Reflection Paper

When I first decided to expand my education, it had been so long since I had been to school, and I was very hesitant. I talked at length about my decision with my husband and with his encouragement, decided to enroll but still was not quite sure which degree program to enroll in. I knew that this was something that I had always wanted to do since I obtained my Associates Degree in Nursing, but I did not have the courage, nor did I want to give up the time with my family and children. I second guessed my abilities and my knowledge because it had been so long since I had been in college. Now that my children are about to graduate high school and

When I entered into high school nearly four years ago, my motivations were purely academic. I was there to get the best education I could, and to maintain a standard of scholastic excellence. Of course, the only way I knew to measure my own “success” was through concrete and quantitative means; this led me to spend my Freshman and Sophomore years fawning over test scores, GPA points, and even fractions of percents in my grades. I know now that this strategy, while effective in getting me what I wanted (or at least thought I wanted), actually left me missing a huge part of what it means to be truly educated.

I felt as though I didn’t really love what I was studying, that I wasn’t really connecting with other students who shared my academic interests, and that my options were limited when it came to exploring things I really had an interest in, such as community/public health. I want to transfer to George Mason because of the multicultural campus community, the excellent academic programs, and because of Mason’s ideal location. My uncle, Eugene Koranteng, attended Mason after coming from Ghana to the USA, and made his mark as a triple jump record holder. He told me that he wouldn’t change a thing about his college experience! I also have friends who attend George Mason and share with me new people they’ve met, as well as new cultures they’ve learned about and embraced! Although Mason’s campus is large, George Mason still keeps class sizes small. I have realized in going to CNU that a small campus is great, but when a campus is so small, the people tend to be homogeneous. At Mason, I know that there is so much to do, to learn, as well as, so many different people to

After registering for my major classes, I browsed through the English sections and selected one of the many online options. I usually take a few online courses each semester so my schedule is not too overwhelming and I have time for work and leisure. Although I have struggled with staying on top of my online classes in the past, I am confident that I will be able to keep up with the workload this time around. I am now a senior, and will be a super senior next semester, as I am graduating in the fall due to a transfer and a major change. After attending Radford University for a year, I realized there was more to life than drinking five nights a week and made the decision to transfer to Mason.

As a believer in Christ grows they become more aware of the gifts that they may have been given by the Holy Spirit. It is up to us to use the gifts for the right reasons. We are to allow God to work through us to edify the body of Christ. I see a lot of so called Christians these days using what is supposed to be a spiritual gift to use for ministry of the local church using them for self-edification. They are looking to see how much praise they can get instead of how much pleasure God will get through their service. We as believers need to be able to discern between what a spiritual gift is and what virtue is. A spiritual gift is related to the ministry of Christ and a virtue is related to our character. It is very easy for someone to blur the line between two and get confused. Our spiritual gifts are not the same for everyone, where all who believe should show the fruit of the spirit. To some believers the Holy Spirit gives the gift of serving, teaching, administration, and so on. But in the end it is not what spiritual gift we have but how we use it; this is what makes the difference between edifying the body of Christ or oneself.

Thanks to the Student Transitional Empowerment Program (STEP), it has been very easy transitioning to Mason. Everyday I ask myself what I would do if I did not have STEP. Nobody understands how much I appreciate STEP for getting me ready for college, because I did not feel like a lost puppy one the first week of school. Without STEP I would be coming into campus with only one friend, but thanks to STEP I came into campus with over 30 friends, which I now call family. I have people who I can study with, grab lunch with and people who I can participate in activities with. In addition, where would I go in between my classes? Thanks to ODIME office, I have a place to relax and study in between my classes. However, not everything has been flowers and sun shine, because I have had some difficulties transitioning to Mason, two in particular. One being that I have to commute over 30 minutes from my house. In high school, it would literally take me two minutes to drive, now I have to go through a mission to get to my classes. The second thing I am having difficulties with is, how there are no school lunches and I do not have mason money from STEP. Personally, it is difficult to pack lunch when I get home and in the mornings because I am to tired and busy to do so at both times, so I go without food the whole day.

I have never been very passionate about writing and as a result, I have never really thought about the true meaning of writing. In high school, I just accepted the fact that I was not good at writing in comparison to my peers. I just assumed that good writing meant that there were no grammar or spelling errors, which is a common misconception most high school students have. Before reading Writing About Writing by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs, my views on writing were very limited. One of the first ideas that jumped out at me as I was reading was the statement, “Writing is not just something that you do, but it is something that people study”(Wardle and Downs 7). The idea that writing is something we can actually learn more about, had never crossed my mind. As our views and perspectives on writing grow and expand, we can better understand the purpose of writing and know what good writing means.

