This essay is based off my partner Jaslyn Hamilton and what is considered to be her academic self. Throughout a few days of interviewing her and holding several conversations I’ve gathered a good amount of information from Jaslyn. Jaslyn Hamilton is a 16-year-old student and has attended Georgia State University through dual enrollment for the last six months.Jaslyn plans on graduating from Dekalb Early College Academy which is the school she attends along with going to GSU. Jaslyn is majoring in criminal justice and is currently taking intro to criminal justice as one of her classes. Jaslyn wants to have a successful career as a lawyer or a private eye, being that her mother is her biggest inspiration for proceeding down this career path.  

Jaslyn’s mother has made her into the young lady that she is today and has a major influence on to who she is. She states that her mother is the influences her morals, traits that she displays, and many other attributes to who she is as a person. Jaslyn’s mother encourages her to be the best version of herself and shows her how to improve on her bad qualities. Her mother is the hardest working person that she knows so she wants to be able to return the same energy. The three words that Jaslyn uses to describe her academic self are proactive, adaptive, and hardworking. By being proactive Jaslyn says that she gets all her work done in a timely manner so that she can turn assignments in on time. She finds that being adaptive to different learning styles/ teaching styles has gotten her a long way during her time at GSU. Jaslyn stated, “I can adapt pretty easily to new teaching styles, new classes and schedules in order to succeed”. Jaslyn has always been known as hardworking and goes beyond no matter how much assignments she’s been assigned. As either a lawyer or private eye, she will have to go above and beyond in order to procure the best results in that field.

During her time in college, Jaslyn shared a frustration that she has been having. Her frustration occurs when different teachers weigh different assignments at different percentages. She explains that in high school there are a set of percentages things are weighed for in each class. “Usually, homework and classwork were weighed more than test, but in college what assignments they want to weigh more than others. The professors can really weigh any assignment with any percentages that they want”.

To conclude my interview with Jaslyn, what I’ve gathered from my time in speaking with her is that she is very set on her goals and will stop at nothing to accomplish them. During this interview I’ve learned things that I haven’t learned before such as what a private eye is. Speaking with Jaslyn has helped me understand that everyone has their own path that they must walk in life, and no one’s will be the same. She has a great academic self and I see her succeeding in her path to become a lawyer or private eye. Throughout the few things that we have watching during this semester so far, her favorite reading was “Redesigning College Education: Dismantling Trauma During Covid”. While reviewing this reading, Jaslyn states that she can relate to it in terms of mental stability. In that article she understands how stressful the situations may have been for them. She realizes that everyone is going through their own battles and troubles in their own way and can sympathize with them.