Joseph Bowman
Brittani Garcia
HLTH 101
Final Reflection
December 7, 2021
Final Reflection
My first semester of college has been quite the ride. The growth I have experienced this semester has manifested in my mindset. At the beginning of the semester, I was lacking a ton of self-confidence. I wasn’t sure if I had what it took be a successful college student. Now that I have completed my first semester and done extremely well, I have a lot more confidence to move forward.
At the beginning of the semester, I was expecting to set high goals and not come anywhere near achieving them. However, not only did I meet them, but I did even better than I thought I would. I wanted to get at least a 3.8 GPA and it is looking like I will get a GPA higher than that. I will know for sure in about week, but so far everything seems to be working out in my favor. I think the Health Professions LLC had a huge part to play in my success this semester.
One thing I wish I had known 14 weeks ago, was that even though I am grown, I still have outlets to get help when I need it. My biggest fear going off to college was that I would be overwhelmed with challenges. While it is true that college is a time of challenges and critical thinking, there are also a ton of resources at my disposal when I need extra help. I rarely am truly alone when it comes to my education
At the beginning of the semester, I spent two hours per credit hour for each class. Which meant nine hours for history, nine hours for chemistry, nine hours for English, six hours for sociology, and two hours for lab per week. Now, I spend nine hours for Chemistry, four hours for history, zero for English, six hours for sociology, and three hours for lab per week.
My study habits have been altered now that I understand the demands of each class. For example, I realized that my history class required very little memorization. As a result, I significantly reduced the time I spent studying for that class. In contrast, I had to increase my study time for chemistry lab even though it was just a single credit class.
Not only did I change my study habits, but I also found helpful academic resources. One of the most useful academic resources I used this semester was office hours and free tutoring. I don’t think I would have done as well without them. Now that I know how effective they are, I will be using similar resources next semester.
Another technique/habit that I will use going into next semester is study groups. My friends and I worked hard fighting for each other’s success this semester and we will continue to do so next semester. We spent plenty of late nights in the library cracking problems together. So much so, that we even found a typo on the take-home portion of our chemistry exam, which resulted in our group getting an extra five points (don’t worry it was a group take-home portion).
This semester, Old Dominion University had a social justice theme. Each class incorporated social justice ideas into their coursework. As a future nurse, I will be treating patients from an array of backgrounds. It will be very important for me to understand the social forces that contribute to why people have certain health conditions or why they behave a certain way. Not only that but a lot of the coursework was altered to tie in health-related themes. For example, in chemistry, we talked about pressure. To drive the point home, our instructor talked about how the diaphragm muscle lowers itself to release pressure in the lungs. As a result of the lower pressure, air can enter the lungs. In history, we talked about some historical topics related to health, such as the measles epidemic and birth control.
With regards to LLC events, I would say the paint night was the most beneficial event for me this semester. It was very interesting to see what other people thought constituted a healthy lifestyle. Hearing other students’ perspectives caused me to reflect on my own. It also was another chance for me to make friends with people that have a similar major to me.