The community participation that has changed my life for the better is being apart of The Accelerated College Education (ACE) program at American River College. Being apart of this program has given me a push and motivation to finish and succeed in school. Before I started in the American River College ACE program, college success was not always a part of my college career. I have been and will always consider myself a part of the ACE program community in which I have participated in for the past two years. Unfortunately, I am no longer among the rest of my cohort classmates that have been a part of this amazing community. Looking back I now see that the time was well spent in the ACE program. The experiences were life changing in this program …show more content…
My college career started with me just going to school to take PE classes while neglecting my main required core classes and always pushing them aside without any urgency to succeed in finishing school. A couple of years would go by with little to no progress and lack of motivation to succeed in finishing my college required classes. Soon landing a career oriented job and finding myself dropping out of college to focus on my work career. From this point and time I would learn the importance of school and the value of finish college through my years of experience at work. This awareness of value in finishing college would motivate me to want to go back to school. Soon I would find myself at American River College counseling center. Here I was coming back to school unsure of myself and in an environment where I previously never found success in school. After meeting with my counselor I was recommended to take a college success course. This course is part of a program called the Accelerated College Education (ACE). Because I was able to learn along the years being out of school the importance of gaining an education I gained a new motivation for school, signed up for this ACE program, and enroll in the college success
Education is seen as the foundation of innovation and development of society. The purpose of education is to give everyone equal opportunity to advance and prosper regardless of initial economic status hence the commonly used appellation, the ‘Great Equalizer’. In order to evaluate education’s role as the ‘Great Equalizer’, we must take account of evidence regarding family income, public resources, and the possibility of social mobility through college education. The educational experience of students varies tremendously as a result of family income, driving the disparity in achievement and available resources. Furthermore, limited access to public resources and college opportunities pose a threat to one’s social mobility and success in society.
But, once I graduate high school, my next step is to attend Tulsa Community College. There were several factors in this decision. Such as, I get to live at home still and continue to save my money. I get to attend for free since I live in Tulsa County and will perform forty hours of community service. Plus, the great thing about community colleges is that they accept anyone, whether they tried or did not try in school, students still have a way to continue their education. Community college allows for students to take the time to figure out what they want to do with their life. I am grateful I was presented with this option to attend Tulsa Community College, otherwise, I might be going to a four-year school, far away from my family, and I might be stuck in a major that I am no longer interested
In the article written by Rodney K.Smith where he puts forward a clear argument about “Yes, a College Education is Worth the Cost. There are more opportunities and doors open for those with higher education compared to those without. Higher education allows people to live in better neighborhoods; it brings financial security and stability. ”. Financially secured people not only are able to afford extracurricular activities for their kids, such as sports, music lessons, art, dancing etc, it also allows to have intellectual knowledge in general as well as better nutrition and medical care compared to uneducated people. A college education is worth the cost and investment of the students’ time.
It’s incredibly crazy to compare my life this year to where I was three-hundred and sixty-five days ago. As a senior in high school, I was so worried about the future and if I would survive, so to speak. Here I am now, experiencing college and gaining a valuable education in more than just a survival mode, but in a completely growth oriented mode of thriving. Campus involvement has been the best encourager for my education outside of your typical classroom setting. My main involvement is with Georgia Southern’s Office of Leadership and Community Engagement. I currently live in a Living Learning community on campus called Lead and Serve. This community is run through the Leadership Office which we call OLACE. I am housed with like minded individuals who have a passion for growing their leadership and doing community service. We have weekly meetings where we discuss social issues and prepare events for the local Statesboro community to get involved in and for us to serve. I am also invovled in an organization called Southern Leaders. Upon completion of this course and club, I will graduate with a leadership seal upon my diploma. Since being on my beautiful campus in south Georgia, I have completed over one hundred hours of community service. OLACE has also provided me the opportunity to take non-credit leadership classes in Self-Leadership, Collaborative Leadership, Living the Change and other various leadership classes I have taken advantage of. I have gained the knowledge of my leadership style and abilities and how to best use those when leading others. This week, I will “graduate” from one of my leadership classes with an extreme honor: an engraved Georgia Southern gold name tag. Having a gold name tag on campus is one of the...
For the past few decades, it has been widely argued that a college degree is a essential to entering the middle class in the United States. Study after study reminds us that higher education is one of the best investments we can make, and President Obama has called it “an economic imperative.”(Forbes). We all know that, on average, college graduates make significantly more money over their lifetimes than those with only a high school education. What gets less attention is the fact that not all college degrees or college graduates are equal. There is enormous variation in the so-called return to education depending on factors such as institution attended, field of study, whether a student graduates, and post-graduation occupation (Pharinet).
I have returned to college after being out of school for several years because, I am motivated to obtain my associates degree. I want to finish what I started years ago. When I was in high school, I became discouraged with my studies due to an illness and ended up dropping out of school. A few years after that I had an opportunity to return to school and obtain an Associate’s degree. When I started the program I was doing well until my illness returned. I found myself having a hard time juggling my school work, my illness and a job. I eventually started failing classes and ended up giving up again. At this point I had once again, let life’s challenges win the battle. Looking back, I understand that I failed when I returned to school because I wasn’t mentally prepared nor was I mature enough to deal with issues as they happened. Looking back at it now I understand that I made a terrible error permitting fear to take
I’m a student at Tompkins Cortland Community College this is my first semester as a college student. I plan to go to college for four years and only be at TC3 for this one semester, then transfer to a four year school. College has grown around the world more than ever and more people are attending college more than ever. I have chosen to go to college because of the rewards after graduation. Yes it is another four years of school but by getting more education and an extended degree gives me more opportunities for better jobs and more money. The career I have chosen to study is business administration. I am hoping that it takes me to a great job managing a company or possibly being an accountant.
