Manuel Alcoser-Mejia is a Freshman at Georgia State, and he graduated from Macintosh High School. The main reason he is going to college is for his family. Both of his parents are immigrants, and he is a first-generation college student. One of the bigger reasons his parents moved here was better opportunities to go to school. If he doesn’t go to college, he feels like he will disappoint them. He has two younger siblings, 7 and 12, and he wants to set an example for them.
His 3 words to describe his academic self are lazy, hard-working, and procrastinating. If he could change anything about his work ethic, he would change his scheduling because sometimes there are conflicts with his schedule, and he does not really feel like doing something, so it is hard for him to find the motivation to finish it. His mom is his biggest influence on his academic self, as she pushed and helped him through high school.
One of his favorite subjects is math, and that is the one he is most proud of. Sometimes it is hard to understand, but he likes learning it. He takes an online math class that challenges him. It takes him a long time to complete the assignments, as they are difficult. The major he wants to pursue is engineering, as it was his pathway through high school, and he really enjoyed it. When he is older, he wants to become a mechanical engineer. The article I feel that most relates to him is Intro to The New Education because he wants to not just learn technology, but also apply it to help the world. He wants to set an example for his younger siblings so that they too can go to college. These ideals are very important to him.
In high school, he felt stressed with the SAT test, as he didn’t know how much it influenced college decisions. Towards the end of the year, he realized this and booked a last-minute SAT, and it was the last one he could take. On testing day, he forgot his ID, so he had to go back home and grab it. When he got back, the doors were closed, but the people inside were able to bring him in at the last minute and put him in a different testing room.
One thing about college that frustrates him is not fully knowing what classes he needs to do for engineering. He asked academic advisors, and he has a plan of classes he needs to do, but he doesn’t know if he needs to do them. If he could go to another school, he would go to Kennesaw and get a bachelor’s in engineering and a lot of his friends go there. He would also like to go to Georgia Tech because he believes it is the best in the state. He doesn’t know what degree to get yet, hoping bachelors then get a job. If it’s hard for him to get a job to get a bachelor’s degree, then he will go and get a masters.