Hardworking is one of many words I’ll use to describe Mensur Muzyin. In his first year in college, Mensur is intended to major in Computer and Electrical Engineering. He is from Ethiopia and has just moved to America to start college. With this change, Mensur had to adjust to the learning standards of America rather than Ethiopia. Overcoming the struggles of taking on 17 credits and working 20 hours Mensur doesn’t waste his time. So far he has done well and plans to build a strong foundation for his future career.

Some people could never guess what it’s like moving from one country to another, especially to go to school. There could be tons of barriers holding one back from fully grasping another culture. In Mensur’s case, it would be how the material is taught in the two countries. One example would be in math, in American schools PEMDAS is taught, which means parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. However, in Ethiopia BODMAS is taught, which means brackets, order, division, multiplication, addition, and subtraction. It’s a small difference compared to many others, but if one from a different country was asked to solve the American PEMDAS they wouldn’t be able to unless they did the research.

A small link could be found between Mensur’s situation and the reading “COVID-ERA College: Are Students Satisfied?” This article is about how college students feel about coming back to school during the time of covid, like are they ready to come back? Will it be easy for them? How can we help? In a case like Mensur’s, it would be easy to make sure a transition like country swapping is as smooth as possible. With the right protocols because of covid, it would be easy to set up a better system or program to welcome international students, rather than make them go through a stressful process just to get admitted, then more processes to get settled with classes.

Mensur is dedicated and focused on setting himself up for success in the future. Taking on 17 credits in school and 20 hours of work and still doing good in school with no complaints. As a student, he has a promising future ahead of him and with no doubt, he will d anything to keep up the great work.

References:

Ezarik, M. (2021, March 24). Student experiences during COVID and campus reopening concerns. Retrieved February 9, 2022, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/03/24/student-experiences-during-covid-and-campus-reopening-concerns?utm_source=pocket_mylist

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.

Hello everyone! Dagmawi Begashaw, or Dagi for short, is a 20 year old student currently in his second semester at Georgia State.  I interviewed Dagi over a phone call and inquired him about his academic traits, experiences, and struggles. 

Dagi spent the majority of his life in Ethiopia, where he lived with his mother. His hobbies included playing soccer and watching it on the TV. Two years ago, Dagi felt that there wasn’t enough opportunity in Ethiopia. One of Dagi’s goals to is live well off, i.e. own an expensive car, a house, etc. However, It was hard to find a job in Ethiopia that would fulfilll his dreams. So, Dagi looked toward getting a Computer Science degree in America, where if he worked hard, he would be able to achieve his goal. 

Dagi started college last semester after he came to America a year and a half ago. He took a gap year to save up some money for college and worked as a restaurant waiter. Dagi began to see the major differences between American social culture and Ethiopian social culture and reevaluated if it was really worth it being here. He felt as people were “dead” here, as there weren’t many people he could just start up a conversation with. Additionally, people weren’t as connected, feeling as if people were “fake”. As a result, Dagi was wary of people and did not really make any friends. Lack of socializing proved itself to be an obstacle to Dagi’s drive to study in America.  Dagi kept his sights on his goal. Overall, he realized to stay focused on his goal, as it would pay off in the end. 

Dagi has had some challenges with the education system here. In Ethiopia, the curriculum was covered at a slower pace. Dagi learned to work things out thoroughly, so as a result, he takes ample time to study the material. Additionally, Dagi did not have additional responsibilities to tend to, so he had more time on his hands. In America, the material is covered at a much faster pace compared to Ethiopia. He expected an English class’s duration to be at least a year. Additionally, he thought that the curriculum would go more in-depth on one thing, and not cover different units. On top of the responsibilities Dagi has, such as maintaining a job, aiding his mother with English documents, as well as taking care of his sister, he has little free time to enjoy the things he loves. 

Whatever obstacle he faces, he does not let it undermine him. After all, he sees the economic opportunity as his ultimate goal and will stay committed. His academic self is someone who persists, no matter what kind of roadblock there is. Before this interview, I had thought my life was harder than everyone else, and that my responsibilities were an excuse for me to do poorly in school. When Dagi revealed that he had obtained a 4 GPA last semester, I began to aspire that I would get his work ethic. 

