I\u2019m most excited about the challenging experiences that will build my skills for my major. My biggest challenge would be working as I\u2019m attending college- it won\u2019t be easy; I will have to try hard to balance my work, school, and social life. Other time commitment I will have during this semester is working; however, I only work on the weekends for four hours on Friday and Sunday and five hours on Saturday. I also do my readings and homework ahead, so I don\u2019t have to worry much about school while at work- this is how I balance my work and school life. Unfortunately, during high school, I did not join any clubs. I plan to join the Filipino American Student Association and I expect to gain more knowledge of my culture in the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My intended major is nursing. I chose nursing because when my mom got cancer when I was a child, I developed an affinity for taking care of others. Some skills that make nursing the perfect career for me are that I\u2019m empathetic and I have experience taking care of people (my mom). My mom having cancer has been the only experience I personally had that\u2019s related to my career. My career goals include scoring a job at any hospital- preferably CHKD- and eventually becoming a pediatric nurse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The biggest difference between high school and college is the workload. There is no difference between homework and studying- if you don\u2019t do either one, you\u2019ll fail the class. One method I use for studying is studying for thirty minutes, then I take a ten-minute break to reset myself and study for another thirty minutes. Another method I do is get my parents to quiz me, so I don\u2019t forget what I learned- I\u2019ve done this since elementary. I feel like I\u2019m doing well is English class. Having my parents quiz me on what I\u2019ve learned really helped me with recalling the topics for my classes. Chemistry is the only class I feel challenged in. I plan to spend a good majority studying chemistry. I plan to have my parents quiz me as my studying strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sustainability to me is having a good balance of responsibilities in your life. These include social, work, and academic responsibilities. If you let one responsibility consume you, you\u2019ll start to neglect your other responsibilities. I use time management to help practice sustainability. Sustainability is important to a health professional because, without sustainability, you could neglect your patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m doing well in most of my classes- history, intro to help professions, chemistry lab,
English, and sociology. I believe I\u2019m doing well in these classes due to always doing the
homework and turning it in on time and studying hard to perform well on exams. I\u2019m struggling
in chemistry. Some studying habit changes I made are attending the tutoring sessions more
often and making flashcards to memorize important terms. I also seem to be managing my time
well and I\u2019ve ended up sparing time to hang with family and friends or just rest.
I expected college to have many quizzes like in high school, but I\u2019m not getting any
quizzes from my professors thankfully. The only class that consistently gave me quizzes is
sociology. I also expected the exams to be very difficult, but so far it has been straightforward
and somewhat even easier; for example, my history exam was just answering nine questions
with a paragraph, and using resources were allowed. Another way college is different is that I
spend more time with friends and eat out way more. In high school, my friends had their own
thing going on but with college friends, it feels way easier to meet up. I\u2019m surprised that we
aren\u2019t getting any quizzes, as for my whole school career there were constant quizzes. I also
didn\u2019t expect to be craving food a lot; with the campus giving me easy access to a variety of
food and long breaks in between classes, I\u2019m certainly snacking more. The toughest thing about
commuting to campus is getting to class on time with the worry of traffic and using up gas
exponentially. The problem with using gas is easy to overcome because my parents fill it up, but
I still feel bad about using so much gas while driving to and from school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
learned that I need to take a huge exam, the HESI exam, to enter the program. It has
wavered my desire to be a nurse a little, but it\u2019s a challenge I believe I can overcome. I\u2019ve heard
it\u2019s like the SAT with the addition of medical terms, so I believe I can pass. But I can\u2019t help but
feel anxious about it. I also learned that you need direct patient experience through
volunteering in hospitals or working there. I learned that many students wanting to be in the
program have already received that experience and are certified nursing assistants. This
intimidates me because I have no experience whatsoever- the only one was caring for my mom
when she had cancer. If nursing doesn\u2019t work out, I\u2019m interested in majoring in law.
