“We panic, we pack, we get to college, and then panic again, moaning, “I wish I had known I’d need this!” “This” could be anything from that extra pillow to the answers to a high school test
on Hamlet, or it might be something more abstract, like how to
deal with issues we never thought we would encounter outside a
classroom. For example, when a philosophy professor asks us to
examine what is evil and what is good, that’s okay; we’re getting
graded on it. But do we ask such questions in the cafeteria? In the
dormitory? At home? Who needs to ponder academic questions
outside of class? It’s an invasion of our private lives. I thought so
until a question followed me home and shook up my ideas on what
belonged in the classroom and what I should never be without.
It was English 102, in small group discussion of my friend Donna’s paper, which was about whether fighting was a natural tendency, as it is in other animals that live in groups.”

The overall paragraph is good with a few changes. The first change in the second sentence is a little confusing so you can try to split up into more sentences. The second thing that could change is the use of contractions is it supposed to be a professional paper. The third and final change is to expand on the last sentence.

“And there we found ourselves, on my hike in the woods with my
dog Loki, his eyes fixed upon a herd of deer who stared back at
him with the same intense interest. You could see it stir within
them, the ancient war between their kind, Loki likely thinking
“Must chase! Must bite!” though he probably does not know why,
and the deer screaming in their minds, “The wolf! The wolf!”
despite the ironic fact that these deer have never seen a wolf. For
there are no wolves in these woods, nor in all of Pennsylvania.
46 Ron DePeter
WRITING SPACES 3
Gone are the days of wolves and mountain lions prowling through
these woods giving the deer something to truly fear rather than
this would-be predator at the end of my leash.
And here I am looking at these deer and wondering, “How are you
all that’s left?””

The academic paper is really good with only one change that I would suggest is to change some of the pronouns. In academic papers, you supposed to use general-purpose pronouns which means in practice you’re only supposed to use third-person pronouns not first or second-person pronouns.