This post is my profile on the student, James Swank. This profile is an account of the notes I’ve taken when interviewing Swank over the phone, and the other information I’ve gotten from documents sent to me. James is currently at this time a 2-year student attending Georgia State University at perimeter college, living with roommates in his own quarters. James chose his three words to describe his academic self as, “frustration”, “inconsistent”, and “unrewarding”, but James feels like he probably shouldn’t have chosen those exact words as he feels he should try to have a positive attitude on his academics but had sometimes felt that he wasn’t that happy with school.

James had a bit of a hard time with school during his K through 12 years. When in Kindergarten, he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a medical neurological condition where a person may have trouble focusing on a task and behaving (“What Is ADHD?”), and Dyslexia, a disorder where a person has trouble with decoding words and letters while reading (“Dyslexia – Symptoms and Causes”). There was also a lot of anxiety about succeeding in school, especially coming from standardized testing. When James was a junior in high school, taking the SAT and ACT tests were given and he struggled. There were times when it felt like an absurd amount of time was taking place and there were a lot of worries about passing. All and all, there was a lot of stress during those kinds of tests and so it made it increasingly hard to focus. It wasn’t all bad for James, as soon enough he would mature and help better his focus on his work. He also got a lot of much-needed support from his teachers and it helped with his motivation to succeed in school. Social life also would help remedy some of his troubles. James had a big group of friends, social, very athletic, and loved doing sports, it was those things that helped keep his motivation to improve in school.

When it comes to it, James is a very hard-working and diligent student. When going to campus, he goes straight to class. There, he writes down what’s taught in class in summary. After class, he reviews what they have gone over, and works on figuring out what he needs to do for the week. When focused, he would get work done and at times, he knows when to take a break to refocus on his studies. In the past, learning never came easy to James, he would oftentimes struggle a lot in subjects such as writing, reading, and especially math. Then down the road, James has gotten better and has learned a lot of things. Despite still having trouble with math, James had gained an interest in reading and writing and while his career goal is not too concrete, he has been somewhat interested in business and is thinking of doing something with training down the line. The future is uncertain for many but James wants to have a positive outlook and I believe that if he keeps that outlook and hard work into the future, then James will not only be a great student but he will also have a great career.

Work Cited
“What Is ADHD?” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26 Jan. 2021, www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/facts.html.

“Dyslexia – Symptoms and Causes.” Mayo Clinic, 22 July 2017, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dyslexia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353552#:%7E:text=Dyslexia%20is%20a%20learning%20disorder,the%20brain%20that%20process%20language.

In our first major project, we were assigned to partners to describe them fully, My partners’ name is Hollard, and he’s 20 years old, He graduated from Brookwood high school at the top of the class, and is continuing his education at GSU he’s a sophomore, and his majors are in Finance which is one of his biggest passions, he claims his love for math and numbers comes from a very young age after playing with his first-ever game on cool math games. Hollard picked finance because he plans on taking on a top firm as a Financial Analyst, and moving his way up to being a CFO (Chief Financial Officer), his inspiration comes from Anthony Noto a CFO of Twitter making a whopping amount of 72 million, and working for many other top competitive companies, he claims he’s always had an interest in numbers just like Anthony, and Hollard also claims “working the heart of a company starts from the money which is the foundation”. 

Hollard is from a small town in Georgia called Douglas, Then at the age of 7 Hollard, and his family moved to Fayetteville. Hollard has a job working full time at Luau also known as the Hawaiian chic fil taking the position as a team leader to support his dreams, and fund his education, he claims this is also preparing him to take on the position of a CFO because he also takes care of the finances of the current location he’s working at, he states “I know this is very small, but this is very preparing in someway”. We continued the conversation, and we were discussing,  I asked Hollard what three words he could use to describe himself, and he responded “Persistent, Proactive, and Focused” he claims these three words because he strives, and works for everything he has achieved in his life, he’s always active trying to get to the next level, and has a tunnel vision towards his goals. 

