This is Stella Starla, she is the classmate I was assigned to write an academic profile on for our English 1102 class. She is eighteen and is currently working through her second semester of college acquiring an associate’s degree in health-science medical technology. She’s attending college because if she chose not to, her mom said that she would have to figure out life on her own. Her mom wants her to be independent and rely on herself, not others. She’s had many career aspirations in her life such as being a singer, baker, and OBGYN. However, Stella settled on working with ultrasounds because she wanted to be in the infant medical field, but she didn’t want to attend college for twelve years. Georgia State University was her first choice for her career path.
In elementary school, Stella showed her liking towards school by being sociable towards her classmates and teachers, she even considered herself a teacher’s pet. She was on the Principal’s list and received good grades. Unfortunately, Stella experienced a traumatic experience involving sexual assault towards the end of her elementary years. Her assailants didn’t face as serious of consequences as they should have. She no longer felt safe at school, commonly arming herself with sticks and rocks in case she ever got attacked again. Stella became quiet and unmotivated in school following her assault and no longer had the relationships with her teachers she once did.
Stella got high grades in her regular classes in middle school and was recommended for honors classes. She attended Coretta Scott King for high school where honors classes filled up her schedule. She surrounded herself with the smart students of her school, yet she hesitates when referring to herself as a scholar. She’s a perfectionist, she doesn’t like turning in her assignments unless they’re perfect which often leads to procrastination. She liked and related to our week three reading, “Strong Writers and Writers Don’t Need Revision,” and pointed out when Laura Giovanelli talks about procrastinators staying up late working on a paper and that “writers need revision because revision is not a discrete step” (104). Stella tends to edit and revise as she writes instead of writing rough drafts. However, she’s working on her procrastination now that she’s in college because she knows she can’t get by with that mindset.
Stella went through school in her sister’s shadow, being compared to her sister by teachers who taught them both. The comparisons caused Stella to feel as though she needed to prove herself to others, but recently she’s ignored those expectations because she’s come to the conclusion that she’s her own person and is not her sister. She wasn’t bothered much about her grades unless she had put high expectations on herself beforehand. She says, “I’d be upset if I thought I did really good on a test but ended up doing really bad” (Starla). However, if she had gone into the test feeling as though she wouldn’t do good, the bad grade wouldn’t affect her. Her father wasn’t very involved in her academics, he wouldn’t ask about or pressure her about her grades and her mother was happy as long she passed her classes and would encourage her to do so.
School didn’t interest Stella, especially taking core classes that she didn’t enjoy. High school was more of a chore for her, she went through it to get her diploma, not enjoying the process. She suspects she was depressed toward the end of her sophomore year and she contemplated dropping out constantly, coming close to following through. However, she knew she needed her diploma in order to have the life she wanted in the future.
Despite facing many hardships in her life, Stella persevered and graduated in May of 2022. As she walked across the stage, she felt excited about making it through some of the hardest years of her life. She looked out at the crowd and met her mother’s eyes. Stella says she wouldn’t have made it as far as she did if it wasn’t for her mom. Her mom is her best friend and motivates her to keep going and try her hardest in life. Graduating quickly became Stella’s proudest moment.
Works Cited
Giovanelli, Laura. “Strong Writers and Writers Don’t Need Revision.” Bad Ideas. Pp. 104-108.
Starla, Stella. Peer Review Interview. February 2023.
Weaver, Rebecca, PhD. Major Project #1, Academic Profile. February 2023.