Welcome, This Is Your Class Syllabus. by Jada

Welcome, This Is Your Class Syllabus. by Jada - August 2017 Scholarship Essay

If I were a college professor? I can imagine it now, rows and rows full of students eager to be taught. With their notebooks and pens out ready to learn, I will teach them about life. But this is not a philosophy class. So what else could it be? I'm glad you asked!

We go to college to learn disciplinary ideas and subjects so we can specialize in a job area and become productive individuals in society.
As an incoming freshman, I have tried to mentally prepare for the academic workload that is bestowed upon me. With all this preparation for the educational side of college, I'd realized that I am not prepared for the struggles that are associated with all OTHER aspects of college life. I don't know how to make the most of my meal plan or how to survive on little to no money. How to find ways to pay for studying abroad? And what about interviews for jobs, co-ops, internships? What do I wear, how do I present myself, and type my resume?  
In the end I want to know, how do I make the most of my college experience?

As a professor, I would help students in situations where they simply don't know what to do to maximize their college experience for a successful life.
This class would entail how to study effectively and efficiently, and how to balance extracurricular activities and clubs while staying on top of academics. My class would not be limited to campus and class related subjects, it would extend far beyond the classroom to help my students succeed in LIFE. My students will learn how to get that internship or co-op job, how to adapt to and overcome stressful situations, and how to communicate in the workplace via email, conferences, in person, etc.
Based on myself and interactions I have had, many first year STEM majoring students do not understand the importance of communication on the job. During the summer after senior year, I attended a summer program for minority engineering students attending NC State in the fall. The program routinely took us on industry and company visits so we could imagine ourselves in the employee and employers' shoes. After attending an industry visit to Praxair INC's industry site, I was very confound to hear many of the industrial, chemical and civil engineers say that a major component of their job is effective and efficient communication. Shortly after that, it dawned upon me that without communication, ideas and plans cannot be implemented. Engineering is fancy word for problem-solving. How do you spread these ideas to employers, to those leading grants, to the people of our society?!
COMMUNICATION. If I did not spend my last summer in that specialized summer program I would not have known the importance of not just communication but impactful communication in the STEM field. Students who have not done workshops or programs such as the summer program that I did may have missed out on the life skills and dynamics that I had the privilege of learning about. These skill sets are great beneficial points I will not only apply to my academic college career, but to the rest of my life.

I want our generation to not only be book smart. I want to help students become well rounded in life. Often there are articles that state that this ages millennials are very resourceful, talented, and highly- educated but lack etiquette, common sense, and application of their knowledge.  I will prepare my students to be successful in and out of the class. Taking my class will help you learn mannerisms for the workplace that you would not have learned in that calculus class or biology class. I want students to have access to an environment where they can learn how to grow as an individual.

So in conclusion, Welcome, this is how to be a College Student 101 by Professor Jada Griffin.