Final Assessment

This first semester i realized that as a college student i have a lot of time on my hands and that i need to learn how to even spread it out between my school work and my rest and social time. This semester i didn't really do a lot of homework except for certain classes because i knew that some teachers weren't going to check it. Next semester I plan to stay more focused on schoolwork and then everything comes after that.

I would have to say that my biggest challenges so far have been taking test. When I take test I have no idea on how to study for them or what exactly to do. I feel like when I do practice problems , the problems that I practice are nothing like the problems on the test.

For most of those challenges I would ask for a friend help or just try to figure it out myself. Sometimes they didn’t work and I feel like in order to make those challenges work , I can ask a teacher for help.

I would say that my biggest achievement has been becoming more responsible for my actions. If I didn’t do my homework on time or wake up for class , I know the consequences for doing that. I also have a big achievement of juggling working and going to school but I feel like I was able to do that because I didn’t have a lot of classes and work like others. But next semester I will see if I can handle it when I have more papers to do.

Being able to use time management sufficiently has been a big problem with me in the beginning and the middle of the semester. But I feel like once the end of the semester came, I was able to see that if I use my time wisely, things will get done at a quicker pace then It was before when I was would wait until the last minute.

Using time management has affected my grades as well, I know that on some assignments if I wait until the last minute to do things I will still get a good grade but I feel like the amount of work will be rushed and can show that to the teacher. Most of the classes I feel like I have learn a lot. For example ,in INQ I have learned how to be a better student and use certain skills to better myself. In my math class I feel like I haven’t learned a lot because when I took my final, most of the problems I haven’t even done. In order to maximize my learning I should meet up with my teachers to fully understand something so I can get more information than I did in class.

Meeting my personal goals have been kind of difficult for me because I feel like everything that I had planned out to do had went out the window and I just made up new plans during the way. At the end I stuck to my goals but I just went about it in a different way than what I chose to.

I feel like in order to make my goals go exactly how I plan , I need to change the way I think about certain things. For example, if I have an assignment due I need to stop thinking that I have all the time in the world because I never know what my other teachers will assign me and if that assignment is due before my other assignment is , I feel like I will rush through my second one just so I can finish my first one on time. I also need to get help whenever I need it and understand that I can not always figure things out myself because when I try to do that , I will end up just saying “ forget it” and move on.

When next semester comes, I plan to change the way I think so that I don’t have to be that one person always rushing because I do plan to work again so I know I’m not going to have all the time in the world. I also need to see that the weekends aren’t just for relaxing. I should be able to do most of my homework on the weekends because I have two full days to do it. I believe that the first semester was a wake up call so I should be able to do it.

The Final Video

The Learning Community

My experience in the learning community was a good experience. I would say i met people more easily then i do in my Monday, Wednesday and Friday classes. I liked this community because a lot of us had a lot in common and to talk about. For example, we all talked about how bad our Anthropology class was and how we all hated it. We also talked about problems that we had outside of the classroom like roommate issues, partying and balancing your social life. Another thing i liked about the learning community was that if we missed class or didn't understand something at least we knew some people from our class who lived in the same dorm as us to talk to. I feel like upcoming freshman should be put into learning communities because some of them are new to campus and don't know anybody like me. When I first started school it was hard for me to make friends ( can you believe that) because I didn’t know anyone nor did I feel comfortable just starting conversations with people. But in this learning community I was able to feel comfortable when talking about things that we all have in common. My most memorable activity that we did was when we paired up in groups and came up with a topic to have an open discussion with in class. I felt like at that point the class was bonding and telling stories about themselves letting others know more about them without feeling pressured to say anything. I feel like it’s easier to talk to someone who you see twice a day for two days a week then someone you see for maybe two or three days a week but only once for 50 minutes. The learning community was a great thing to come up with and should be an ongoing thing for many years.

My ideal LIFE

Planning out your life is a good thing to do just so you know what exactly it is that your are going to get do , accomplish and learn. But then again, life wouldn't be called life without some difficulties and challenges. This is why people plan things but also come up with back up plans for when what they plan goes wrong. But what would life be if we didn’t’ have to worry about things not always working out? What would you do if there were no rules and everything that you wanted to do was possible. If I didn’t have to deal with life challenges my ideal life after college would be....After college i would plan to have my Master's degree and would like to have my ideal job of becoming a Forensic Accountant. I would like to be an accountant for a big time jewelry company or a well known clothing brand in New York City. I would also like to be very successful living in the city in a pent house apartment in Manhattan or Harlem. I will also be married with 2 kids because kids are very expensive and that’s a lot of college tuition i would have to be paying in the long run. I would have the life that I wasn’t able to have when I was a kid. I would make sure that every holiday I would take family vacations to the islands as well as across to Europe to visit Paris and Italy. MAN….that would be the life! Even though the sky is the limit and anything is possible you still have to deal with everything life has to offer. My ideal life can be possible but I would have to make sure I get through all the rough times and make sure I stay focused on what I need to do.

Career Services

On Thursday i took a trip down to Schwartz Hall where the career service office is. I went there to find out about on campus jobs and when would i be able to apply. WEll ...when i got there i was kind of discouraged because online it tells you to apply at the career service but when i went to the office and talked to the lady she told me that everything is online and that the career office only helps with your careers that you want to pursue. I looked at some of the information about doing interns and about jobs that you can apply to after college. At least i know that when I ‘am looking for an internship where to go.

Video Project Update

My video project is coming along better then i expected it to. I have all the information that i need which includes the quotes, pictures and statistics to add in the video. The only thing i will need to do is start filming some of the scenarios that are going to be throughout the video. I don't think filming will be hard because i will do most of the filming while my friends and I are getting ready to go out to the club. Most of the scenarios that will be filmed are actual Southern college students preparing to go out and drinking as well as the club life in downtown New Haven. I will also show what some terms that college students use mean ( for example pre game).

I feel like my video will be much different than my midterm video because in my midterm video I had a bunch of interviews and got peoples opinion about certain things. In this video, it’s going to be my own depiction about the party and drinking life of a college student. I want to make my video funny as well as informational. And I think by being able to do that the information that is being taught has to be shown instead of read. If I have all the different scenarios, the viewers won’t get tired of looking at the same thing all the time. I also feel like if I have different engaging lively songs throughout the video it will keep people’s attention.

Another thing that I still have to work out in my video is finding out how to make it different from everybody else. If everyone is going to add some type of video clip or scenario in theirs, I want to make sure my video stands out and I still am working on how to do that.

Video Project

For the final project video i think i will discuss the problems with social gatherings in college. By social gatherings i am talking about partying and drinking/smoking. In the beginning i plan to show how going out to social gatherings with your friends can be fun and interesting by showing fun pictures, interviews from students on how fun it can be and quotes. After i will introduce the problem which will be “does partying interfere with college students lives academically".  Since the problem is introduced i will have short interviews and some statistics that talk about partying in college. As well as talking about partying i will also bring in other information about drug and alcohol abuse that goes on in college. I will show those by also having interviews about life experiences and what students have witnessed. Then i will talk about how to solve each of these problems and how affective these can be.

Once I do these I will add music that pertains to situations that will be talked about. Instead of having just once song play without the video I will have multiple songs with quotes and lively pictures that make the video more engaging.

I know that I don’t want to just make the whole video just interviews and quotes. I just don’t know what else I can put in there to make it more interesting. I could try acting out a scenario or adding short clips within the video. I can also have summaries of each interview and of the end of each section so that the viewer’s remember the amount of information that is being presented to them.