Your First Semester

 At the beginning of the semester, I had yet to learn what college would be like and how I would develop as a person. But now that I have experienced my first semester in college, I now know what professors expect from me and how I can fulfill those expectations. I also learned how to take care of myself as somebody who never was this far away from home and my parents for a long period of time. I also learned how to deal with roommate conflicts and who to be friends with. Having bad friends can really make a big impact on your well-being and mental health, but I am glad that I was able to figure that out earlier in college and make friends who are there to support me and stay positive to keep me motivated. 

My expectations for this year were to make lasting friendships, learn how to manage my time, and start my college career off strong. But that was not the case. I did make a few friends who I truly connect with and would love to hang out with even after graduation, but I was unable to start my first semester of college off very strong. I in fact had to withdrawal from a very important class that is required for my major dental hygiene. But I have learned a lot from this experience. I was however was able to manage my time more efficiently. 

To be honest, I wish I knew more about how I could get through college more smoothly and know how I could actually learn the materials instead of just studying them and doing homework to keep up with my grades. But that was not the case. Joining the learning community has truly made me thankful for being able to make friends with everyone in the same classes, but it also has made my first semester difficult. I was not prepared to take classes with professors that expected a lot from us and having to wake up at 8 am every Tuesday and Thursday for my sociology class has caused me to constantly lack sleep from doing homework till 3 to 4 am every night. I wish that I was able to choose my own classes and professors. If I knew how hard this was going to be, I probably would have just gone my own way to achieve my dream to become a dental hygienist even though I was still thankful to be provided with all the extra opportunities from the program. 

Study Habits

 I spend around the same amount of time studying for each class from the beginning of the semester to now. From the very first day, I gave it my all and went to the library every day to get my work done and review my materials before class. But now, things have changed and I have figured out my own ways with where I stand and get work done the fastest, and be able to focus. But the studying time did not really change. 

Going into more detail about how my study habits changed, I now no longer study at the library as often as I used to. I now go to my best friend’s dorm to study together because her doing her school work by my side, it motivates me and she also helps me to take breaks in between instead of constantly draining myself and skipping meals to just get an assignment done. Also, at the beginning of the year, I used to take all my notes on my laptop but I have learned to use my resources and now use my tablet as well to study which helps me a lot because I am able to easily draw pictures onto the study guides which helps me to visually learn better. 

One resource that I have just recently found useful was going to the professor’s office hours. I have not been to one office hour session this whole semester till last week when I needed to talk to my chemistry professor about dropping the class, this honestly got me thinking that if I went to visit her more often and got help one on one, I could’ve done much better on my exams and in the class as well. I will keep this in mind next semester and use it effectively. 

A certain study habit that I will use going into the next semester is reviewing the materials after each class. This is a very helpful method that my friend from high school has taught me and I never knew the importance of it till just recently. I want to try this method out and see how my learning progresses and grades change. 

Health Professions Learning Community

There weren’t direct connections between these 5 classes except for CHEM 105N and CHEM 106N because they are classes that come as a set, but some professors tried to help us direct more into our paths as future health professionals together. I remember doing a project in Sociology where Professor Lopez assigned an article that was related to bacteria and the importance of hand hygiene to connect with sociology. 

Parallel Plans

After listening to all the presentations from different majors in the College of Health Science as well as from different majors on campus, I found some interest in the major of nuclear medicine. There was no other major that interested me. Having a parallel plan is beneficial because it is a backup plan just in case you would like to change majors or your first choice of career choice does not go as planned. In nuclear medicine, typically diseases are found that can be prevented or treated early. Learning about this could benefit my current intended major which is dental hygiene because that is what we also strive to do, we try to prevent and treat early cavities.