Reflection Instructions
For this assignment, please reflect on the Fall 2023 semester, and your experience as a whole. For each question, please provide a few thoughtful, well constructed sentences.
Your First Semester
Tell us how you have grown from the beginning of the semester to now. I have grown a lot from the beginning of the semester til now. In the beginning I was definitely struggling a little bit, not doing work on time, but I have gotten better at it. I have made more friends than I had in the beginning of the semester as well. Also I know my way around campus pretty well now, same for driving around Norfolk.

What were your expectations for this year? Did this semester’s experiences meet your expectations? Explain. I was expected to be overwhelmed at first, which I was. I had just gotten back from a month vacation in Greece, then with only having 3 days to settle down, I had to go to school. So that was very overwhelming, and just the difference from highschool to college was overwhelming, but I fought through it. I expected to not really make friends but I did, and I wasn’t expecting my classes to be like how they are. My lecture classes surprised me, I knew there would be more people in it than a normal classroom, but I didnt expect that many people to be in the lectures.

What is something you wish you knew 14 weeks ago? I wish I knew where to park on the first day of class because I came to ODU on my first day genuinely having no clue what I was doing, where my classes were. Nothing, I wish I had more time to learn about ODU after Greece.

Study Habits
How much time do you spend studying for each class now vs. at the beginning of the semester? I only really study math and sociology, I was going too chemistry tutoring in the beginning of the semester but I had to drop the class. I probably spend at least an hour on sociology a day, re reading notes, and then however long it takes me to complete an assignment for math I consider it studying.

How have your study habits changed? Yes my study habits have changed, my notes were kind of a mess and all over the place but I’ve gotten better at writing so when I look back at it I don’t get overwhelmed and then not feel like studying anymore.

Tell us about a resource that you have used/learned about this semester that will assist you next semester. A resource I used this semester, that everyone else also probably did, was meeting with my professors during office hours. Sometimes I am too nervous to ask a question aloud but I prefer talking to them face to face instead of over email, so I found myself going to my professors office hours frequently.

What study habits/techniques will you use going into next semester? Just putting down the important crucial information, and adding extra notes that the professor points out in the midst of class time.

Health Professions Learning Community
This semester you were enrolled in at least SOC 201S, and HLTH 101. Many of you were also enrolled in CHEM 105N and CHEM 106N, and some of you were enrolled in HIST 104H with Professor White.
On the surface these classes do not appear to be connected; however this semester each professor was intentional about drawing connections between content, and subjects discussed. Discuss the ways in which these courses are tied together.

I did not really see how the courses are tied together, but some assignments we did ended up being able to relate to other classes. In my Sociology class, I did a project with 3 other peers from the LC, and our project was about gender roles between men and women in the dental field.

Parallel Plan
This semester we had presentations from different majors in the College of Health Sciences as well as from different majors on campus. This was to give you an idea for possible parallel majors to your current intended major.
Which two other majors would you be most interested in? Why? I think one of the majors I would be interested in is Speech Pathology because it also works with the mouth, and there’s a lot of job opportunities such as a pathology assistant, special education in school to help kids with speech, blindness, or hearing disorders. Another major I would be interested in was a Practitioner, the dream job assignment recommended that to me. They focus on your overall physical and mental health. I just want a job where I can help people, that’s all.

What benefit is there to having a parallel plan (or two) in place? The benefit is you can start researching your other options, seeing what sounds good to you and what doesn’t. If one intended major doesn’t work out or it’s something you’re not interested in anymore, you can always decide to switch.

How could one or both of these two majors benefit your current intended major? They could benefit my intended major because pathology has to do with the mouth, like dental hygiene, and a practitioner helps people, just like dental hygiene. Also both of these majors are in the medical field, so any medical experience would be good for becoming a dental hygienist.