Final Video

Goals for next semester!

"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence"-Aristotle

The first semester of college career has flown by and I have learned the secrets of the survival of the college life.  Even though this semester I have gone through a lot personally, I have done a very good job balancing my whole life and the college life. For next semester, I have many goals that I have set for myself and I believe that I can accomplish them.

One personal goal that I have set for myself I have already crossed off my list. I have adjusted to the college life surprisingly well. I have learned how to live with a roommate, live in a cubicle of a dorm room, and how to survive with my work. However, I have been through hell and back in the past year and a half and I have realized that I need to do something for myself. I have realized for next semester I am going to move back home and become a commuter at Southern. A lot of people didn’t like my decision, aka my roommate, but I know that this will be the best situation for myself. So the goal of making myself happier is going to have a very well result.

Another goal that I have set for myself is getting on the Deans list. I am really trying hard on my academics this year. I have learned how to balance my time really well so I will not be overwhelmed with what I have on my plate. I know I set a high standard for myself, but I believe that I can do it if I try my best. 

Strengths and Weakness of this semester!

This semester I feel like I have been on a rollercoaster! For myself, the big transitioning process was really hard for me. I’m not sure why, but it really was.  However, along the bumpy road I had some strengths and weakness that have taught myself personal lessons.

One weakness that I have experienced in my first semester of Southern really taught me sleep is very important. The first week of school I really worried about my social aspect of life instead of putting my school ahead. I always did that in high school most of the time and I still got good grades. Well, that didn’t really work out for me this time.

For some reason, I felt this pressure that I had to make a lot of friends so I will have people to hangout with that like the same things I do. I really was trying to go out of my way and talk to people and go out with different groups to spread my wings. That was good and all but I really stayed out way too late when I had and eight o’clock class with three of them back to back. Well, that didn’t stop me at all. I went out with a big huge group of girls and we all went downtown and didn’t get back to one am.

That morning I had my first math quiz and I totally blanked on all the questions because I was so tired and out of it. The result of this quiz was very poor. On the bright side, my whole class did very poorly also so we had a retake thank god. I really learned from that mistake to take school more seriously.

However, a strength that I have learned to take upon this semester is time management skills.  As you can see from my past experiences, time management skills was very important for myself to be a successful student. I have become more of a responsible student and put my work in front of my social life. I made a calendar to make myself balance my time so I am not overwhelmed down the road with my work.

Final Self Assessment

Madison D’Amora

INQ Final Self-Assessment Assignment

12/1/10

          “This INQ section challenges students to immerse themselves in the college experience: juggle multiple tasks, be problem solvers, ask questions, take risks, grapple with difficulty, be creative, learn from failure, take ownership over their own learning, and apply abstract concepts to their actual everyday lives.”  As a first year freshmen student at Southern Connecticut State University, there have been many challenges and major transitions that have been new to myself this year. College is a big stepping-stone in my life that I have come upon new experiences of the way I live my life. Many students like myself, are away from home for the first time and have many responsibilities to undertake. For some it is a rude awakening to “the real world” and for others who are ready for the challenge, it is a major adjustment that you have to get adapted to. I feel that the Inquiry class really helped me to the adjustment of responsibility to be a successful student at Southern.

            For this semester long course, I believe INQ has really opened my eyes to the fact that I really need to take the college experience seriously. Overall, INQ has made me really try my hardest in producing my work on time, balancing my time, and transitioning into the college life. I was very nervous when I read the seven-page syllabus of the class because I knew I was out of one of my high school classes and into college now. I really wanted to try very hard in my studies because I knew that this really counts and my parents are paying for me to go to school to receive a well education. For the Inquiry class, there was a lot of work at once and I knew I have to be on the ball with all my work and really have a plan between my academics and my social life. I feel that I really took on the responsibility and full filled all the requirements for INQ. An example of me taking on responsibility is for all my classes I made a calendar for the semester with all notes of when my assignments were due. This calendar really helped me manage my academic time and my social time for myself. Furthermore, when I did the articles for your class, I read them thoroughly and took notes on the articles and was on the ball for class time. If we had to get in groups and discuss the readings or make up questions, I would always try to participate in my group with the information I had. Overall, I always was always prepared for class.

