Currently, I am doing well in my elementary statistics and sociology class. I am doing good in elementary statistics because I have always been interested in math and enjoy doing practice problems. I am doing good in sociology because my professor releases study guides a week before the test and I make index cards to study the topics. To encourage myself to write the index cards, I use colorful pens to make them pretty. In my self-learning assessment, I identifiedInterpreting the American past as my class that needed assistance. A change I have made for this class is reading through sources twice instead of once and re-taking my notes after the class ends. Since my self-learning assessment, I have managed to raise my grade by getting better grades on the discussion boards and completing the first exam.

Some expectations I had for college are making new friends and having a lot of schoolwork to do. Since starting college I have made new friends and had more homework than I did in high school. Making friends has helped me in my classes because we will study together and help each other out on topics they might not be that strong in. Before joining college I expected to join a lot of school organizations but since starting I have not joined any. My toughest challenge with moving away for college is being away from my friends. All of my friends went out of state for college so even when I do go home for breaks I can’t see them because our schedules do not align. The easiest challenge to overcome was living on my own without parental supervision. A common belief with moving into college is not keeping up with chores or homework. So far I have stayed on track with both.

One thing I learned about my intended major that I did not know about before was how competitive the program is. Due to the competitiveness, I thought about changing my major to speech pathology so I wouldn’t have to worry about not getting in. After having that thought I did my research on both dental hygiene and speech pathology to make sure I am choosing the major that I will enjoy most. Currently, I am thinking of making my minor environmental health. We had a guest speaker for environmental health come in to talk about the major and it really interested me. I know I do not want to change my major to environmental health but I think it would benefit me if I make it my minor.

One problem I have encountered on campus is finding a school organization to join. To fix this problem I can go to the ODU webpage that has a list of all the organizations available to me. So far this semester I have a friend that has helped me look into organizations. She helped me by introducing me to some of the groups she is in such as her sorority. She has also shown me resources to find an organization that is right for me. I have not attended interest meetings for clubs but I have gone to club events. Two that I have gone to were for sorority recruitment andODU young life. I chose not to join these groups because they are not my interests or hobbies. Ido plan on looking into more club meetings so I can find a better match.