Ayaan is originally from Sydney, Australia, but he later made a transition to Hyderabad, India in 2005 at age 2 to attend school. Ayaan was familiar with the curriculum/education system and perceived himself as being a great student in India. He arrived in the United States while only attending the 6^th grade. Ayaan finished 6^th through 8^th grade at Druid Hills Middle School. Ayaan expressed that moving to the States has him been hard adjusting, knowing that he is in a completely new education system. He added that “The United States students’ curriculum in 9^th and 10^th grade are being taught the same in the 5^th and 6^Th grade in the India Education”. He explained that the India education was different but operated their school systems in a fast-paced advanced environment. In India writing classes, students needed to take two different languages. The first language is the student preference, and the second language must be the language that was being spoken in India. Students were not offered tutoring or tutorial, but the communities had intuition classes outside of class to get help on homework, which was expensive. Classrooms in India were a unit of 45 students, so teachers could not give every student the one-on-one assistances that students may have possibly needed.

               Ayaan made a move to Alabama where he completed his 9^th through 10^th grade due to family circumstances. He moved back to Atlanta where he later finished up school and received a High School Diploma at Parkview High school. Ayaan did not waste any time, he chose to go straight to college after high school in August ‘2021. Ayaan stated that “Teachers are not constantly on the students in college as they were when he attended high school”, but on the other hand college seems to give students a form of independency that we all should want. He currently attends Clarkston GSU because it is easy to commute. Right now, Ayaan is in the pursuit of an Associate’s Science Degree to become a Physician Assistant.

             The three words that describe his academic self were lazy, kinesthetic, & science lover. Ayaan states that he’s lazy towards his academic self because his new environment is totally laid back from what he was used to in India. He is grateful for Georgia State University class units being so small, because he feels that he’s getting a little help from his peers. Ayaan enjoys working with his hands (a kinesthetic learner), and he doesn’t like visually learning because it can be challenging for him at times. Lastly, Ayaan stated that he is a Science Lover, because he’s majoring in Chemistry. Although his major of study is chemistry, he has thoughts of switching his major to a biology major.

             Ayaan recalls the process of Dr. Chew’s metacognition video and found it interesting that he studies the research in how students learn and study. Ayaan had no idea that the most important factor in successful learning are the things that we are thinking of while studying. Ayaan says that he can’t completely focus on one assignment if he has a workload on his mind. He finds himself to be focused more when having a clear mind to execute the things that required of him. Overall, Ayaan agrees heavily on the data that Dr. Chew collected on how students learn and study. Ayaan plans to put Dr. Chew’s videos in consideration to not just schooling but his everyday life as well.

Work Cite : 

-Ayaan Lakhani