Meet Abass Salat!

This is his first year attending Georgia State Perimeter College and is a dual enrollment student. He currently does not have a major but plans to major in respiratory therapy in the future. Abass says He chose to attend Georgia state because not only is it close to home, but because of the opportunities of dual enrollment and DECA which is a highschool that specializes in dual enrollment. His three words to describe his academic self profile were: Motivated, Adaptive and Supported would describe my academic self to be motivated because of the high standard goals he sets for himself. He plans to finish college with a 4.0, graduate medical school, and start his own practice with little to no debt. He is determined and motivated to accomplish these goals,so he can support his family members and live a comfortable life.
                  Additionally, he goes on to describe his academic self as supported because of the amount of effort his parents put into supporting him throughout his life wishing nothing for him but to succeed in everything he does in school and life. As well as teachers,peers and all resources provided by the school such as tutoring,financial aid and more.
                  Lastly, He also describes his academic self as adaptive because every semester he has to adjust a new schedule whether it is in person or online with new teachers,new classmates, new workload, and new expectations which can be a lot especially now due to covid. I followed with a question asking how can you connect this to the reading :COVID-Era College He responded saying he can relate “because of how different school has changed due to the pandemic and having to take online remote class courses which he did not really enjoy however he made it a priority to make the transition from face to face to at home remote learning and succeed expanding his capacity to handle change in any given circumstance.”
                      One question I asked Abass during the interview is: How does he like English 1102 thus far, and what are some differences compared with your English 1101 course? Which did he prefer better, were there any challenges and why? This question was asked to see how he handled change when his selected course teacher unexpectedly changed which connects his ability to be adaptive. He answered with english1101 because he loves writing essays more than reading although he doesnt mind having to be prepared to read a lot more in and out of the classroom.
Towards the end of the phone Interview Abass Revealed that he has a problem with procrastination. His academic self doesn’t procrastinate when there is a surplus of time but when there is a shortage of time. He believes the root of this issue is that when his schedule gets too filled and Iose free-time, it causes him to use work time to do missed free-time activities. I followed this with the question, “ Do you like to study? If so, how often and long are your study sessions?” As he responded “I do but it’s hard to be motivated sometimes or stay focused for a long period of time” however he mentions that “Dr.Chews “How to Study” Video series has helped him to understand how to study, deep level thinking and learning the orienting task instead of memorizing material.
                In Conclusion, Overall Abass is a very hardworking and dedicated student who Strives to exceed his goals no matter what obstacle or challenges he encounters and acknowledges that he will work on improving his weakness in procrastinating to achieve the most in his academic success.

                                                                             Works Cited

Abass Salat, Pair Interview transcript, Conducted by Thomesia Williams, February, 30 2022

Chew, Stephen. “How to Study.” How to Get the Most Out of Studying, 25 Mar. 2015,

https://www.samford.edu/departments/academic-success-center/how-to-study.
Czar Rochelle, COVID-Era College: Are Students Satisfied, Inside Higher Ed, 24 March 2021

 David Jefferies is a seventeen-year-old dual enrollment student at Georgia State Univerisity. David has learned a lot over the years in school. Meeting David taught me a lot about who he is; I made my observations, and he even opened up about his past experiences and future goals. Jefferies plans to earn a Bachelor of Arts with a Major in Art and a Concentration in Digital Arts. I was able to enjoy every minute spent with David’s Academic self, with his charge to take the initiative, his attentiveness, and honesty. David is determined to become all that he can, and he is driven and motivated to be successful. 

Three word’s to describe David’s Academic self are intelligent, humble, and bold. I could assume David’s boldness from when he took it upon himself to introduce himself to me and take the initiative in exchanging contact information to get started on our project. A first-year dual enrollment student and a senior at Dekalb Early College Academy. Jefferies’s explained his mother was his motivation and biggest influencer because of how hard-working she is. He maintained an average of A’s and B’s throughout grade school, although David did admit to falling out of practicing his studies. Samford’s “How to study” videos gave great examples of how to make time for your studies and maintain a good grade point average by creating a study schedule to manage time more wisely. If David became more focused on his goals, he would be unstoppable. Even though David does not study as much as he should, he still maintains his good grades and balances school and social life. 

For the past two weeks, I have gotten to know David Jefferies, and he’s taught me so much about who he is on the outside and inside. David was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and attends Georgia State University’s dual enrollment program. David plans to major in Digital Arts, influenced by his driven & self-motivated mother. David has always made a way to maintain his excellent grade point average along with his social life. “How to study” videos gave a lot of excellent practices on how to excel in your studies and become successful. I had the option to partake in each moment enjoyed with David’s Academic self, with his charge to step up, mindfulness, and trustworthiness. Still up in the air to turn out to be everything that he would be able, he is driven and propelled to be effective.

Armana Wilder – Georgia State University & Tucker High School

College is an environment of new people to interact with, from either people around the globe, or just various new people in the same community. There are plenty of opportunities that are given to you, and with the assistance of others, where it’s teachers or friends, gives you an educational advantage. I sat with Armana, who although isn’t quite fully in college, fully understands the experiences and hardships of a regular college student. Armana is a dual enrollment student, meaning that she takes college courses, while also still being in high school. Her favorite science is Physics. She doesn’t really enjoy math, but enjoys reading her own writing. She will graduate this year, and has plans to be ahead of the average student by taking these courses early. She has to travel from college to high school in order to fulfill her academic day. She is a competitive person by nature, wanting to be the best at everything she does. Whether it’s regarding academics or sports, she strives to be on a different tier than everyone else. She is self motivated, self aware, and adaptive. Whatever school workload that she has, she is confident in finishing every assignment that is thrown at her.