We moved on to the topic of hobbies, and in his spare time, Hollard claims he loves to read, so I asked what his favorite book was, and he stated it was” way of the turtle” he likes this book because it teaches him about patience, and how to turn ordinary people into legends in the financial world. When asked, Hollard claims he doesn’t like the college concept and is really frustrating because of the lack of structure in the school, and a harder course load. Hollard believes the school should be way more hands-on since this is what we are actually preparing to do instead of pushing even more bookwork on us for the internships, and jobs to not even be on the same level, and concept, which brings me to the concluding question is the college concept really as botched as people say it is?.

Hello everyone, this is an essay based on Samuel Zajde’s academic life. Samuel is originally from France but moved here to the United States with his family at the age of two due to his father receiving a new job opportunity and he has been here ever since. School for Samuel growing up was not the best, but he made the best of it. Samuel did K-12 in Georgia and then decided to take his talents else where for a while. After high school he made the decision to expand his knowledge by going to college. He decided to go to George Washington University in  Washington D.C. and major in engineering. Samuel later realized that that wasn’t for him and came back to Georgia where he now attends Georgia State University and majors in music.

Samuel is not a very vocal person, but he is an amazing person so if you ever see him don’t be afraid to speak. Samuel chose to major in music because of his love for it. He has been in orchestra since the 6^th grade and he really enjoyed it, it was his detox and getaway from all of his gifted classes. His love for music is his reason for majoring in it and he hopes to one day take his music career to the next level.

Three words that can be used to describe Samuel academically are intelligent, optimistic, and balanced. Intelligent is used because Samuel is a very smart young man, throughout all of school Samuel had gifted classes and they did not come to him with ease. Samuel tried his hardest to get there until all of his hard work paid off. Over the period of time that I have gotten to know Samuel I have noticed that he is a very driven individual. Optimistic is used because when Samuel was trying to get into gifted classes, he did everything he could and anything he put his mind to he accomplished. He believed in himself that he would end up in gifted classes and with the help of one of his fifth-grade teachers he did. And lastly balanced is used because I have noticed over the short period of time that I have known Samuel that he is a very organized person, he writes down almost everything and he is very observant.

In all this essay was to give you guys a breakdown of Samuel’s academic self and somewhat who he is a person. He is a wonderful student that any professor will be lucky to have, and he is a great person all around. If no one else believes in Samuel I do, I have a lot of faith in him that he can and will be someone great someday. If you happen to see Samuel around campus don’t be afraid to speak.

Hey y’all, I would love to introduce y’all to my home girl, Sharisse Green. She has a major in health science and criminal justice, yet she is in 3 classes as a part timer. To top it off she likes psychology, and dislikes math because it’s difficult to understand. Very studious and neat. She also seems to like swimming and cooking but is very passionate about the latter. She’s also very talented in singing, but she’s very shy about it. Like a good student, school is her current and top priority because her dream job is to be a vet and lawyer. As you might have noticed, she clearly is daring and also strives for greatness at every opportunity. She also enjoys studying in her room, which she keeps nice and tidy because” a clean space leads to a clean mind” as she states. She describes her skill set as very organized, ambitious and goal setting. Not a clean freak exactly, but just a neat person. Thankfully, the habit has changed with her attitude from her high school. Sharisse went to Stevenson Highschool before going to Georgia state university. She was quiet and rarely raised her voice, watch let’s be honest we’ve all been there. Which is why one set of skills she recommends everyone to learn before going to college are communication/social skills. She becomes closer to people by making small talk and having light conversations with them. That also includes an aspect of school she likes; meeting and interacting with people. After getting over her shyness, she was able to get along quite well with others. One of her biggest concerns of this generation is the fact that this generation doesn’t seem interested or motivated to do work or put in effort in anything. But not to over work she also believes in breaks to keep it at a balance. Sharisse believes in being healthy, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Her recommendations are taking walks and going outdoors and other forms of self-care. Spending time with family can also help. Sharisse also procrastinated on her work, which thankfully she has changed. She seemed to have learned the error of her ways and matured into a very productive student and adult. She believes ambition in life is important because it guides your future plan and accomplishments. 

Oh, and she likes red. But not just any red, she likes Topaz red.