Tag Archives: Education

Under Pressure

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If there’s one thing I know I am absolutely qualified to talk about, it’s procrastination. In fact, just to prove my point, I procrastinated writing this post–for a little ‘method blogging,’ if you will–and I am now awake much earlier than I had hoped in order to finish it. Procrastination, especially on college campuses, is a pretty common method of study and operation, and although it may work for some, it definitely doesn’t work for others. There are many signs that might indicate someone is a procrastinator: excessive intakes of caffeine, late night signs of activity on Facebook and Instagram, a cheerful disposition on the outside as jokes are made about how much work is still left to be done by a quickly-approaching deadline, etc. However, if none of these traits are applicable, there is one sure-fire way to tell if you or someone you know is a procrastinator–an age-old expression that has withstood the test of time to consistently and accurately predict a procrastinator, even in their earliest stages of putting things off.

Does the phrase, “I work better under pressure” ring a bell? I can tell you from personal experience that this idiom has almost become a kind of mantra to me, allowing me to better justify the hours of YouTube videos watched in rapid succession, as the hours tick away and my deadlines loom closer and closer with every Buzzfeed clip I finish. Although senior year isn’t quite halfway over yet, I have already learned a lot about myself and the kind of student I am by really examining how I have approached my assignments this semester so far. To be blunt, I have some pretty bad procrastination patterns–like, really bad–which, to me, signals a need for a long-overdue reorganization of my priorities, time management, and motivational strategies in order to successfully get me through this last push and prepare myself for life after Scripps. Here’s a little mood music to play while you read the rest of this post–hopefully it motivates you to take my advice to heart.

They say old habits die hard, but I don’t necessarily think that’s true. Sure, the habits you’ve picked up over the years, likely starting in your youth and solidifying in high school, have had a huge influence on how you operate as a student and in your day-to-day activities, but these old habits are not set in stone forever. Instead, I say that while old habits might not die hard, they can certainly be shifted around enough to be retrained (or at least, attempted to!). Readjusting your study habits and such is not always the easiest of endeavors, but if it will help you out in the long run and make you better prepared as both a student and an adult once you move beyond the realm of higher education, why not try to better yourself in whatever way you can? After all, isn’t that kind of the point of coming to college in the first place?

Last week, I was lucky enough to see the honorable Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, give a wonderful talk at Pomona College. Her wisdom and advice for all of us in the audience was incredibly inspiring, and a lot of what she had to say has really stuck with me. She helped remind me why it is that I am here at college: because I came here for an education in order to grow as an individual and learn more about the world so I can strive to help make it a better place–not just to help me get a job once I graduate. I know, that all sounds kind of silly and romanticized, but it’s still true–and something that is often forgotten here amongst the pressure of grades, the vibrant campus life and social events, and everything in between. Sotomayor acknowledged how the expectations and the pressures of getting good grades has hindered the passion and the drive that students should be motivating themselves with, but also stressed the importance of reciprocity, even with the added expectations of high achievement: what you put into your education is what you get out of it, plain and simple. Her words forced me to evaluate my priorities as a student and reflect on the kind of education I was allowing myself to receive here at Scripps: was I pushing myself to take classes that sounded interesting, even if they were supposed to be hard or a lot of work? Or was I limiting myself by taking “easier” classes that I knew would boost my GPA and not require a lot of effort on my part–even if these classes weren’t useful to me or were things I had already learned?

While I’m sure we have all probably taken classes in both of these categories at one point or another, I found myself looking back over my time here at Scripps; not with any kind of regret, but with a sense that I absolutely could have pushed myself more. I procrastinate because I know I can and will get things done on time–as I have been doing for years. But, I have now realized that knowing I will somehow manage to finish all my work on time shouldn’t be what motivates me to actually do the work. For the rest of this semester, I want to try and change my mindset about my classes and start shifting my study habits in order to better prepare me not only for my last semester of college (which is approaching WAY too quickly, if you ask me), but also for my life after graduation, as I move into the job sphere that the cumulation of my education has equipped me to handle.

Now, of course, this change in mindset and reevaluation of habits is not for everyone. If you’re not of the procrastinating variety, then perhaps you’ve already developed the kind of mindset about your education and bettering yourself that I am striving towards. That’s awesome! Keep up the good work. Or, if you are a procrastinator, but are pretty happy with where you are in terms of what you’re doing and learning, then by all means, keep on keepin’ on–whatever works best for you. I am merely presenting some advice that I wish I had absorbed much earlier on in my educational career–because it is definitely something I had heard before, but never really understood till now, as I’m on my way out of the educational circuit–in the hopes that someone else might take it to heart.

Has this kind of epiphany ever happened to you? If you have any advice for how I should start my change in priorities and move away from using procrastination as a crutch, then by all means, please let me know! Or, if you’ve had a similar revelation at any point in your life, I’d love to hear about that as well–I’ll gladly listen to anything that will help me put off actually changing my procrastinating ways….

(Just kidding!)

