With the understanding and acknowledgement of lack of successes in college transitions and beyond, it is necessary to make changes to allow for more successes. As a result, much research has been done in this area assessing ways to better facilitate success in transitions. In her article “Marginality and Mattering,” Nancy Schlossberg, a professor of counseling and personnel services, discusses the importance of mattering as a key component to success in transitions and beyond. Transitions mark the end of one stage of life and the beginning of another. They are naturally difficult as they involve rediscovering our place and purpose within a new context and how and where we fit in, in this new stage. Transitions are difficult as there is typically …show more content…
Without them we would not be able to improve or better ourselves to ultimately reach our full potential. This does not mean however that they aren’t difficult or scary. Change is typically scary and difficult, and this is important to acknowledge, but change and transition is also necessary so that we can become the best, most successful version of ourselves. The metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly captures the quintessence of the importance of transitions in life. As a caterpillar begins its transition into a butterfly it must first leave behind its life as a caterpillar. In order to become a part of the new we must say goodbye to the old so that so that we can later emerge stronger and better than before. In its cocoon the caterpillar is isolated and alone as it works on transforming. This transformation is not always easy and at times can be painful just as the college transition is, but the outcome is something beautiful. Once it has finished its transformation the caterpillar no longer a caterpillar emerges as its true self in the form of a beautiful butterfly. In successfully navigating this college transition, we too are able to leave our life as a caterpillar, and emerge from our cocoons at the end of our four years …show more content…
Society encourages and promotes conformity to the norm, but I believe that differences are meant to be celebrated and accommodated for. Accommodating for every walk of life, including everyone no matter how different promotes a more positive, welcoming, inviting community that makes everyone feel as though they matter, thus setting us up for more successes. Colleges provide students with a unique opportunity because all the students within a university essentially make up their own community. As such it is important that higher education systems really strive to do things differently than the way the rest of society does! The way our society is structured now sets up so many for failure, and if the goal of college is success than it is crucial that this issue is addressed as well as its effect on successful transitions. Because of the high amount of diversity within our world and more specifically society it is essential that not only institutions of higher education change to accommodate for diversity but that society also addresses these issues and makes a change as well so that we can ultimately have higher numbers of
A transition can mean a lot of things. One of the more known transitions is the boy becoming a man idea. One example I thought of that expressed this well was the one I read in “Proofs” by Richard Rodriguez, about the young boys who risked their lives to come across the border. Rodriguez stated, “You are a boy from a Mexican Village. You have come into the country on your knee with your head down. You are a man” (34). This is just one example, but there are all kinds of transitions an individual goes through in their life. One transition can be as simple as getting older and maturing. Another can be changing your views or your beliefs. You can also make a transition by turning into a totally different person like Joaquin Andieta and Jacob Todd did in the novel.
The definition of marginalia is marginal notes. Billy Collins’ poem, “Marginalia”, is about just that. Collins uses sarcasm, metaphors, and juxtapositions to focus on all the different type of marginalia, from criticizes to praises, and how they affect the piece of work.
By embracing, and not just celebrating diversity in our colleges, we can create a more broad, educated, and interesting view of the
Two weeks is all it takes for a caterpillar to completely transition into a butterfly. Compared to our span of life, this seems like a rushed transition; however, there are certain ways that humans can change just as quickly as a caterpillar. Although these are not physical changes like the caterpillars, they still remain significant. In the novel In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez the characters experience changes in values, personal opinions, and political views. The character Patria fits the image of a butterfly as she rapidly changes in result of certain situations . Over the course of the book Patria quickly undergoes several momentous changes as she alters her political stance and values.
In Paul Toughmay’s “Who Gets to Graduate,” he follows a young first year college student, Vanessa Brewer, explaining her doubts, fears, and emotions while starting her college journey. As a student, at the University of Texas Brewer feels small and as if she doesn’t belong. Seeking advice from her family she calls her mom but after their conversation Brewer feels even more discouraged. Similar to Brewer I have had extreme emotions, doubts, and fears my freshman year in college.
