Personal Narrative: My Identity As A Student

I am a non-traditional student. I began my college matriculation 15 years after receiving my high school diploma. I started my family before focusing on my education and career. I have been fortunate within that 15 year gap to be a stay-at-home mother. When my youngest son began kindergarten, I began college classes. This reversal of traditional education and family construction has given me a unique perspective on life.

Going into college, I would like to peruse many of my goals. I would like to start out getting my general studies in and then build up to become a Registered Nurse. After I accomplish becoming a Registered Nurse I would like to work on becoming a Nurse Practitioner. One reason I am striving to complete these goals is to be able to have a good future and hopefully a good job will come out of this. Neither of my parents went to college and I want to be able to accomplish that for myself.

I believe everyone has established goals during their life. They might not write them down or even have a plan of how they will be successful, but the ultimately outcome is based on the individual and their persistent to accomplish it. One goal that I have dedicated and work so long for seems to be coming to a close, but it is a step forward in achieving my ultimate goals. Through planning and being focus anything is possible. Goals that I have established after my post-graduation consist of areas in my personal, academic and professional life. My personal goal is to continue to make every day count and see it as an opportunity for growth. For my academic goal is to obtain my Licensed in Clinical Social Work. The professional goal is not to be passive, but instead begin

I have taken many different college preparatory classes throughout my college career that include: Chemistry 1100, Chemistry 1111, AP English, Trigonometry, College Algebra, and Calculus. These classes are the most difficult I have taken and they are the most difficult the school offers. I believe that these classes have prepared me the best for my post-secondary education from what I learn around the subjects we are taught. To succeed in theses classes you need countless hours and focused effort towards studying. These classes have given me a insight to how I should study for college exams and tests. My Math and English courses will give me a head start when starting my first year of college during the intro period of classes. The courses

Who I am as a learner would be that I’m mostly am a auditory student, which means I have to listen to learn.

As a non-traditional student, I had many opportunities to lead at school and work. As a matter fact it is hard to consider an internship because I am always having jobs which also gives me a chance to improve my leadership skills. I believe that a good leader must also be a good follower. I learned this in my first formal job as a chemical technician.

If I could say who I am as a learner, I would say that I am a risk-taker, and am very knowledgeable. I like this because I am not afraid to try new things, but I still know what I am doing. If you don’t be a risk taker and try new things, you can never learn anything. These are two very good traits to have, but I still have goals. I want to be more reflective and look back on my mistakes so I can learn better. My goals for behavior are to talk less and get more work done. The best way for me to work is to get a lot done and then take a lot of little breaks, sometimes I get carried away and start to talk and it gets crazy. I learned about this trait when I was a lot younger when I would clean my room. I would get distracted and start playing around, and then I would stop and clean really fast so I could take a little break again. I think this is a result of what type of learner I am. My color quiz results said I am yellow. That means I am very enthusiastic and try to change things where I can. I like to change things to make them more fun. So when I work, I take

Academics believe that professional occupations are those that are full-time occupations, have a commitment to a calling, have formalized organization, are based on specialized education of exceptional duration and difficulty, exhibit a service orientation, and are autonomous. Students feel that a professional is anyone who acts in a professional way and has creditable knowledge of their field. The two are vying for increased recognition in the elite group known as professionals. The academic community wishes to restrict the values of professionalism’s definition. Society wishes to let itself into the professional community by broadening those values. Each side seeks its own best interests in

When I started college, I learned I have to do everything on my own. I had no idea what all I needed to do before the first semester began. I first learned that my mom couldn’t keep doing everything for me. It was my job to find out everything I needed. It was a tough adjustment from what I was used to but I was excited to get started.

I would consider myself very different from my peers. I have spent most of my high school career holding many leadership positions that would influence those on Redwood’s campus to do bigger and better things beyond themselves. I have been in the student government for all four years of high school holding the positions of: Freshmen Vice President, Athletics Commissioner, Rally Commissioner, and ASB Secretary. By my junior year, I had become noted as a leader on campus and was selected to be the student representative for the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports team, School Site council, and Parent Teacher Student Association. I speak on behalf of the students for many things, so it’s important to connect with everyone on campus, which

these specific vectors. Moreover, aspects of setting goals, planning, and staying determined are all factors related to hope theory and these practices were reflective throughout my personal development as a college student.

Throughout my educational journey, I have tussled with many elections that have assayed my personal values, beliefs, moral and priorities. My first encounter with an ethical dilemma was in the fifth grade. Naturally, like most fifth graders, I was quite content with being at school; I actually loved my teacher and had many friends. I never gave much thought to the fact that all my friends (and school faculty) looked like me until the day Suhail was introduced to the class. Suhail and her family had recently moved to Florida from New Jersey (they were originally from Dominican Republic) so that her parents could pursue the "American Dream". With each passing day, a different student from the class would join in on the teasing and bulling of Suhail; they would shout racist slurs at her and tell her to get on her raft and paddle back to Cuba. I never

In all senses, I am not a traditional student. I have spent most of my formative years in therapy and at mental health units. I know more about the amygdala than math proofs, but this has given me an emotional maturity that others my age lack. Through therapy I have developed useful traits; I know my strengths and weaknesses like the back of my hand. I have developed efficient communication skills. I already know how to manage and minimize

I knew I was different, even at school, I would always get in trouble for the most stupid reasons. Whenever we learned about the small amount of history that we were allowed to be informed about, I would never fully understand why something happened. So like any student, I would raise my hand, ask my question, and hopefully get an answer. Although, it was apparently different with me because once my question left my mouth, I was yelled at over and over again. And each response from the professor would basically be “Because it did now shut up”. And of course this only worsened once my dad died and had a mental breakdown and started to interrogate everything. Even among my peers, I was more... what’s the word I want to use... socially out there?

Another aspect that defines me as a learner is my time management. In all honesty four years ago I used to terrible at properly managing my time. However, after I started college, I had to find a way to manage my time better. As a consequence, I feel that I am a much better learner because I do not let anything to distract me when I’m trying to focus on learning something. My personal 24 hours diagram data in comparison to the national data of college students’ average usage of time, is quite similar. However, I seem to spend more time traveling than an average student. That is because I commute from home to school which is about one hour and a half each way. I also spend more time preparing a meal than most students since I cook all of my