One problem I\u2019ve had this semester is performing well in chemistry exams. I\u2019m using the
science tutors to help. Professor McCoy has helped me because she\u2019s always willing to answer
questions. I also have a friend, Valeria Holguin. She always understands chemistry materials, so
I rely on her when I have a question in chemistry. She is also knowledgeable in writing essays,
so she revised my essay and gave me tips to write better. I have not attended an interest
meeting for a club because I don\u2019t think I can commit to the club.
A new sustainable practice I learned from the guest speakers was waste and water
sustainability. This aforementioned form of sustainability is what I would like to start
participating in. I would like to learn more about food wellness sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Near the beginning of the semester, dealing with the workload was stressful. There were already projects that were announced around the beginning and I struggled between the regular assignments and the big projects. But now I know learned how to balance assignments and projects through time management. With time management, I could dedicate more time to each assignment and project and complete them with the utmost quality without any stress. I used an hour a day per assignment to work and would only take breaks to eat. My expectations for this year were to deal with college alone and rely on myself. But throughout this semester I have met great friends that helped me with any problems. We held frequent meetings at the library to help each other with assignments. What I wished I knew fourteen weeks ago is that I do not have to go through college by myself- it is ok to depend on others if I have a hard time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the beginning of the semester, I would spend an hour studying for each class, reviewing the notes I took for the day. To this day, I still dedicated an hour to studying each subject. It is very efficient in retaining information needed for exams. My study habits have been steadfast. As I stated early, I still study for an hour for each class. A resource I used that will assist me next semester is the tutoring center. Tutoring helped me comprehend the material that I did not understand and significantly helped improve my exam scores. At first, when I did not use the tutoring center to help in chemistry, my first exam was a barely passing grade. As the semester progressed and I used the tutoring center more, my exam grades improved. Several study techniques I will use next semester are using flashcards for important topics and definitions I need to know and using the tutoring center more often. Using flashcards, understanding concepts will be easier to understand and use for critical thinking questions on exams; and using the tutoring center more often can help me not only understand difficult concepts but improve my knowledge of the concepts I excel in to maximize my exam grade.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chemistry 105N, Chemistry Lab 106N,\u00a0 Sociology 201S, Intro to Health Professions 101, and Analyzing the American Past 104H are connected because they give students the tools they need to excel in their future careers in nursing. Chemistry lecture and lab allows students to have an understanding of the medicines and what medications are made of and what they will do to the patient when it is administered. Sociology teaches nurses to empathize with their patients; it allows nurses to give quality treatment to their patients by providing emotional support and understanding. Sociology also allows nurses to understand the views and values of patients and if the patient\u2019s value conflict with the treatment administered, nurses know how to deal with it. Intro to Health Professions allows nursing students to have connections within the health care professions to jumpstart their careers. It also allows experience so when they obtain a job, they know exactly what to do. And finally, Analyzing the American Past lets nurses learn about the progression of nursing and understand why nursing is such an important job. With the tools that these classes provide, nursing students can excel in their job.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other majors, I am interested in are physician\u2019s assistant and laboratory technician. I am interested in physician\u2019s assistant because it is similar to nursing but with more responsibilities that parallel to a doctor. I want to be as involved with patients as much as I can, so a physician\u2019s assistant is a good major I am interested in. I am also interested in laboratory technicians because the machines hospitals use intrigue me. Although I will have little to no interaction with patients, analyzing things is something I would like to do. A benefit to having a parallel plan is when your main plan does not work out, there is a backup plan. The nursing program is very competitive, so if I do not get accepted into ODU\u2019s nursing program I can fall back on physician assistant and laboratory technician to still work in the healthcare profession. These two majors that I am interested in help with my current major because they give insight into the medical field that can also be applied to nursing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pre-Semester Reflection I\u2019m most excited about the challenging experiences that will build my skills for my major. My biggest challenge would be working as I\u2019m attending college- it won\u2019t be easy; I will have to try hard to balance my work, school, and social life. Other time commitment I will have during this semester is… <\/p>\n