       “The Key to growth is the introduction of higher dimension of consciousness into our awareness.” (Lao Tzu quotes) I believe that I have grown as a person and as a student from the beginning of the year to the end of the first semester. I really took on the responsibility of the fact that I was on my own for the first time in my life. I didn’t have my parents telling me when to do my homework or when to go eat dinner, I had to develop time management skills between my school work and of course the social aspect of college. I really cracked down as a student and gave up many opportunities for my social life to my academics. I wasn’t like that in high school though.  I waited to do my schoolwork to the last minute, but still got that A or B. I knew that kind of laziness wouldn’t survive in college and in fact, I experienced that. The first Wednesday I was at Southern, I went out with all my new friends to downtown and stayed out really late when I had a math quiz at eight o’clock in the morning on Thursday. I didn’t do my best work and got a C on the quiz when I knew the information real well before. If I didn’t go out I could have preformed much better on the math quiz and it was really eating me up that I actually started off on the wrong foot. Thank god the rest of my class did poorly because we fortunately had retakes and I got the A that I should have had from the start. That experience really taught me that I really had to work hard and put my academics ahead of my social because there are rarely retakes in college. Furthermore, I have really grown from that experience and have developed time management skills and have balanced my time also. I look at that mistake as a very valuable learning experience because I really learned from my mistakes.
      

"Where is temporary buliding #8?!?"

Coming to Southern for the first time was a very nerve racking experience for myself.  I came of a town where everyone knew everyone and now I had a huge transition to adjust to in my life. I was dreading to go to classes where I don’t know anyone but I knew I had to grow up and try to make new friends.

The first day of my Tuesday and Thursday classes, I was  “the student” who couldn’t find temporary building number eight for my English class and was the last student to arrive to my English class. I was so upset and nervous because I was late and still didn’t’ know what room it was in the temporary building. I was asking all these different classes that were going in their classrooms but no one wanted to help me.  I found this nice teacher who came around with me to knock on the classroom doors to help me find the English class! Finally, I found the right classroom. I introduced myself and was so embarrassed. The positive outlook on that experience everyone knew my name when we came to INQ and played the name game!

When I realized that my next class was with the whole class, I was very happy because now I had people to walk with! I made a lot of connections with a lot of people in English/INQ. I really liked how they had the same students in both classes because it made me have friendships with students who are in the same boat as me.  Even though I am sad that English/INQ is over, we are all basically in the same English class next semester, so I will be seeing many friends next semester too!  

Welcome to my life.

The ideal lifestyle of Madison D’Amora after college is still up in the air. I am interested in a lot of different backgrounds of work and still don’t know where I am going to be in the next ten years of my life, but I have some sort of an idea.

I am now a freshman at Southern Connecticut State University and am currently still undecided. I have always thought of being a children’s nurse but realized that I faint when I see needles and blood. So, realistically I need to find some area of work that I work with children in some way that at the end I will feel that I have helped them. A few areas that I thought would be an interesting area of work is children’s special Ed or a children’s speech pathologist. I could see myself in that area of work. I really love being around children and working with them in some way to help with their future.

Furthermore, my ideal future is working with children and being successful in my area of work. I will be living a long happy life with four children and my husband on a big piece of land by the shore. I would love to live by the ocean. That is one of my dreams. Another dream of mine is to have a big happy family. Happiness is one important dream that I want to see in my future. “Being happy is something you have to learn. I often surprise myself by saying "Wow, this is it. I guess I'm happy. I got a home I love. A career that I love. I'm even feeling more and more at peace with myself." If there's something else to happiness, let me know. I'm ambitious for that, too.” –Harrison Ford. 

What you give is what you get.-Grade Inflation

Well after Tuesday’s discussion on grade inflation, I am still on the fence on how I feel on this topic. I just do not understand how grade inflation is fair for some students than it is for other students.  But, I can see why some professors do bump up students grades.

I can see how it is fair and how it is not. For the students who have A’s in the class and the teacher are curving grades up a letter grade for others, what do you do with the student who has the A? But, I understand if the professor curves grades for the student’s sake also.  For myself like everyone else, math is a hard subject for me but I really put a lot of effort into it. By doing my homework, having a math tutor, and going for extra help with the teacher, I always have tried and put a lot of effort into math. When I was a junior math finally clicked for me and I have always done well in it. But, my earlier days of math were bad.  However, I would always get a C or higher in it. Just because I worked really hard and asked questions my teacher raised my grade. Not a whole letter grade, but they saw that I was really working my butt off to understand math. I don’t disagree with bumping my grade up like that, but if the student isn’t putting any effort they shouldn’t get that extra credit points that will only help their grade. I believe it is how much effort you put into the class and how much you do as a student.