I met and conversed with Trang Nguyen to discover many fascinating aspects of her character. She is from Vietnam, where she went to school for k-12. Based on her intellectual past, she describes her academic self with the words motivation, schedule, and mathematics, using the word mathematics because while it is her favorite subject, it is also one of her skills. After graduating from high school, she decided to choose the US to study abroad, choosing the US for its diversity and the opportunity to experience things outside of her home country, such as people of various cultural backgrounds. 

Photo of Trang Nguyen taken by her boyfriend

This is Trang’s second year at Georgia State, and after graduating, she plans to do an internship in the US for two years and then return to Vietnam to help her country. Her major is Health Science Professions, and after graduating from the 2-year program, she plans to major in Public Health. She says she chose to study at GSU because she has a cousin who used to study at the school leading to her doing more research. She then found out that GSU was suitable because it aligns with her appeal to diversity. The most influential person and her academic mentor is her cousin, who went to GSU and is currently a student in medical school. 

Like all students, Trang is not just a scholar; she is someone caring and sociable. Her major reflects her love for helping people and attraction to work in the health field. Her hobbies include going out with friends and watching one of her favorite TV shows, The Suite Life on Deck; she says, “I often watch it to improve my English.” Overall, I noticed that Trang inside school is in harmony with her personal self , which she plans to develop after Stephen Chew’s lesson on how to study. 

While not captivated by the reading as much, Trang found herself enjoying the lesson on how to study because of the principles she has grasped, such as “successful learning requires planning ahead” and figuring out the reasons for ineffective studying. She has enjoyed her time so at GSU and learning new things but mentions that one frustrating thing about college is difficult professors. However, she is not letting that get in the way of her goals. When you have plans or a vision for yourself like Trang that keeps you determined and likely to accomplish these goals. 

Work Cited 

Nguyen, Trang, Personal Interview, January 2022 

Steven C, Ph.D.; Developing a mindset for successful learning, Samford University, AL 

When I asked Farrah Rudder what she likes most about being a college student, she replied, “I live the same thing every day except when I’m in school. I get to be somebody different.” Her academic career is one of self-discovery and determination. In fact, “perseverance” is the word Farrah uses to describe her academic self, and after hearing her story, it’s easy to see why.   

A first-generation college student and the middle child of five siblings, Farrah was born in Chicago, Illinois and moved to Georgia at the age of seven. Because her family moved around so much when she was young, Farrah was forced to change schools frequently, making it impossible for her to find any consistency in her schoolwork or friendships. However, in the summer before 9th grade, Farrah and her family moved back to Chicago, and it was there that she began to blossom as a student. Farrah made school her number one priority, became the top ranked student in her class, and eventually earned a much-coveted Posse Scholarship (a full- tuition scholarship to attend college), beating out hundreds of student applicants from all over the state of Illinois. Unfortunately, her mom decided that the family would move back to Georgia for her senior year, forcing Farrah to change schools (again) and forfeit her scholarship. Disappointed and resentful, Farrah found it difficult to muster the same effort and ardor that she previously had towards school, and after graduation, she did what everyone else in her family had done before her: forwent college and got a job. 

After three years of working non-stop, Farrah felt “stuck” and saw herself going in a direction that was all too familiar. Farrah explained, “I learned from family members what not to do. They were doing nothing with their lives.” Wanting something more for herself, Farrah made the leap of quitting her job, and began, as she puts it, taking the “value out of money.” She applied for and received financial aid, and by the fall of 2019, was enrolled as a full-time student at Georgia State University. After completing her first full semester, Farrah’s self-confidence and enthusiasm were through the roof. Then, out of nowhere, Covid hit. Suddenly, the thing she had worked so hard to attain was in danger of being ripped away. Farrah recalled, “I was devastated. It felt like I’d had the rug pulled out from under me.” Forced to take classes online, Farrah found it difficult to keep up and

Farrah Rudder-Photographer and Date unknown

remain engaged, but to her credit, she endured. Not surprisingly, the class reading that most resonates with Farrah is, “Redesigning College Education: Dismantling Trauma During Covid” by Roshelle Czar. In her article, Czar states, “trauma is centered on an individual experience and can manifest in various ways” ( Czar 2021). For Farrah, the threat of losing her new-found purpose and improved self-worth was indeed traumatic.    

In speaking with Farrah about her college experience, one thing is clear: though getting to this point has not been easy, staying has often been just as hard. At times, the work can be overwhelming, and without much support from family members who have different lifestyles and no college experience, Farrah often feels alone and unappreciated. “They don’t respect how much work goes into being a full-time student,” Farrah said, and for this reason, she hopes to one day live on GSU’s downtown campus to surround herself with the support of other like-minded students. And remarkably, even without much outside support, Farrah is not merely surviving college; she is thriving. As a business major, Farrah earned a 3.5 GPA last semester, and is scheduled to graduate in the spring. She also expresses an interest in one day studying law, and due to her environmental science class (her favorite this semester), she has developed a desire to someday become an environmentalist.  

To hear Farrah talk about her college experience is inspiring; her enthusiasm is infectious. It is obvious that attending college is much more to her than just a means to an end. She likes being out of the house, she likes being around people every day, and more than anything else, she likes the person she is becoming. And though Farrah admits that she is far from a perfect student (“procrastination” was her other academic self word), she’s aware of how far she has come, and I get the sense that she is just getting started. When I asked Farrah what she is most proud of with her academic self, she humbly replied, “I’m just proud to be here.” She should be. 

Citations:

• Rudder, Farrah,  Academic Self Interview. By Keith Slettedahl Jan 26, 2022.
• Czar, Roshelle, Redesigning College Education: Dismantling College during Covid, 2021 https://hope4college.medium.com/redesigning-college-education-dismantling-trauma-during-covid-97ad3319edbd 

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.

                                             Armani Billingslea 

Feb/2/2022 

IP2 Essay: Moe Eh Academic Profile 

Moe Eh, a young lady born in a developing nation called Myanmar had quite a different upbringing than most Americans. Moving to Georgia when she was in the third grade her life got turned upside down. Learning English was awfully hard for her and all throughout elementary/middle school she wasn’t that good at school. As far as her being in school things didn’t start to get on track until she got into high school. 

Even though Moe didn’t realize this back then, it was also around this time she began to find her new purpose in school. When Moe was in high school, she started to feel the pressure from her parents high expectations. These pressures were the backbone and all the inspiration needed for Moe. She eventually graduated in the top 10% of her class and finished with a 3.7 weighted GPA. 

Now it was time for her to figure out what she wanted to do after finishing high school. But then in the midst of her finalizing applications for college a global pandemic pretty much put her plans on hold. So, she thought to just take a year off from school and to try college again the following year. Eventually the next year came and out of all the colleges that accepted her she chose Georgia State University along with enrolling in for her first semester in the Fall of 2021. Also, when asked about why she chose GSU she simply just said that it was close to home, and she doesn’t like being away from family. 

Moe decided to major in “Early Education” and so far, is enjoying being a student here at GSU. One of her hopes is to become a teacher so this pathway seems like it is definitely right for her. To end our discussion off I asked her what’s something you would you tell your younger self? She responded by saying to not give up no matter how hard school gets and how much pressure you feel from your parents everything will work out in the future.