(Mostly)

 

Breaking Down Education Inequality

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As a Sociology major, the topic of education has been brought up countless times in my classes. The high school I had the pleasure of interning for this summer has created an innovative solution to the problem of education inequality. Cristo Rey New York High School students come from some of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City and do not have other opportunities to attend schools that would prepare them for college. The school makes this possible by placing the students in paid internships, which covers  45% of their tuition. This means that the students only attend school four days a week and work the fifth. The Development Department also covers 45% through fundraising, and the remaining 10% comes from tuition fees paid by the students’ families.

My time this summer was split between two departments within the high school – the Development Department and the Corporate Work Study Department. While I worked in the Development Department my first month, I worked with a team of five women in their late twenties and early thirties. During my month with them, they had two focuses – reaching their financial goal because their fiscal year was coming to an end and preparing for their  10 year anniversary event. Many of my responsibilities revolved around preparing, stuffing, and mailing donation requests to individuals and companies for both. I also updated the school’s website, created spreadsheets of where students from each graduated class went to college, wrote thank you letters to donors, analyzed auction trends from their galas, helped clean out the office, and edited information on their database. It was great being in such a small office because not only did I get to know each of the women in my department, but I also was exposed to what the President and the Accounting Department do on a daily basis because we all shared a wing of the building.

Emily Horne

During Puente, Cristo Rey hired six currently enrolled students to help with the incoming students and be role models for the incoming students. On the left is one of these students, Tyre, who is starting her senior year in the fall. We took this photo while we were on a walk through Central Park, which was part of the Healthy Lifestyles course that I taught with the other college interns.

My second month, in the Corporate Work Study Department, was very different than when I was with Development. Three weeks of summer are dedicated to Puente, which is an orientation for incoming freshmen and transfer sophomores. In the mornings, the students took Math and English courses so that they could be caught up academically and, in the afternoons, they took courses to prepare themselves for their internships during the school year. My time mostly revolved around the classroom and the students; in the mornings, I was a Teaching Assistant to an English Teacher and, in the afternoons, I oversaw the internship classes because each class was taught by a different supervisor from the companies that hire the students.

My favorite part of my internship this summer, though, was knowing that what I was dedicating my time to was meaningful to someone. The students were an absolute delight to work with and get to know.

Editor’s Note: This guest blogger was a 2014 Scripps College Internship Grant recipient. To learn more about the 2015 Internship Grant process, click here.  Deadline Feb. 5.

Hands-On Problem Solving Creates Happy Kids

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This summer I worked at The Quad Manhattan, where I interned as a teaching assistant for seven weeks. The Quad’s mission is to teach social thinking skills through an interactive summer camp. The founder of the Quad noticed that students on the autism spectrum were attending schools that were failing them. Often, the parents of children on the spectrum chose academic needs over an equally important need—emotional support and social development. Choosing one over the other resulted in stalled education and worsening social and emotional well-being.

Specifically, I gained important skills adapted from Ross Greene’s Lost at School and Michelle Garcia Winner’s social-thinking models that will stay with me throughout my career in psychology and education. At The Quad, we focused on using collaborative problem solving with the kids to get to the root of their frustrations, anxiety, and disruptive behavior. The model was based on the idea that we will help children brainstorm their own solutions and strategies for dealing with their behaviors and feelings.ed my summer to learning the interventions used to engage students with social learning skills and challenge students to further develop their exceptional gifts and talents.

Penny1

For example, one of my students who we will call “C,” was having a lot of trouble focusing in class and couldn’t keep his body in the group during acting/improvisation class. He often left the group abruptly and started making disruptive sounds to irritate the classmates. The original “me” would have assumed that C was bored and wanted to stir some trouble. However, with the new collaborative problem solving model that was introduced to us, I was able to use empathy, define the problem, and brainstorm a solution with the child to get to the root of his defiance. I found out that C felt good whenever he was able to make his classmates laugh in class, and thought the only way to do this was to make profane sounds and be funny. He also felt insecure that his classmates did not like him, so the pressure to make others laugh and join him in with his defiant behaviors was even greater. We problem solved this by coming up with ideas to make his classmates laugh in other ways, such as telling appropriate jokes, or telling a funny story. This worked effectively and the defiant behaviors subsided significantly.

After this summer, I developed a solidified view of what I like about hands-on clinical psychology versus research-based psychology. I definitely feel more confident working with kids in a clinical setting by building lasting relationships through therapy. Because of my internship, I am more inclined to focus on clinical psychology in graduate school. In the fall when I return to Scripps, I am excited to grow my skills and training into a thesis topic that is specific to Autism Spectrum Disorder. I have begun brainstorming topics and perspectives that will be both imaginative and valuable to the existing research. One topic that I considered diving deeper into is the psychology of the siblings of children with ADHD and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder.Penny2

All in all, I had a fantastic summer, and this would not have happened without the generous Internship Grant I received. I am so grateful for this summer and I cannot wait to begin graduate school and my career after college!

Editor’s Note: This guest blogger was a 2014 Scripps College Internship Grant recipient. To learn more about the 2015 Internship Grant process, click here.  Deadline Feb. 5.

Taming the Beast

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Six weeks down, ten weeks to go.