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.

Throughout our discussion there were several intriguing and engaging questions that were asked and sparked a good conversation among our group. One moment where I believe I was most successful in the discussion, was throughout minutes six through sixteen. Throughout this time, we discussed how the Party’s control in 1984 can be seen in the world around us today such as in North Korea. This question was first prompted by Leo but what I feel made this our groups most engaging point was how everyone added to the question by rephrasing it, or adding additional information and perspectives, or incorporating it into aspects they are most passionate about in their lives. From this point, I related it to history and how history can be rewritten to correct ways a nation or person has morally failed. I used the example of slavery to show this point. Starting from about minute eight I discuss with my group how according to an article my English class read last year, Texas history textbooks teach slavery based on how it economically impacted the South rather than by teaching the dehumanizing and awful treatment of other people. This question and the points brought up by this question were what I found to be most engaging. Our group spent nearly ten minutes on this point, because this point took a personal side and everyone had something to discuss from it. I believe the passion developed from this point is what made this not only my most successful moment but one of our groups best

In 1994, my parents immigrated to Canada from Vietnam to seek better living conditions and a promising future for their soon-to-be children. However, to live in a free nation filled with opportunities, the two left everything behind. While living in rent, my father worked full-time at a factory while my mother had found a job as a cashier. Although they had a sustainable income, my father understood that raising a child would cost them more than they were currently making. In 1997, my father decided to study computer science at Langara in search for a better-paying job while working part-time as a security guard. Meanwhile, my mother took up housekeeping, working at two different hotels to earn more money for their coming child. Understandably, my parents had made their lives much harder immigrating to Canada, but their sacrifices - I can say - has paid off.

Everyone has at least one point in their educational life that has shaped them into the student or person they are today. For me, coming together after being separated as the “Germantown” and “Farmersville” kids for the first six years of school changed the way I built myself as a student. Becoming friends with new people, having new teachers for every subject, changing up the routine, and actually having to switch classes has taught me a lot of different things.

Being in a life or death situation, or at least believing you, can radically affect how you feel about the world, and everything around us. To unknowingly shake loose your repressed feelings and thought, through the rush of adrenaline and reflection on your own actions, is a truly freeing experience. While such a freeing experience comes with a terrifyingly dangerous cost, I was able to find a refreshing outlook on life.

Every student deserves the best chance at getting the highest level of education they can, however, some students need a little extra support that others may not. A student, Axel, who is currently in my classroom has had a hard time keeping his focus and is often avoidant when it comes to his work. It has become clear that his avoidance becomes a distraction to the whole class. His behaviors currently include but are not limited to: rolling around on the floor during rug lessons, yelling across the room, walking around the room talking to friends, sharpening his pencil five or more times throughout the day, asking to go to the bathroom at inappropriate times, spending fifteen to twenty minutes in the

From the early moments of my childhood, I remember seeing my parents go to Russian Orthodox Church a lot. They would explain to my younger brother and me what was right and what was wrong from the religious perspective. On my 4th birthday, my grandma gave me the Bible for kids as a present, and I remember my mom reading it to me before going to bed. Back then it was just another interesting story that happened somewhere very far away. And yet mom would always find a way to tell these stories in such a manner so they translated really well into the reality we were living in. The more I grew up the more I realized that there was something missing in the big picture of my understanding of the world. I saw a lot of suffering that was happening everywhere, death, natural disasters, and I thought there must be a reason for all of it. Otherwise, the God does not care about any of us. I started to look for the answers everywhere: in the philosophical and religious books, movies, wise counsel from the people who lived a long life. I could not find the truth in church because the whole purpose of its existence with all its rules and restrictions, its idea of God who is something or someone out there, separate from us, and the only being that knows all the answers, was totally alien to me; mainly so due to my unwillingness to accept the fact of transferring all the responsibility for everything one does to someone else. I believed it to be a weakness to acknowledge one’s bad thoughts and deeds as something natural, as an external influence of the evil spirits. For me, it sounded like people who agreed with this concept simply wanted to escape the punishment for what they had done, choose an easy way out.

Since 2011, I devoted my life to God, this happened when I get convert and be baptized to the church of Jesus Christ. I was still a babe spiritually. I learned many things in the Gospel and I felt the Love of my heavenly Father. I couldn't speak English back then when I joined the church, but through reading the scriptures daily, the Lord help me learn and understand the scriptures. Today, I can testify to you that I have read the bible many times from the start to the end. And most importantly, I teach the Gospel in English.