College life is a journey taken by many high school graduate in effort to explore a higher form of education, and most importantly build a new life outside the boundaries of their families to sustain a long path of toward successful career and to some, building a new family of their own. In the United State we are blessed with an education system that is never available worldwide. Laws are placed to allow every students regardless of ethnicity, gender or class a chance to pursue education in among the most prestigious universities in the world such as Ivy League school as well as many large public universities with many programs. This vast number of education institutions available of every type of students create this big diversity leading the U.S. to be the frontrunner of education in the world.
Hazel, M. "Change is crucial in a person’s life." N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2008. .
When diversity is being discussed, there are a plethora of ideas that are associated with it. Whether people are talking being put on a waitlist for college, about people of color, or about representation in the media, the subject of diversity is not rare. Recently, the conversation of diversity has become more common because colleges want to demonstrate that they have diversified campus. How would diversity on campus be defined? Most importantly, diversity is more than having an extraordinary personality. Race, gender, sexuality, and social status are a few of the superfluous traits that make an individual unique in a college’s eyes. In Sophia Kerby’s article, “10 Reasons Why We Need Diversity on College Campuses”, she notes that, while there has already been an effort to diversify high schools and middle schools, accepting students of different backgrounds is not as apparent in higher education (1) . A university desires to diversify its campus in order to benefit the students that are attending the college. Students are not only likely to improve
As a byproduct of the change in college culture, it will create a “friendlier” environment for first generation. Students need to feel safe rather than out of place. Additionally, prestigious institutions need to take initiative to create new programs that will make college a painless transition for first generation students by implementing new policies such as mentors or clubs. As many colleges and universities have not taken the initiative to help first-generation students, North Carolina State University is one of the few exceptions. As a fellow first generation college student at North Carolina State University, I have reaped many benefits from the different organizations they have around campus. In the Poole College of Management, I was assigned a professional mentor in my future line of work that made the transition into college a better experience for me. After listening to his forums, I was able to use the skills I had learnt from my parents and apply it to college and my study habits benefiting me in countless possibilities. Additionally, the sociology department at North Carolina State University has created a program that guides first-generations students throughout all four years of college making the transition as
This article discusses the different forms of racial diversity contribution to students’ educational and learning experiences and the autonomous positive effects on students who adopt these diversity opportunities. The author demonstrates how the quality of higher education is substantially heightened by diversity-connected efforts. Those efforts improve students learning and experiences by cultivating key behaviors and knowledge and by providing a unique educational context.
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one student to dissolve the bonds which have held him to his high school life, he can get fairly intimidated. Making the transition from high school to college can be a tough one. I remember my experience in such a transition vividly, as it was only a short time ago.
Transition and change often comes in different forms, which can either be joyful, stressful or a combination of both. Sometimes people change their relationships, jobs, where they live, beliefs and even their goals in life as a result of change. That said, with transition and change comes a different type of adjustment, roles and responsibilities. As individuals we need to learn to adapt in different situations for change is inevitable. Everything about this world is changing each and every moment. Our relationships change, circumstances change, our feelings change. No one is exactly the same each moment. Everything is changing constantly. Times change and so does people.
One of the main points that Hopson states is that transitions are stressful if they are unpredictable, involuntary, unfamiliar or of high magnitude. Adams, Adams, Hayes & Hopson (1976) illustrated this specific model in order to represent the stages in which an individual goes through when transitioning, making sure to take into account the length of these experiences which could be desirable yet undesirable. This specific model of transition can be used to underline my own experience, for example, the first stage is called immobilisation which states that an individual feels overwhelmed at first hand when being faced with the change, this is exactly how I felt when the time came to change from an environment I was so comfortable in to a new surroundings that I was unfamiliar with. Self-doubt is the stage that I highly relate to as it pinpoints the significance of my introverted personality an aspect which other theories on transitions fail to acknowledge. Brammer (1992) had in fact assessed Hopson's model to measure its effectiveness with real-life clients with different transitions in their own lives.
In the college success strategies (COLL 101) class, we had explored various areas of future possibility. Throughout the quarter, We sketched out the big pictures of the future. We identified potential destination and explored the path to get there. In this reflection essay, I would like to talk about and reflect on personal development throughout the quarter.