Read the following quote by Dr. Pamela Brown, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs:
Learning is a source of hope for a better future. It requires hard work and sacrifice which can be even more difficult in challenging times. Your time in college is also your opportunity to connect with others, lift your spirit, enrich your life, and develop the skills and knowledge to make a difference in your community.
— Dr. Pamela Brown, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Choose a question below and write a reflection in the comment box at the bottom of this page.
- What life experiences have prepared me for college?
- When I have been faced with a difficult situation, what strategies did I use to find a solution?
- How will I create positive academic habits for myself?
Read and comment on another student’s post. These are your classmates, encourage them to work towards their goals.
When I face a difficult situation, I tend to stay calm and find a solution because if I start stressing out over it, I won’t find a solution. One of the strategies I use to find a solution is using my critical thinking skills to see what I can do in order to solve problems. I also gather resources to make sure I have the right tools to help me.
Staying calm and using critical thinking is a smart way to solve problems. Great job!
When faced with difficult situations I’ve learned to learn from them and also never left difficulties lead to me quiting. A positive mindset leads to positive outcomes, you have to believe that just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it cant be done. We all “Can’t” do a lot of things but thats why we have the ability to learn, my best solution is to create a success story for others when things are difficult instead of your story ending with quiting just because something wasn’t easy to obtain. One of my best strategies is always seek Help from counselors, peers , resources in the community because a lot of people also struggle and we are often not alone.
I love your focus on learning from challenges and staying positive. Asking for help is a great strategy. Keep going!
Success is builld for those that learned to build a positive mindset. Stay Positive
Helping others. We’ve asked for help, or someone may offer it. I’m the type of person who offers it. Even if I have no idea what the person needs help with. By helping others brings new knowledge into our lives. Sometimes I see people struggling and I’m willing to help whether I know or not. I just know I’m going to stop and do the right thing. Sometimes it’s hard because you may not know what you’re helping the other person with but solving it with them just brought a new lesson by can be applied in the future. That’s the experience that has me prepared for college. Understanding what help really means for me. Searching for help and knowing that there’s always a place or someone that’s willing to offer it.
Helping others is a great way to learn. Your willingness to help even when it’s tough will be valuable in college. Good job!
I plan to create positive academic habits for myself by shifting my mindset to a growth one, and constantly checking myself so that I don’t fall victim to a fixed mindset. Also I plan to schedule out my homework/study times and commit to it. Lastly I want to create the habit of being more active in the classroom. Whether it’s just actively listening and taking relevant notes or just participating and answering questions.
Shifting to a growth mindset and sticking to your study schedule are great goals. Being active in class will help a lot too. Keep it up!
My life experiences will play a large role in how I approach my college involvement this time around. Being a more “mature” student, I think, will work to my advantage. I have obtained a wealth of knowledge both academically and in my many careers. With my first stint in college, I was fresh out of high school, and was unfamiliar about what to expect. My outlook on life was a lot different than what it is now. Hindsight is 20/20, therefore, I have the opportunity to recognize and reflect on what academic roadblocks I had in the past, and work towards making the necessary changes in creating positive work habits. What life experience has taught me is that there is nothing you can’t accomplish, as long as you put your mind to it, you can achieve it. The only person that can stop you from accomplishing your goal is you. Staying focused and positive will break a lot of barriers.
I love your attitude towards life based on your experiences and admire that you’re willing to keep going. Nothing can stop you and it’s one of the best things to learn as a person. This for sure will be something I’ll remember during the semester as a way to maintain myself focus on my goal.
When I have been faced with a difficult situation, what strategies did I use to find a solution?
When faced with difficult situation I tend to get immense anxiety and start panicking. When I’m panicking I’m not in the right mind space to think properly or find a solution. Before trying to problem solve I calm myself down, I learned this trick to calm myself down I make sure I can list 5 things I can see, 4 things I could feel, 3 things I could hear, 2 things I could say and at least one thing I can smell. By doing this it makes me focus on using my 5 senses so it really does calm me down. Now that I’m relaxed, when faced with a situation I always see how the outcome would affect me and how the outcome would affect others so after those realizations I usually come up with the best solution.
I believe that my entire life has prepared me for college from growing with people I don’t want to be like, living in a disturbing family, working since I got memory, moving to another country, repeating high school, etc…
I push myself everyday to do better in order to build a future where I can provide for family members and people close to me. I’m determined to finish my career in Mechanical Engineering, why? because I already have practical experiences from welding, management of Dill press, sharper, boring machines, etc..
During my freshman and sophomore years in high school, I was having a rough time getting used to the new enviorment. I had a hard time getting all my assignments in on time and I found it hard to study for assessments because the work came naturally to me in middle school. To avoid the same occurrence happening in college, I plan to focus on giving all my classes the appropriate time and energy needed to complete assignments and prepare for assessments. I hope in doing this, I will have a smoother transition than in high school
When faced with a difficult situation
firstly I try to remind myself of my goals and my dreams which tend to push me towards breaking through
or I ask for help from a counselor or try to motivate myself
I feel like I’m already a pretty disciplined person so I don’t make excuses for my self. I consistently workout everyday and that skill has made me build a relationship with my self where I’m very blunt and honest. With this majority of my life revolves around the gym, once I workout I automatically have the energy to do everything else it’s like the gym is the foundation for me doing well in other parts of my life. So I plan on staying healthy, eating clean and simply viewing college as another main thing I need to focus on. So straight after the gym I plan on dedicating hours into studying.