Final Project

College Readiness

 

 

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=201387759381963843345.0004da6caca5e469d7f0a&msa=0

 

This Google Map describes where I grew up and how these different places influenced my preparations for college.

 

N.d. Photograph. n.p. Web. 28 Apr 2013. <http://www.empowernetwork.com/3djohnboy/blog/empower-network-chicago-event-ticket-to-get-money/>.

N.d. Photograph. n.p. Web. 28 Apr 2013. http://www.tom-brown.com/articles/One-ten-British-children-mental-health-issues/.

N.d. Photograph. n.p. Web. 28 Apr 2013. <http://americanamanda.blogspot.com/2012/04/top-5-top-5-ways-to-be-prepared-for.html>.

 

          When I was growing up, going to college was never even a question.  I was so used to seeing people in my little hometown graduate and proceed to college. It never even occurred to me that there were other paths I could take. I knew my parents history with college, my mom never went and my dad stayed too long and partied his way through it. But that didn’t seem like the way to do it anymore. My sister is five years older than me so I got to watch her go through different experiences and learn from her. She was definitely my role model growing up, but don’t let her know that I said that. She was always the smart one, bringing home straight A’s almost every report card. When it came time for her to graduate from high school, she got accepted into her dream school and my parents were so proud. I thought “I want to be just like her when I grow up”.

            Once I got to middle school, I realized I wasn’t like my sister. I didn’t ever bring home straight A’s and I wasn’t in with the cool kids. Then high school came around and I started to become my own person. I started to accept the fact that I wasn’t as smart as my older sister and I stopped trying to fit in with everyone. I made my own group of friends and was finally content with myself. I worked really hard with my school work and I graduated with honors and a 3.75 GPA, I was proud of myself. I applied to three different schools but I wanted to go to UNCW just like my big sister, it had always been my plan. Towards the end of senior year when most people were getting acceptance letters and planning the years to come, my family and I were hit hard with financial issues. My world was turned upside down in a matter of a few months. I had to worry about helping support my family by working my minimum wage job and college was not on my mind. My sister had already graduated from UNCW and was moved back home while looking for a career, so paying for school wasn’t something she was worrying about. One day I was having a really hard time dealing with all the recent events. I was packing up and moving things into our new house when my mom told me I had mail. I didn’t think anything of it but when I opened the envelope I was overjoyed! It was my acceptance letter from East Carolina University. I was finally excited because I knew now that I was indeed going to college.
            A few more weeks went by and things started to get better, but only a little. I got home from school one day, and as usual I checked the mailbox. Inside it I found a small envelope addressed to me from UNCW. I was weary when opening it because of how small the envelope was. When I did a found a letter telling me that they could not accept me for the fall semester. I was devastated. This had been my dream school for over five years and I had been waiting to hear from them for many months. I told my parents and then had to break the news to my sister. I was so embarrassed to tell her that I hadn’t gotten in to her school, but when I did she was so supportive. She helped me get through it. I realized that I was okay with not going there. About a month later I received my acceptance letter from UNCC. My mom took me to tour the campus and I could really picture myself going there in the fall. I made my final decision and was finally content with myself. I was my own person and my sister was proud of me and that was all I needed.
            Needless to say my experience was not like many others. I thought I had everything figured out, but sometimes life throws curve-balls at you and you have to figure what you’re going to do. I chose to become my own person and not live in the shadow of my sister. This ended up being the best possible thing I could’ve done because I am so happy with where I am in life and my family couldn’t be any more supportive.



 

Reflection

                Throughout this whole process, Lacy has been pushing us for to do some revision. Well I have to say that I have done enough revision work on this final project than I ever intended to do. I started off with a picture essay and I don’t think I quite got the meaning of it. So next I worked with the website Storify (which I ended up having a lot of trouble with…) and I ended up really liking the way it was set up. But for my last mini project I decided to try to map out my college readiness experience onto Google maps. Lacy seemed to really enjoy this idea but I still wanted to include Storify into my project in some way. So when it came time to bring in a draft of the final project I had made a Storify explaining the whole college readiness plan and I added my personal story along with my Google map. I sent it to Lacy to see what she thought of it and she said how she really liked the map and my personal story but that the whole beginning part was just too much. So in the end I didn’t use Storify, I just ended up putting it into a blog post and adding an attachment to my Google Maps. I’m really happy with the way it turned out.

 

Academic Source

                As for the academic source I chose to read a journal titled College Readiness and Academic Preparation for Postsecondary Education. This article focuses on first-generation college students. The authors of this journal said “The postsecondary educational process for first-generation urban college students starts long before their first day in college” (Reid, and Moore). Some parents start planning for their children’s future before they’re even born. In today’s world, more and more people are getting college degrees because it’s harder to find jobs. Educators, administrators and school counselors need to help push the need for higher education throughout grade K-12 (Reid, and Moore). Students need to realize this early on so that they are prepared for what is ahead of them. With doing this we can prevent school dropouts and have more college graduates. As for test taking, just because a student’s test scores are high doesn’t mean there has been enough preparation for postsecondary education. In this journal there was a qualitative study done on 13 first-generation college students who had all graduated from the same high school. Some of their main suggestions for students trying to get into college were to take AP courses, as many as you can, and to apply for lots of scholarships based on sports teams you played on, clubs you were in, or honor societies you held positions in.

                Now for students who are first-generation college students, they have it rough. Personally, my mom never went to college and it took my dad eight years to get his bachelor’s degree so I could be considered first-generation since my dad didn’t do so well. Other than my sister who is five years older than me, I had no other type of guidance. First-generation college students have many disadvantages compared to other students. They could have low educational expectations, low academic preparation, low support from parents and schools in planning and preparing for college, and low family income (Reid, and Moore). I know for me, my parents never really checked my grades. It’s not that they didn’t care it’s just that they never really thought twice about it. The writers of this journal said “First-generation college students have disadvantages because parents have no knowledge of the process” (Reid, and Moore). Also my family had money problems growing up and college wasn’t always an option.

 

Reid, M. Jeanne, and James L. Moore. "College Readiness and Academic Preparation for Postsecondary Education." SAGE Publication. (2008): n. page. Web. 28 Apr. 2013. <http://uex.sagepub.com/content/43/2/240>.