After being on my own for a year, I decided I wanted to go back to school. At first, I chose to start getting a certification in insurance. It was a self-study program, and I had to grasp the information then take a standardized proctored exam. I began one course and gave myself a year to study it and take the exam after being unsuccessful; I went back to the drawing board. Six months later, I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I then began looking at my benefits package at work, and I started asking my coworkers what they were doing. In just asking around, I found Ashford University. Almost two years after being on my own and making the decision to return to school, I finally found Ashford University, I applied around Thanksgiving and began at the beginning of
There is this saying, “Everything happens for a reason” and I believe certain things do. I believe that everything I have gone through my life has been preparing me for the beginning of a great career. This world can be a scary place, but there is also beauty in this world with lots of opportunities, and people who want to help make a difference. I want to be one of those people who inspire others to do better, to guide them and to teach them to not give up. If it was not for my counselors and mentors I would not be where I am at today. I was able to accomplish one of my goals of being the first in my family to graduate with my Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from CSULA. I want to further my education to better myself, and help others along the way.
College. It is the seven-letter word that almost every child will hear thousands of times while they are growing up. They constantly are bombarded by the idea that they must go to college if they want to be successful. However, what if this is a false statement. What if college isn’t as great as everyone makes it out to seem. Well, these days some people believe that young people are better off, not going to college. Over the years the economy around the world has changed. It has prospered, and it has fallen. As the economy went downhill the government began cutting funds in areas that they felt were necessary to exterminate. One of the largest areas of funding that was cut was education. Colleges began receiving less money from the government, resulting in a rapid increase of college tuition fees. Due to this, a lot of people believe that college tuition is too expensive for what you get, and not worth the money. However, most people believe that college is necessary in order to further their education, and in order for them to earn their degree. They think that this degree has the ability to help college graduates get a job and work up to a career that only someone with a college level degree is able to achieve. The truth lies in the facts, and statistics. College is the seven-letter word that all people should be thinking about. A college education is a valuable investment that everyone should strive to achieve, and is completely worth the expensive cost.
Not long ago, I decided to change my major to applied psychology because of the fact that I really want to work with students that are planning to go to college. During the summer, I had the opportunity to work with about fifteen high school students from Reading High. Listening to the students talk about the amount of people that are not interested in college and are dropping out of high school, made me think about my high school days. I saw a huge amount of my cohort drop out for various reasons, they either weren’t interested in school or thought they were not good enough for college. I see education as an opportunity that you get in order to better yourself, once someone decides not to continue it, that opportunity is thrown away. I want
Why did I choose to come to college? I choose to come to college so I could further advance my skills and career opportunities. When first coming to college I thought it was going to be a piece of cake, but was I wrong. You had to already know how to study, take test and have perfect time management skills, and I did not have any of those. I ended up dropping many classes my first year in college and failing one or two, and not having that great of a grade point average. In spring 2012 I was automatically enrolled in the strategies for academic success here at Florida State. When I was placed in this class I thought it was the end of the world, I thought I was considered one of Fsu’s dummy student. But my enrollment in the SLS1122 course here at FSU impacted more then I expected. The things I learned in this course have lead me to succeed at many different things. I learned that every single person in college has a different set of Talents, experiences, achievements and unique points of view in which makes them different from other students in college. These are some of the qualities...
After only being at The University of Akron for three weeks, I dropped two classes. Shortly after dropping those classes, I received an email from my advisor asking to schedule an appointment. While in my academic advisors office, she proceeded to tell me that most students who drop two or more classes tend to not graduate. These words frightened me and even made me regret the decision to attend college as a whole. I sat there and thought about how disappointed my family would be and wondered if I would be successful in college. Since then, I have learned that there is a lot more to being successful
As I look back on the beginning of my journey to a better career and life I can remember the weeks and months leading up to the first day of class. I remember visiting the college and speaking with an advisor to decide exactly what it was I wanted to do, and the steps it would take for me to reach my goals. I recall talking with the advisor about the requirements for my General Education credits as well my need to take a preparatory class for algebra because I scored to low on the placement exam to be allowed to take the full college level math. Along with the preparatory math class my advisor told me that I needed to take “Foundations for College Success”, which I questioned. My advisor explained that the course would lay a solid foundation for me to build my college expectations and learning on by explaining what to expect from college as well as how to handle some of the out of the ordinary roadblocks that college life would undoubtedly throw my way. I remember thinking as probably most all new students do “I don’t need this” or “This is just a filler class, it can’t possibly show me anything I don’t already know”, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. As I near the end of my time in the Foundations for College Success course I can truly say I am glad I was required to take the course as it provided me with an invaluable wealth of knowledge that will help me throughout the rest of my journey.
My journey as a student has always been focused on the path to college and success. Before I even set foot in kindergarten my mother, a college dropout, always told me that “honor roll wasn’t an option” and that I would be attending college in the future and achieving a degree. Most of the time I made these requirements. Most of the time I was awarded honor roll or had a newly edited list of colleges to attend, but sometimes life got in the way of my dreams of achieving success.