I think it’s just about that same time of year for all of us at this point, no not fall (that doesn’t exist here), MIDTERMS. The time of year where we are all so hyped up on coffee and delirious from sleep exhaustion that we don’t even know our own names.

Usually I like to stay pretty cool and collected when it comes to midterms, but I’ll admit I was a little nervous this year. Even though I had midterms when I was in undergrad, my previous graduate school courses in NY didn’t (not even tests). So as you can imagine I was feeling a little nervous about what to expect from my first set of midterms, as I am sure many of the first year students at Scripps are feeling too! I’m happy to say I’m feeling pretty confident after my first midterm and even though it’s still a little nerve-racking, I think I’ll survive!

Here are a few tricks of the trade for those suffering from a little thing I like to call “midterm mania:”

  1. Keep your friends close, but not too close. At least for your first few days of studying! We all know by now that “studying” with a group of friends is actually code for “lets go to Starbucks with our backpacks, drink coffee, and not talk about anything related to learning.” Lets be real, we all do that. So take a few days in the beginning to make your notecards, get a basic knowledge of what you need to know, and then start accepting group study invitations. This will keep you from panicking last minute because all you did was drink coffee with your friends for a week.
  2. Ask questions. The professor is there to help you, not to trick you or fail you on purpose. Chances are your professor may have a review day a week or so before your midterm. Make sure you take that time to ask about any theories you may not understand or how to do certain math problems you are struggling with. This is what the review day is for.
  3. Stop freaking out. Granted, midterms are pretty important and we all want to do well, but I like to remind myself that the midterm is not the only thing that I will be earning points for in class. There are finals, papers, projects, homework, and attendance points to take into account. Yes, attendance points do make a difference. Just remember that though the midterm is important, it isn’t the end of the world if you don’t do as well as you would have hoped.
  4. Relax. Life is about balance, so make sure that you take some time in between studying to do something enjoyable. I’m sure there is some study somewhere that states happier people do better on midterms. Take a few hours or even a day in between the coffee drowned madness to go on a hike, out to pizza with friends, or just spend the day alone watching Netflix in bed still in your pajamas. Whatever makes you happy!
  5. Social media. Get off it. Now.

No matter what year in school you are, don’t forget to have a mini celebration in honor of your midterm mania survival!

Good luck this midterm season, everyone!

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Planning from Day One

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At the beginning of my second semester at Scripps, I remember attending a required, yet enlightening, Off Campus Study information session. I was one of only two freshmen siting quietly in a humanities classroom surrounded by ten or twelve second-semester sophomores. The off campus advisors present didn’t even have the appropriate planning forms for freshmen and they simply asked us to write down my contact information separately with which they would schedule us an appointment. Mostly, they just seemed a bit confused as to why these freshmen were so intent on getting a meeting with Off Campus Study so far ahead of time. Truthfully, from the beginning of my first semester, I knew that there would only be a small window of time to develop what I called my “study abroad strategy” and I wanted to get working on it as soon as possible.

Like I have mentioned many a time on Beyond the Elms, I am a science major. Though undeclared at that point in time, I found myself drawn to Biology and Physics classes and was excited to take each new prerequisite. As a budding Biology student, I knew that I would have to take a substantial number of classes for my major, so planning for my sophomore, junior, and even senior semesters was essential. However, these science classes weren’t the only experiences for which I was ready to start organizing. Since early high school, I had been mesmerized by the mere thought of traveling to Japan. For me, being able to see the wondrous sites of Japan in person excited me to no end. I knew that, once I was in college, an off campus study program was my opportunity to travel there. Unfortunately, my academic and “cultural” goals eventually became mutually exclusive; it would be very difficult to study any field of science in Japan, but additionally impossible to become immersed in Japanese culture staying here at Scripps. Planning for both required finesse and I was determined to start early and fulfill both of my dreams.

While my experience of scheduling early and time management revolved around study abroad, you can utilize this type of approach for many different scenarios. It is first important to recognize what is most valuable to you, either an experience, class, opportunity, etc. Once you determine a goal or two that seems to rise above all others, you can then compare the weight of your other opportunities against them to help you develop a hierarchy or desires. “Demoting” less desired experiences both clears up your scheduling in an effort to work towards those more important tasks and strengthens your desire for certain experiences by understanding why certain wants were eliminated. The next step is to find the people or institutions that can help you achieve those larger, overarching goals. For me, this was done by not only contacting Scripps Off Campus study, but also identifying Scripps during my college search in the first place. Scripps appeared to be an institution where I would have the resources and ability to both participate in science and study abroad. You often don’t have the funds or time to accomplish many of your most important goals all on your own, so finding those people with the connections, resources, and knowledge can help to alleviate that burden.

Given the opportunity to dress in a traditional kimono through my study abroad program

Given the opportunity to dress in a traditional kimono through my study abroad program

Eventually, I was able to get to Japan without falling behind and I am still actively on the road to graduation. Since returning, I’ve been reminded that, without the work I put in before I had even stepped foot in Japan, I may never have gotten there in the first place.