Transition For College Students

The moment I moved to Florida for college, and left my teenage years behind me, I struggled tremendously adjusting to my new surroundings. There are an infinite number of situations everyday which people experience the complications of culture shock, and how they are able to adjust to the phenomenon. Surviving college made me realize how important my mother and father are to me. The love, wisdom, and support they provided through every obstacle helped me persevere and achieve a college degree.

My life was suddenly changing right before one of the biggest changes: high school. I had more things to worry about than other high schoolers. I had to figure out how I was going to get home, how I was going to get the house clean before my mom got home, how I was going to get dinner started, all on top of getting my homework done. Due to this, I wasn’t as serious with my grades. I let them fall even though I knew I could do better. I was just way too busy to focus on school when there were more important things to focus on- my family. I slowly found out how to balance everything to get my grades up. I had to learn how to balance my life to make myself happy while keeping up my

I got a job. While this began to solve the financial problem, a new challenge arrived. I had to learn how to balance all aspects of my life. On top of working thirty to forty hours a week, I had to help babysit my brothers, complete an online class, maintain my grades for both my senior and junior classes, perform with my high school band, and continue my social life. Balancing all of these responsibilities has definitely made me more mature and helped my transition into adulthood. It gave me the skills necessary to live independently, and achieve the goals both my family and I have set out for

In 1947, The President’s Commission Report stated that higher education is to provide “Equal educational opportunities for all persons, to the maximum of their individual abilities and without regard to [socio]economic status, race, creed, color, sex, national origin or ancestry, [which] is [the] major goal of American democracy” (United States & Zook, 1947, p. 3). Thus, the purpose of this essay is to analyze the path for underserved students transitioning from community college to a 4-year university, while reconceptualizing the American Dream. Through a critical race theoretical lends, this essay will outline the historical trend and statistical facts on student transfer rates from community college, emphasize the importance of creating a transfer receptive culture and incorporate the urgency to reevaluate the inequalities in equity for underserved students in higher education.

I started North Park University, a week before everyone else, within a program called COMPASS. This program is to help smooth first generation student’s transition to college and build a strong group of friends to start college on the right path. In COMPASS, I met some of my close friends. We help one another whenever we need help: we have study sessions, emotional support for one another, hang out whenever we just need a little break, and much more. A month into school I was offered a job at my school as a student worker and I gladly accepted it. Since I was living on campus my first year this was an amazing accomplishment for me: I achieved some connections and a wide variety of networking opportunities if ever need them in the future.

A fork in the road only appears as such when both paths are seen as viable options; yet, once one path becomes seen as the only one, the other devolves into a deviation. Where the aberration would require justification to travel down, the perceived correct course would require justification to not travel down. This is precisely how the false question of attending college was presented to me: it was a matter of when not if. Upon inheriting white looking skin, a middle class family, and a pat on the back for bringing home white sheets of papers with little red “A”s written in the top right corner, it was ascertained that I was to be a productive and successful engineer after paying for college with hard-won scholarship money. In short, there were several socio-economic factors that contributed to my eventual position in college.

A personal change not only can affect the person making the change but their family and friends as well. Each person is an end product of all their life experiences that they have endured as well as the process of changes they have gone through to come out the other end. Change is inevitable and every person endures change from time to time in their lifetimes. Change is hard, it can cause emotional and physical pain sometimes, In fact our mind subconsciously tries to steer us away from emotional, physical, and spiritual pain. Change is really hard to accept and proper planning should be done in order to avoid some unpleasantness. In the following paper I will discuss a difficult and challenging change I went through when I decided to be the first person in my family to go to college.

The July I spent working for my grandpa in his shop last summer, has a had a much larger effect on me than I had anticipated. It taught me responsibility, independence, and strengthened my work ethic considerably. I was an assistant at Everett Vacuum, which meant cleaning, organizing, and restocking shelves. It was a great experience for me, and I believe it was a big help to my grandpa.

I am eager to transition to college, but trying to determine how to pay for my impending tuition is not as thrilling. My single mother pays for the majority of my sister's needs and mine. If I desire to graduate debt free I need this scholarship to contribute to my tuition costs. Preferably I would prefer to graduate debt free, so I can participate in a gap year after graduation to join AmeriCorp Vista. A program such as AmeriCorp will further my experience working with people and gear me to enter the career of a nurse. By dedicating myself to a year of service I will be working closely with a community and seeing the change of the people I will aid. Also, this will increase my chance of getting a job in a large hospital. As a nurse, I will have a profound impact on my patients parallel to the impact I will have on others during AmeriCorp. I will be able to assist others and inspire them at their lowest points. Not only is this scholarship being awarded to me, but it is being bestowed on the people I will help, to the members of my community.

The first year of school at Clark Atlanta was a brand new and exciting journey for several students. Students will combat new experiences in their initial year of college; it can even go together with a lot of bumps along the Semester As a student I had to realize how to balance my new life as a university student and the key transitions. My first semester biggest problem was transitioning and adapting to the new surroundings, attempting to create new friends and the problems adapting to college work.

70% of young adults, ages 18 to 22, stop going to church once they leave home (McConnell). This number is staggering. The transition into college can be an uphill battle, and unfortunately, sometimes faith takes the fall. As one of the most stressful times in a student’s life, it is important to keep the faith battery fully charged. This is only attainable with regular visits to church or religious groups. The significance of finding a church cannot be understated. There are endless advantages to getting involved in a religious group at college, and finding the right church is not as hard as college students believe it to be.

For me, one of the most significant challenges I may face when transitioning to college may be going to another place and feeling homesick. I am always with my siblings, they have become a part of my daily routine and everyday life. To go and attend college and not being able to see them everyday will be a very challenging experience for me. As well as bring something from home that reminds me of my family. Another challenge that I would be facing would be procrastination. Procrastinating is not a good tool to bring to college, I need to work hard to get rid of that habit. The counselor at Upward Bound Math and Science, holds a meeting every week to catch up on what we need to work and how we can improve. Another challenge that I am facing

I have spent a year at SUU as a transfer student, and it was only just in this last couple weeks I learned that the third floor of the library is the place where you can talk and have study groups. My knowledge of the library was limited to the second floor—which means no talking and it’s about as silent as a funeral service. Sometimes the sniffles are from crying, but most the time it’s just the common cold floating around.

I never knew the idea of a broke college student was real until I became one. After the money relatives gave me after high school graduation ran out, there was not much left in my pocketbook right as school was starting. What became the most difficult part is that I wanted to spend money on so many objects and activities, but could not bring myself to spend money unless it was a dire need. I would never go to my family if I did need the money either. With three other siblings in my single-mother household, I could not bring myself to ask my mother for money I knew she could not give. We are all struggling. This led me to go to the drawing board to become a frugal shopper and to save money in college.

To better understand student characteristics and effects on college students I choose to participate in experiences to complete this competency. While I enjoy reading and discussing things in class, I always learn better when I can see what we’ve been talking about with my own eyes. In our Environments class, we had to travel to another university and share their culture with the rest of our classmates. I had a good time visiting other schools and I enjoy traveling to different campuses in my free time as well. Whether I sign up for an official campus visit, or spend an hour or two wandering around on my own I feel like I can pick up on important aspects of the environment. This is an important skill to have and will also be helpful when deciding which job offer to accept in the future.