Autobiography Moments As A First Generation College Student

I started college at Borough of Manhattan Community College. Getting an education is never easy, and this will not be easy. I Have to face some obstacles in my journey, and I will overcome them. In this essay, I will be considering research on learning as a college student, And self-reflective experiences. Also, I will be conducting an interview with my professor Elizabeth Boian in the Sociology-100 course, my performance in this class is moderate, and will better forward as I go.

I believe the future is bright. To Succeed and gain achievements will make someone feel proud. It will be worth it because we are here to pursue our dreams. Students in general, want to succeed in life. Kids are taught from a very young age to look for what they want to be in the future. and to better understand I believe I can do it. No one will stop anyone from becoming who they are trying to be.

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Through this perception, I aspire to understand moving forward in college as a freshman student in a desirable way. All thoughts about these aspects, I’m willing to improve much more than I could in Sociology 100 to meet high standards using what I’ve learned to put it into future difficulties.

Throughout my lifetime I have listened to people reflect on their college experiences and explain how college is supposed to be “the best experience of your life.” The summer after my high school senior year I use to try and imagine what my first semester was going to be like based on what I had heard people talk about in the past.

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during my first semester at BMCC, I realized that I couldn’t fully understand what college was like until I experienced it for myself. My first couple of weeks at college was rough and really tested my strength mental and physical. I faced challenges and obstacles that I had never heard about in those past college experience conversations. When it comes to interactions with BMCC faculty it is a whole different thing I've experienced almost everything I need to prepare as a college student it becomes easy overtime to get to know all faculty to ask questions and more. Even to get to know the whole campus and where every specific office is located. Indeed, to get to know what college really is is by personally experiencing it because it varies from one student to another.

I genuinely discovered who I am as taking these online surveys gave me a whole different perception of identifying myself. And some of the results were unexpected, to really know what is my learning ability as a freshman student. For example, in the learning style survey among the six categories, the highest score was 4.2 collaborative. and the lowest score was 2.3 Avoidant. The result I believe was accurate to me. The first self-assessment survey I took was “How Strong Is Your Character?” the results were numerous that most rely on me at present and the others were what I want to achieve in the future. Such as “Confident, Courageous, Dependable/ reliable” and many more. And each comes with a question to think about, and ways to reach those standards to achieve each one of them. These results had and will have a positive impact on my learning and behavior I think they gave away self-esteem towards my general behavior and interactions with others and it kind of giving me hope of what I will accomplish in the future. Another self-assessment survey I took “What’s your learning style?” results were like this “Auditory 25%, Visual 40%, and last Tactile 35%”. So that result proves that I am a Visual learner which I felt a little surprised about it but I think I knew already because my way of learning is by reading and looking at pictures understand and remember things by sight, which really helps me in my classes as a student. And I think it is a way I will carry throughout my life to assist me going forward. Also it still a good way of learning and personally I think it is easier. In the third self-assessment survey I took “What Kind Of Student Are You?” the results, I scored “10-14 You are doing pretty well”. And it's parallel in order from “Good study habits, good grades, good career options, good life!”. Last but not least is “Which Study Habits Can You Improve?” the results say “you’re working to improve your study habits”. The majority of them were I plan to do, and the rest were already done, which I’m glad about myself performing that kind of way towards planning. It has been shown that the results of all the surveys I took were accurate and most of them were surprising to me and it showed me what is my learning experience is at college.

Sociology class is what I will concentrate on in this paper. my performance in this class is moderate at now because I’m facing challenges, such as being loaded with homework, having a lot of assignments given are difficult even though it is challenging, and is expected to handle everything at one time. What actually happened in the class so far is reading chapters discussing them and taking an exam already took two exams and still three more comings. Which makes the class even hard to pass because the cumulative grade depends on the exams only. Also, it is the first semester in college which means I’m still curious about what I have to face as I go along with all prerequisite classes, it’s just a shock. And to become successful in that course I believe I have to overcome these challenges.

Interviewing with faculty outside of the classroom for the first time was challenging. The appointment with my professor went pretty well organized, it took five minutes. I asked Professor Brian questions about her and did respond, for example, I asked How did you decide on your major in college? Her response was “I always love to teach people and inform them of the life they are living in today and how to organize their future and to prepare them for the real world” also I asked what do you like best about your work? She replied, “Teaching new students every semester”. I asked about my performance in the class on Do you have any tips to help me with testing? She recommended for me to watch youtube professors, directed me to a helpful website called khan academy, read books and articles. I also asked what is my current grade right now? She said I could not give you a grade now because we still on the second exam. According to “Faculty-Student Contact Outside the Classroom: Evidence and Promoting Practices” Joe Cuseo writes, “It occurs in a less formal context than the classroom, so a student may feel less threatened or intimidated about discussing his or her ideas”(2). This claims that it is so powerful because it happens in a less formal setting than in the classroom. It was simple than I thought really talking to professors outside of class I think they are more open to answering questions a student would have. What I found surprising was there is no group project which is supposed to be because it is a sociology class that reflects on social groups. Based on this discussion with the professor's changes I will obtain are reading and understanding the chapters and articles required for the exams.

