hard, I

My college goals include transferring from Merced College to Stanislaus State University. I began the application process in November. I will complete my requirements here at Merced College this semester for my Associates Degree Transfer. I'm majoring in Psychology and hope to receive my Bachelors in Arts at Stanislaus State. My career goals include attaining an instructional aide position as soon as I receive my AA from Merced College. I haven't had any luck applying for that position however, I'm hopeful my luck will change. I have attended approximately eight to ten instructional aide position interviews and volunteer at a local Elementary School in Chowchilla. I believe the more education I receive, the better a candidate I will become

My decision to start college can't be summed up in a few words or even a few experiences.

My college-search journey so far has already been tiresome. I have recently, however, searched through a few college placement tests, specifically one from Barton College and another one from the University of Maryland University College. I personally think that I can handle the majority of basic college placement tests, based on my own research.

When I was a kid, school for me was waking up early in the morning. I also have to study a lot in school, then after school I have to do homework. I remember my first day at school. My mom and dad, both were so happy and prepared but I was so nervous and cheerless. I didn’t like to wake up early in the morning for school , but as time flew by I started loving school which made me wake up with energy instead of tiredness. I began to enjoy the school as I made new friends and I got to know how it is like when you meet people out of your neighborhood. With my friends I had lunch together and study together. I started to understand what the purpose of the education system. Based on what I understood I think the purpose of education is really aimed at helping students get to the point where they can learn to be on their own. In this journey of education I had a lot of positive and few negative experiences,but the negative experiences also helped me growing. Positive experiences are my teachers helping me improve, and I improved more when I moved to the United States.

What has my journey to graduation been like for me? My journey has been a crazy, fun-filled learning adventure. I met many goals and accomplishments I set for myself but I also faced some challenges on the way. For example, I finally met my goal of graduating with a 4.6 GPA and maintaining it. Also, I accomplished completing my last four years of grade school and now I am on the way to college. My last year has been interesting and there are many goals, accomplishments and challenges I can reflect on.

My life as a student has been a fairly good one. I’ve received good grades throughout all my years of high school and pride myself as an intelligent individual. But my individual ability to grow and learn has been always changing and shifting as I have grown. I think that currently, I am at a low point in my mindset and learning ability, but there is hope on the horizon. This essay will explore the growth and mindset of Will Roser, and how I can grow as a learner, friend, and individual.