My name is Kaitlyn Ross, my major is public health, but I intend to do a Doctorate of Physical Therapy. I’ve wanted to do physical therapy since I had knee surgery during my freshman year of high school, I’m also thinking of specializing and working in a physical therapy office for dancers, and public health seemed like an interesting major for my undergrad degree, but I might change it. I’ve danced my whole life, and so I have a long list of injuries I’ve had, so I find rehabilitating  muscles  really interesting. I’ve also always wanted to go into a career that helps people, and PT seemed like the perfect fit for me after I’ve had so many injuries. Currently my plan is to get my massage therapy certification, initially to be able to do that for work during college, but also be doing a job that will add to my resume and help in the physical therapy field for when I finish my degree and apply for residencies. In five years I plan to be in a PT graduate program, and working as a masseuse, and in ten years I plan to be out of residency and working either at a practice specifically for dancers or in a hospital, but I have time to figure my specialty out. I think the major that sounds interesting and that I’d possibly switch to would be Health Service Administration, and I would like to know a little more about my current major, Public Health, but Nuclear Medicine Technology also seems interesting.

I expect the biggest difference between high school and college for me is that the classes have less busy work, for homework and class work, and not as many reminders of big assignments. College classes also move a lot faster than high school classes, because at least compared to my high school, the classes are shorter, and meet fewer times, yet we still have to understand and grasp the topics. I expect my biggest struggle this semester will be time management, because in high school I did so much so I always had a full schedule, and did my homework when I could, like after school for an hour then during a break at dance, then finish it late at night, but now my schedule isn’t full so I don’t have as many time restraints. The biggest struggle I think I’ll have though is being away from my mom. I’m a pretty independent person, but my mom was involved in all my activities, so we are really close, and it’s weird being away from her now. My parents don’t want me to work, at least during my freshman year, but I’m hoping to work later in my college career as a masseuse part time.

I view homework as just doing the work or readings and taking notes assigned by the professor, but studying is like going back through your notes, reviewing materials and doing extra practice problems. The time I put aside depends on the class, and how hard I find it, but I plan to put aside a couple hours a day to do homework and work on my asynchronous chem class. I plan to spend the most time on either chem or sociology. I think my english class will be one of my easier classes, because we don’t have tests or quizzes, it’s only writing and some readings, and my professor seems down to earth and chill, and she really wants all of us in her class. I plan to do most of my studying in my room or at the library or the floor’s study room/ common area, wherever is most quiet and distraction free at that point. I anticipate my phone being a distraction along with my roommate/ suitemate coming in and talking to me to also be a distraction, there is a long list of what I can be distracted by due to my ADHD, but I’ve been working really hard on my attention span and staying on tasks till they are complete. As long as I take my ADHD medicine, turn my phone on, do not disturb, I’m usually pretty good, and I wear headphones and listen to music softly when I work, which usually helps. I like studying during the day/ afternoon, because the later I push off studying my meds start to wear off which makes my recall and retention a lot worse as well as a struggle to concentrate. I’m also not a morning person, so waking up early to study doesn’t work well for me. I have one asynchronous class and I try to set aside at least an hour a day to work on my chem class. I’m used to having a super full schedule and still finishing all my homework, since I danced 20-30 hours a week usually all throughout high school along with be super active in my church and Girl Scouts, but to be able to devote more time and focus on doing well in my classes in college I’m not signing up for as many activities.

For me to actually take in information, I have to have at least two of my senses working, so I like to listen as I read and take notes, and I put different little designs in the headings of different sections in my notes and have to break up the information into different sections so it’s not just a solid paragraph of facts, on top of that I use a different color for each chapter or lecture, because I associate patterns when trying to memorize, I don’t have a photographic memory or anything, but it’s easier to remember if I know it was in the pink banner section for example. I also draw more diagrams for science classes. 

One of the resources that I can see myself using this semester is the tutoring center, especially for my chem class. I’m going through Fall Formal Recruitment right now, and all the sororities I’ve talked to so far are really supportive and emphasize getting good grades, so they do study groups as well which will help, as well as being able to study with people in the LLC. I’ve heard a lot about the tutoring center and I can see myself using it a lot, but I’d like to know more about how to make an appointment and actually use it. In high school I danced at a pre-professional level, where I took just under fifteen hours of dance classes a week, but with rehearsals it usually averaged between twenty to thirty hours a week. I also was super active in my church; I was in choir, served on the leadership team and was co-moderator, which was basically the president of the leadership team from the youth side, and regularly attended church serveces, sunday school and youth group, I also worked in the nursery as a part time job. Along with those commitments, I was a Girl Scout and was part of the Bruin Ambassadors club at my school that showed new students around campus and walked them to and from class to help them not get lost. As I said earlier, I’m currently going through recruitment, so I’m planning on joining a sorority and I’m planning to get a big group of sisters who want what’s best for me and will encourage me to be the best I can, as a person and friend as well as in college classes.