Faculty-student interaction impacts students in many ways. The student-faculty interaction impacted me positively it was a challenge in the beginning but when I approach the professor talking to discuss the class it becomes simple. And I think it will impact students the same way it did to me. The research found that the impact of student-faculty interactions on student outcomes vary according to “The Effect of Student-Faculty Interaction on Student’s Education Outcomes” Jean J. Endo writes, “the increased frequency of student-faculty interaction is related to students’ satisfaction with the academic and non-academic aspects of college”(3). This explains The positive relationship between research experiences and GPA, for example, is significantly stronger for nonacademic aspects relative to other students. These and other conditional effects suggest avenues for future research for better understanding whether the nature of the faculty-student interaction differs in certain ways by academic or nonacademic satisfaction, thus producing dissimilar outcomes for different groups. I have avoided interaction in the past with previous professors because I thought it is rare and no one approach professors only during the class session. Now that I know the value of being able to interact with faculty it would be easier every time I talk to one of the faculty and think of it as a normal way to interact.

Our own attitudes and modes of thinking can impact our ability to learn and succeed in two ways. Based on the learning surveys I assure you that it is accurately related to what our own attitudes and modes of thinking really do on our ability to learn to succeed. Without positive attitudes and modes of thinking, students have little chance of learning proficiently, if at all. There are two categories of attitudes and modes of thinking that affect learning: (1) attitudes and mode of thinking about the learning climate and (2) attitudes and mode of thinking about classroom tasks. In my own learning, I see those factors as students who don’t admit that their personal attitude and thinking really impact, their ability to learn and succeed. According to “Growth Mindset vs Fixed + Key TakeAways from Dweck’s Book” Courtney Ackerman notes, “For someone with a fixed mindset, this scenario might just ruin their whole day. They may feel angry with themselves or look for someone or something else to blame”(17). This demonstrates a better understanding of what could our attitude and mode of thinking changes our perception of thinking in a matter of seconds by just having a fixed mindset and not thinking that we are affecting our learning ability to succeed in life when obtaining that mindset. But instead, we should have a growth mindset that reflects upon when getting into situations that have the ability to solve the easier and quick way without any harm and or difficulties. Based on my own modes of learning I believe I have to change my perception of having a negative attitude that leads to little chance of learning proficiently. In short, our attitudes and mode of thinking really take an effect when trying our ability to learn and succeed.

Overall, research texts and learning survey results can demonstrate my learning experience as a college student that relates to what I’m doing now and what I will accomplish in the future, interviewing my professor was a student-faculty interaction challenge that I have overcome, and my own college experiences was as a freshman college student trying to understand moving forward in college, in learning to succeed. Two steps I will take to succeed in the sociology course are first to Manage my Time second to Get Organized. what I hope to achieve through those two steps is a flexible course schedule that works with my daily activities and making plans consistent, and second to be able to plan ahead of time for everything I needed to accomplish, and not worry about running out of time. Two steps I will take going forward in college after this semester is first determine my educational gap and second When I am ready, transfer my credits to a college where I ultimately plan on finishing my degree. What I hope to achieve through those two steps is to fill these gaps in my educational background, before spending money on tuition for classes I’m not prepared for. Secondly to sign up for john jay college and to be able to transfer in the spring. I aspire to accomplish the goals I plan and succeed in learning as a freshman college student and be able to meet high standards of achievement through this incredible journey of mine. 

Works cited

  1. Cuseo, J. (2011). Faculty-Student Contact Outside the Classroom: Evidence and Promoting Practices. Journal of Excellence in College Teaching, 22(2), 5-24.
  2. Endo, J. J. (2019). The Effect of Student-Faculty Interaction on Students' Education Outcomes. Journal of College Student Development, 60(3), 291-306.
  3. Ackerman, C. (2019). Growth Mindset vs Fixed + Key TakeAways from Dweck's Book. PositivePsychology.com. Retrieved from https://positivepsychology.com/growth-mindset-vs-fixed-mindset/
  4. Borough of Manhattan Community College. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/
  5. Boian, E. (personal communication, Month Day, Year).
  6. Khan Academy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/
Updated: Feb 02, 2024
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Autobiography Moments As A First Generation College Student. (2024, Feb 04). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/autobiography-moments-as-a-first-generation-college-student-essay

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