During my first semester of college, I am looking forward to meeting new people and getting involved with campus activities and organizations. During my time spent on campus this semester, I believe my greatest challenge will be studying for anatomy and physiology, since it is a very rigorous course and requires a lot of extra time outside of class. Over the course of this semester, I will be shadowing at River Run Dental and working at Price Properties Real Estate. These commitments will occupy eight hours of my time each week, and I plan to balance these commitments by not procrastinating and scheduling my day accordingly. In high school, I played volleyball, tennis, ran track, and was a member of the National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society. Also, this semester, I plan to participate in Operation Smile since it relates to the profession, I am pursuing a degree in. 

My intended major is dental hygiene, and I became interested in this major when I had braces. Also, when I had braces, I loved to watch the process of my teeth move over time, and my oral care became more important to me. This career path suits me because I am very personable and can have conversations with anyone. I am very organized and love to clean, and this is very important for dental hygiene because you must give your patients good oral care by properly cleaning their teeth. I shadowed at Faber Orthodontics during my senior year of high school and contributed eighty hours, and I am currently shadowing at River Run Dental and will be contributing ninety hours. In five to ten years, I see myself working with a master’s degree in dental hygiene. 

The biggest difference between high school and college for me is that I must learn how to live well with other people since I am an only child. There is a huge difference between studying and homework in my opinion because studying requires a lot of time to think and reflect on what you have learned, while I feel that homework is just busy work. This semester, I am taking anatomy and physiology, microbiology, introduction to the health professions, sociology, and honors interpreting the American past. I plan to spend about eight hours a week studying for anatomy and physiology, four hours a week studying for microbiology, two hours a week studying for sociology and honors interpreting the American past, and one hour a week studying for introduction to the health professions. I plan to study in my room most of the time, but to avoid loud distractions from my roommates talking while I am trying to study, I will go to library where it is quiet. The best time of the day for me to study is in the morning when I wake up because I feel like I have a fresh start for the new day. The study techniques I use are reviewing the information I learned every day and saying things out loud to myself, so I am more likely to remember them.