In order for her to become the caring and motivated person she is today, she had to take time in order for her to develop her academic self. I asked Armana about her early academic self, and she stated that ‘I used to have separation anxiety. I disliked being separated by my mother, but one of the teachers at my school (Brockett Elementary) cheered me up every day and eventually broke me out of my shell of being separated” (Wilder 2022). The help from this teacher elevated her academic self, and guided her to a well communicative connection, whether it be students or teachers. 

Armana, along with a great number of people, believe that adaptation, self improvement, and self motivation are key points to one’s academic self. When something such as a due date for an assignment is shortened or lengthened, Armana is able to adjust her workload schedule around the change of the date. This gives her an ample amount of time needed for all due assignments. Self awareness also comes into play with adaptation. Armana knows how much time she needs to complete certain tasks and when they need to be done. For subjects and topics, she is also aware of what she needs to do in order for her to attain the things learned in the classroom. This is a great trait to have, for if you don’t have a true understanding of yourself, this might cause you to be working on an assignment well over the due date. Self motivation might be the most important trait to have out of all of these though, because without something to push you forward, you wouldn’t develop your academic self as much as you would if you had some sort of motivation. These traits align with a few of Dr. Chew’s 10 steps to getting the most out of studying, such as “finding what’s the point in what you’re learning to succeed, planning ahead to be a successful learner, and facing challenges and risks in order to improve oneself” (Chew, 2011).

Like a lot of students in school, Armana has a few academic challenges that she struggles with. There are some times where she procrastinates, and doesn’t allow herself to have a plentiful amount of time to complete. There are also some school subjects that she stresses and is anxious about. Although these struggles are still ongoing, she is learning how to deal with them and doesn’t allow them to bring her academic self down. 

In conclusion, Armana is a highly educated student who sets the bar high for herself in order to attain consistently high grades. Although she has her own way of learning things, she believes that everyone should understand their academic selves and have their own unique methods as to how to get the most out of a subject or assignment. When discussing these issues and achievements, I realized there are most likely more people out there who might share the same qualities as us. From adaptation to procrastinating, we all have different experiences as to how we modified our academic selves. Even though I knew I wasn’t the only person with academic struggles, it was refreshing to hear someone who shares the same struggles and thoughts about various subjects. They were interesting to hear, and got me thinking about a couple things regarding our academic selves. How are we able to find the best way of learning to get the most out of different subjects? What are the most effective options for resolving academic stress and anxiety? And How are you able to give someone the motivation they need to improve their academic self? 

Citations

• Wilder, Armana. Armana Academic Profile. January 2022
• Wilder, Armana. Personal Interview. January 2022
• Steven C, PhD; Getting the most out of studying. Samford University, AL. August 2011
• Steven C, PhD; Shallow-Level and Deep-Level Processing. Samford University, AL. August 2011
• Steven C, PhD; Beliefs that make you stupid. Samford University, AL. August 2011

Jalam’s Academic Self  

I have interviewed a GSU student named Jalam Ford. I was interested in finding out how a college student like him would describe his relationship with school. He starts off by saying that he would describe his academic self in these three words, motivated, logical, and critical. He feels motivated because he feels as if he must get stuff done to get ahead in life. He is logical in the sense that he assesses problems he has with logical and realistic viewpoints. He would also describe himself as critical because in his own words, “I feel that if I am going to do anything I’d like to do it correctly the first time.” 

The reason Jalam decided to pursue higher education is to give his future family a better childhood and life than his. He sees college as a way to become financially secure and independent from his parents. He also values being more educated and learning. Specifically, the reason he chose GSU was that his mom went to it for 2 years and recommended it to him.   

But as Jalam was in his first semester in college, covid hit and he struggled like many of us have. He was starting to rethink being in college, so he took a break from school. A year later he decided to come back and is ready to keep studying. Now that he is back in school, he has decided to take more advice from his mother and become a nursing major. Because of that, he feels as if he must be getting the best grades, he can be accepted into the nursing program. He is not only becoming a nursing major because of his mom but also because he feels good about the fact that he can help people. One thing that Jalam said that was inspiring was, “If I know that I helped someone continue living or made them feel better mentally or physically that really does it for me.”  

In school one thing he has trouble with is testing. Like many of us, Jalam has testing anxiety which causes someone to overthink and feel as if they won’t pass the exam. A way that he can help his testing anxiety is through setting an orienting task when studying so he knows that he has studied efficiently for the test like in the “What Students Should Know About How People Learn” video we watched in class.  Test anxiety is something that is a concern for him but despite that, he has a good support system. His family is supportive in his pursuit of higher education and wishes him the best as a student. 

College can be frustrating, one of the things that frustrate Jalam is the teachers themselves. He said, “Some professors will not give you ample time to finish work knowing that 9/10 the student has other classes to work on as well, it just seems very inconsiderate.” He finds this hard to deal with since sometimes many teachers will assign some work and suddenly students have a lot of assignments due all at once.  

Jalam is going through the motions as a college student with frustrations and dealing with a pandemic as all of us are now but, one thing that keeps him motivated is his family and wanting to get into a nursing program. In the end, he just wants to be financially stable and be able to help people.  

Works Cited 

University, Samford, producer. How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 2 of 5, “What Students Should Know About How People Learn”, Samford University, 16 Aug. 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O7y7XEC66M&t=100s. Accessed 5 Feb. 2022.  

Vazquez, Stephanie. “Academic Self.” 31 Jan. 2022.