Personal Narrative: My Experience At The Berkeley Adult School

A great impact that I witnessed that year is when I took the school field trip to numerous colleges close to the city. I had never been to a university or even a community college. Therefore, me going to those visit gave me a greater idea on what type of college I'd like to attend. One of the colleges I remembered we toured to was Lakeland Community College. I really liked the aspects that it has, with the classrooms even the on campus living. Taking trip like that sets your mind up but also prepares you to know what to expect and look for when you are college searching.

In my interview I had the pleasure of conversing with an individual that was not only an adult learner but now also operates as an adjunct professor for adult learners at a university. Some might not realize the parallels of adult learners and yet still there are vast differences that impact both. It was refreshing to find an individual that was able to succeed as a professional, a student and most recently a professor at the same time. My goal is to introduce you my amazing interviewee and paint a vivid picture of his journey, his growth and through his challenges along the way. Surprisingly this interaction was able to take a lot of excuses and reasons of why a person would be to busy to go back to school.

There are several things I hope to gain from my experience as a student at California Baptist University. Such things include, a community of God loving, supporting and encoring friends, a Christian based education and opportunities to grow into the person God created me to be.

Throughout my educational experience I noticed the discrepancies with regard to the advantages my peers possessed. In high school as I began exploring what career I wished to pursue, I experienced inferiority as my classmates who’ve taken the ACT three times, visited college campuses, and have had resumes ready since the 6th grade unintentionally mocked my lack of college-readiness. However, my ignorance wasn’t intentional, my parents never reached a high school education in Mexico, they couldn’t pass down SAT tips or acquire internship opportunities for me. I realized it's vital to pick up the pace to avoid being left in the dust akin to countless others in my situation. Henceforth, this statement resonates with my experience, I interpreted

During my two last years of high school, i've been in contact with a lot of colleges and universities. Many of which don’t get my attention. Throughout my whole high school years, there was only one college that i wanted to go to, Liberty University. I have heard so many wonderful things about Liberty and what i loved the most was that it was a christian school. Liberty had the number one thing that i am looking for in a college, that is a christian school, but many of my other things that i look for in a college where just not there. I used to live in Florida approximately 11 years ago and let me tell you, it's hard not to miss the sunshine state. Liberty is in Virginia, a state where it doesn't feel like home. When i received a brochure

In my last two years of highschool I duel enrolled St. Petersburg Community College, my local community college. In my senior year I decided to take online classes due to the very long drive to the nearest campus. I ended up taking Calculus with Analytic Geometry and two other classes online. My Calculus proffessor did not teach or provide any materiel to learn from other than the text book and homework questions. For the first quarter of the class I did well and completed all the assignments easily; however, the class got harder and the textbook no longer provided me with enough information to complete the assignments. I struggled through this part of the class and had a hard time mainting my grade which I wanted to keep as high as possible. After several trips to the campus for tutoring and spending hours trying to find other external resources I began to learn how to solve the problems and brought my grade back up and finally passed the class with an A.

My personal faith grows daily by my choice to follow my love and savior, Jesus, every day I wake up. It was by no accident that God showed me Liberty University, and has now become a top option in my choices of colleges. I believe in the deep mission Liberty University has to develop Christ-centered believers because it is the same mission I strive to live out daily in my walk as a follower of Christ. My season of life will not always be the same as someone else's, but I pray that what I have walked through and what God taught me in those seasons can give perspective to others. I have grown up always knowing God but not until my sophomore year in high school did I truly start to live that out. I took two opportunities in the past two years

they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please

Through my experiences and achievements at California Baptist University, I can gain an academic advantage over my peers attending other schools. The amount of programs and majors offered at CBU will help me develop as an educated and experienced woman with a strong educational background at CBU. With the help of CBU, I can grow into my full potential and maintain a great headstart in entering the real world with a strong mentality of maturity. I have always maintained upstanding grades and high GPA in high school, and my attendance at CBU will merely continue my pattern of success.

Starting in the fall of 2012 was a big change in my thinking and learning skills. This was the year that I started my Liberal Arts Education here at Bridgewater College. Before I entered college everything had come easy to me whether it was sports or school, but during my first two weeks at school I knew that had all changed. In high school I rarely had to take notes and homework was optional in my school district and so I carried that over to my new classes at Bridgewater. That did not go so well because on the first test in General Chemistry I got the lowest grade I had ever gotten on a test. This was where college changed for me. From then until now was a change in the way that I learned both inside and outside of class. In the classroom I started to take better notes and really paid attention to the lecture. Outside of class I started to read and take notes on the textbook and also used the resources of the college and got a tutor.

When signing up for classes I hadn’t put much thought into my personal goals for this class, let alone any of my classes and being a liberal arts student my main purpose is to find a subject that clicks, something that challenges me, not only as a student but as a person as well. That’s what I want this class to do for me. I’m not looking for an easy grade, I want a class that forces me to think. All throughout middle school and high school history has been somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine. And I say guilty pleasure because so many people have discouraged me from choosing the subject as a major in college. The past has always interested me far more than the future. I want to know our origins before I learn about what may possibly be in

Today's workers need to prepare with continuous job training, growth and development. Given the increased age, experiences and diverse lifestyles of the working population, it is understandable that adult education practices must move beyond the traditional model of teachers and learners, while new skills, working with local companies to match their needs and sending staff into factories and other workplaces to spread the word about state and federal retraining assistance. While trying to decide how to rebuild your life after loss of employment and lack of job opportunities following the current recession, or devastated from a divorce? Adult students faced with other struggles; studies have shown that older adult students face different hurdles, family problems, and poor self-image. These along with poor time management, weaker academic preparation and a need for remediation an increased focus on adult learners and their needs can help. (armour)

Deputy Sheriff, training officer, instructor, adjunct faculty, these are but a few of the hats that I wear in my daily interactions within the world of Adult Education. As a veteran law enforcement officer I was first introduced to adult education, after several years I would find myself on the other side of the podium. After serving as a field training officer for rookie’s graduation from Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) I would take on the additional role of teaching in the BLET program itself. The route I have followed to adult education is unique and non-traditional compared to my peers within the EdS program here at Appalachian State University. I have completed both my Bachelors and Masters degrees as an adult within the past ten years while working full-time. I currently teach several blocks of the BLET program as well as several sections of the Student Success course on the campus of Davidson County Community College.

My impression of adult education has changed immensely. First and foremost, the first lesson learned that teaching adults are a separate, intensive, and long debated process. Portions of certain theories learned illustrated below. I have extended knowledge about Meizrow (Transformational Learning) and Knowles (Andragogy). The six key features of Adult Learners are:

Gadbow believes it is the duty of adult educators to instill a life-long love of learning into their students, "helping adults learn how to learn is the most important thing a teacher ever does" (p. 53). The first responsibility of educators working with adults is to help them identify their learning styles and differences as well as other special learning needs, and then provide effective strategies to adapt to these individual learning needs (53). The author's contention that all learners are special means seeing the possibilities as well as the problems or particular needs of each student as they present themselves.