Transition to College

      For most of my life, I was really excited about the thought of going to college, now, actually being here is a dream-come-true. I keep pinching myself to make sure that I’m not dreaming. For this first semester of college, I’m most excited to meet new people, make lifelong connections/friendships, network myself, get involved in numerous activities and obviously to learn and make good grades. My biggest challenge with regards to all these is time management. I really need to set a schedule, know what works best for me and stick to it. Likewise, I need to organize my daily activities in a way that I can give enough time study and for other commitments. This semester, some commitments that might take my time might be an on-campus job which I need for my work-study program. Another commitment would be clubs and organizations that I will be joining as time goes on. Other commitments might be going to the gym, time with friends, and so on. I will dedicate about three hours each day to these activities which makes it about 21 hours a week (so that I don’t loose my mind only studying). I plan to balance my schoolwork with all these activities by creating a schedule and sticking strictly to it like I said earlier. I will also keep a very close track on time to make sure that I’m not wasting any time.

      Some of the activities like clubs and organizations that I participated in, in high school was the volleyball team, students for Christ club, the debate club and the school choir (I was almost everywhere). I haven’t given much thought to joining clubs like these here in college, but I will most likely be joining a Christian club because my faith is a really important part of my life and I like to be around people that share my Faith and to connect with them because of our common ground. I also would love to join a vocal choir if there are any around campus.

Major/Career

      My intended major is Nursing. I choose Nursing because it’s primarily centered around patient care and advocacy. Another reason I chose nursing is because nursing jobs are always available in the Job market. It is also super flexible career because you can work in a lot of places as a nurse. I believe that I can be a good nurse or even a great nurse, because I care a lot for people, and I am super patient. I worked for some time as a CAN in a Nursing Home, it reinforced my love for the career of nursing. Just being able to help the residents with all their activities of daily living gave me so much joy. In coming years, I see myself becoming a nurse (RN) and further down the years, I see myself going for advanced practiced nursing program to become a Nurse Anesthetist.

Study Habits

      For me, the biggest difference between college and High school is that in college, you need to know what you’re doing, especially if you are in a field such as the Health Sciences. In high school, you can just get by, by doing the bare minimum and making sure that you turn in your assignments. No one cares if you forget what you learned after the exam, but after college, you go into the real world to solve real problems and you need to know, remember and apply all that you have learned. The difference between homework and studying is that for homework, you don’t even need to know what you’re turning in, you just need to turn it in for a grade. On the other hand, when you’re studying you are learning and reviewing what you have learned until it sticks with you. The amount of time that I’m going to spend studying on each of my classes per week are as follows:

Statistics- 9 hours weekly

Chemistry – 9 hours weekly

Sociology – 6 hours weekly

History – 9 hours weekly

Chem lab- 2 hours weekly

Health 101- 3 hours weekly

I plan to study either in the Webb center or on the first floor of Owens Hall. Some distractions I may encountering the Webb center are the numerous people there making a lot of noise, while in Owens Hall I may get distracted by looking out the windows (the windows have such a pretty nice view). I plan on avoiding these distractions by looking for another place that is a lot quieter than the Webb and sitting in a place that backs the windows at Owens Hall. My favorite time of the day to study is at night, there’s lesser distractions and it’s a lot quieter. The study technique that is specific to me is active recall and note taking. I really wish that I was a skim reader with a photographic memory.