Your First Semester

From the beginning of the semester up until this point I can definitely say that I have grown as a person. My development has not solely been intellectual; it has also been personal, mental, and social. In terms of academics, I’ve improved as a student. Despite my natural intelligence, I have seen that since I started college, I have been spending more time studying. In addition, I’ve been able to explore my personal identity, have grown psychologically into a more self-reliant and motivated person, and have cultivated stronger social connections with the ODU community through networking and friendships. Prior to coming into college, I set specific expectations for myself. My academic performance, increased social interaction, and talent utilization were all part of these expectations. I am able to state with confidence that I have fulfilled these expectations as the semester draws to a close. I say this because my grades have remained As and Bs throughout the semester, I’ve made a lot of new individuals and groups, and I’ve also been perfecting my hair skills. Overall, college has been amazing, but if I could go back in time and tell myself one thing fourteen weeks ago, it would be to give your mental health the attention it deserves. For us students, college may be a depressing environment. I would therefore like to remind myself to utilize the resources available to me. Get out of my dorm, have fun, eat, and talk to friends or a trusted person when things get tough, just to avoid thinking negatively all the time.

Study Habits

This semester, studying has been my closest companion. I’ve spent several hours this semester studying for my classes. When the semester first started, I studied for roughly five hours every week. But as the weeks went by, the workload in my classes grew more. As a result, I began studying more frequently. I now spend roughly 10 to 12 hours a week studying as a result. I haven’t really modified my study habits since the beginning of the semester, with the exception of a small increase in intensity. I try to study the material for each subject in as many different ways as I can. Active recall, practice exams, flash cards, visual aids, summarizing knowledge from notes, and memory mapping are a few of the ways I study. ODU offers a variety of resources to help its students. I have utilized several of these resources to aid in my academic progress during my first semester of college. It’s no secret that chemistry isn’t always simple. However, as the semester progressed, I was able to visit the science resource center to get help with areas I was struggling with in my chemistry class. I also went to the writing center to receive help with a lab report. For optimum success next semester, I want to use the same study tactics. These study techniques have been shown to help me succeed academically, so I would like to stick with them. However, I am interested in incorporating new tactics, so if I uncover new habits, I will definitely implement them into my study regimen.

Health Professions Learning Community

This semester, my classes were purposefully designed to connect with my other classes. My sociology class and My Intro to Health Professionals class were one of the classes that I would consider connected. Professor Lopez made linkages between sociological concepts and applied them to the field of nursing. Later on, occasionally, guest speakers in HLTH 101 revisited these connections in the mist of explaining their profession. Chemistry and Chemistry Lab were also interconnected. This was made clear by the fact that after learning a topic in chemistry lectures, we would do simulations in the lab that illustrated what we had learned in class. 

Parallel Plan

Nuclear Medicine Technology and Recreational Therapy are two majors I’d want to pursue. When these two majors were brought to my attention, they greatly peaked my curiosity. Nuclear Medicine Technology is a field of study in which a medical practitioner employs radiation treatment to diagnose and treat diseases. This major seems like something I would enjoy because it allows one to work with every system in the human body and still save lives through diagnosis. Recreational Therapy also appeared to be appealing to me because it is an enjoyable way to help people both physically and psychologically through physical activities. With this major, I think there’s no greater way to serve people and have fun at the same time. All things considered, I believe both of these degrees are fantastic overall and fit me as a person, especially given my personality and passion in nursing. That is why, if I were to make a parallel plan, one of these two majors would be included. Parallel plans emerge when people analyze their career ambitions and plan for more than one occupation within their school path. It’s a plan designed to assist someone progress in two different majors at the same time. It can be helpful if one major doesn’t work out because you are advancing in two majors at the same time. Nuclear Medicine Technology is the major that I believe will most closely align with my intended major. My primary major is obviously nursing, but I also believe this degree would work well with my goal of becoming an oncology nurse. Nuclear Medicine Technology employs radiation to identify a condition being treated by another specialist. In the event that cancer was detected by this radiation, my role as an oncology nurse would require me to help with the disease’s treatment. For this reason, I think these majors work well together.