Aloha, friends! How’s life treating you? Fell asleep during lecture again? Or have you been on-point with thoughtful comments during discussion? Join the club. We all have our roller coaster days…weeks…you know what I mean. Whatever age, year, major, or student you identify with every school year, every school day really, awakens us each morning with seemingly insurmountable obstacles and celebration moments. Here is some advice to guide you through the up, the down, and the coasting by:
1. Seek Extra Help
Yes, we’ve all heard this one again and again but if it wasn’t true, wouldn’t people stop recommending it? Especially if you are not completing assignments on time or struggling to understand concepts in any class, teachers don’t hold office hours for fun! I’m sure they would all rather be catching up on “House of Cards” like the rest of us, but they know, as well as we do, hard work equals better results. There are a variety of resources on Grounds that can help any year improve their study experience. You can go seek your professor face-to-face during individual office hours. You can schedule time with the TA, if that option is available also. Most teachers also appreciate if you send an email or tell them during class if you plan on coming to office hours, so that they are not only there, but come prepared. I have listed below several other UVA Academic Resources that I have found personally helpful, whether because I was truly struggling or just need someone to tell me I could do it! The more you reach out, the more confident you will feel with your studies. If one particular resource doesn’t work out perfectly, keep trying! Try a new resource center or teacher to work with. Sometimes seeing a concept or an idea from a different perspective can be enlightening. The more eyes that see your paper, the stronger it will become! Take advantage and become the best student you can be. There is no shame in asking for help, especially from individuals who are passionate about helping others with their studies. Remember, professors and teachers chose their respective occupations because they enjoy the academic subject, and wish to share that love with you! Go, live, and learn!
http://www.virginia.edu/tutoring/ http://www.engl.virginia.edu/undergraduate/writing/center http://www.virginia.edu/studenthealth/caps/group.html#Academic http://www.virginia.edu/cue/ http://career.virginia.edu/
By the way, extra help is not limited to your academics! If you are seeking an internship, research opportunity, job, or just some life advice, UVA is here to listen and to help you! Any more resources to share or suggestions to add to the list? Please feel free to contact us so we can keep this resource list updated.
2. Deciding on a Major…
The precipitous moment for the majority of us in our academic careers. What should my major be? Some of us enter college with a bit of luck, already knowing that nursing or engineering was the way to go. Others of us (raise your hand if you’re with me! I’m certainly on this struggle bus!) have absolutely no idea in any way shape or form what we want to major in, let alone do after college. Friends, I have a difficult time choosing what shoes to wear every morning, how on earth am I supposed to decide what I want to major in? But guess what? What do I love not only about UVA and the core curriculum, but also the diversity of classes the University offers? IT’S TOTALLY AND DEFINITELY OKAY NOT TO KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO MAJOR IN! This fact blows my mind. It’s all right if you don’t know if chemistry or physics is your calling, or maybe you enjoy Shakespeare and poetry better. Whatever your academic passion is, it’s okay not to know right now what you want to major in, much less what you want to do with that major. I’m genuinely happy for those folks who knew coming in as first-years that they wanted to be in the Curry School and study kinesiology, but for the rest of us who don’t know, we rock too! Take lots of classes here at UVA while you can that transcend all the boundaries disciplines. Hop from British Literature to learning Arabic to Statistics. Not only will you be fulfilling requirements, you’ll also be taking a broad variety of classes will help narrow down what you possibly want to focus on and not focus on. You don’t love the love languages? Maybe a French major isn’t in your future…that’s as good as knowing what your major is going to be! Eliminate the obvious “thank you, but that’s not for me” majors, and before you know it, you will stumble upon that class, that professor, that academic region that you fall head over heels with and just want to declare to everyone what your major is. If you never have that eye-opening experience? That’s okay too. Not everyone will have clear insight, but that’s the beauty of majors these days. Let’s say you end up declaring in Economics. There is so much you can do with that both during your undergraduate career and after. Don’t worry, you wouldn’t be crunching numbers for the rest of your life, it’s up to you to decide! Just because your major in college has a label, doesn’t mean any future career will! After you graduate, there are graduate schools to apply to if you would like to expand your academic studies. Lower-level positions can help you put that economics major to good use right away. Maybe you simply want to explore different regions of the world: travel, explore, take a job at the local fire department, volunteer at an animal shelter, you never know who you will meet, what your heart will sing to you, and where you will find your future career. The best part? You have your whole life ahead of you. You can go back to school and get another degree if you would like, have one job or thirty different ones, or even learn to start your own company! Just let go of all your pre-major jitters, as you have lots of time to declare (until the end of your second-year). Not only that, but whoever you become, whatever you decide to plunge into headfirst, your fellow Wahoos are cheering you on!
P.S. A note on Majors: No major is “easy” or “hard” when compared to another major. Everyone chooses a major because a) that’s what they enjoy studying or b) someone else told them to do it (unfortunate, but true in many cases). Don’t let a particularly challenging academic career stop you from what you love studying. If someone criticizes your degree for being the “scapegoat major,” just smile and tell them, “That’s what makes the world go round, because we are all beautifully different.”
3. College is about more than just some numbers on a piece of paper…
Yes, we go to school to study academics. Yes, we all have strained necks and squinty eyes from too much time in the library, and not enough time frolicking outdoors among the early days of autumn. Don’t let yourself forget that college is an experience. It is a time to learn, to work hard, to smile, to celebrate, to groan, to laugh, to cry, to succeed, and to fail (yes fail! And get right back on your feet- Thomas Edison had over 2000 attempts before he successfully turned on the electric light bulb and double fun fact—he wasn’t the first one! Sorry, New Jersey, I know you love him http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,947523-4,00.html).
Let us not only bury our heads in our books, but also raise our eyes to the incredible people, school, and vibrant community around us. Let us move from the data-crunching and finger-clicking to the curling up late one night with the latest bestseller, because who knew J.K. Rowling would actually (and finally!) publish an additional section to the Harry Potter series. Let us attend an acapella show, a comedy production, and a hot debate about religion because we have such incredible opportunities academically and intellectually. Soccer or football game anyone? Volleyball? The seasons are in full swing, and will be over before we know it. Let’s bring that good ‘ole Wahoo cheer and fill every inch of the stadiums, and suppport our peers with our orange and blue gear. Take advantage of meeting that new person in class and grab some coffee after lecture to discuss your mutual love for the game of chess. Attend a historical tour of UVA by yourself because you are a history buff, and who cares? That’s another aspect of UVA that I am falling in love with. Every student, professor, child, adult, and community member has such diverse and amazing passions. They chase their dreams with a sense of relentless commitment, and want to show their pride to others in service, religion, Greek life, politics, electronics, or whatever it may be! Embrace the diversity around you, friends, for this is one very special time of your life where so much is at your fingertips for you to learn from and experience. Yes, please, study and be prepared for your math exam tomorrow, but also take the time to write a letter to your roommate telling the individual how they are a star, and leave them some Starbursts. Go do you, friends, and go out there and study and don’t forget to celebrate the amazing opportunities to grow that surround you!
Here are some inspirational quotes (by some of my favorite individuals) to bring you some constant motivation!
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” -Winston Churchill
“Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” -Albert Einstein