March 14, 2008
Teach a class, learn a skill, meet new people: What are you doing on Saturday?
Saturday College, or SatCo, is a special program that offers non-credit, non-tuition classes that are open to students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members. These classes can be taught by anyone who has a special skill or hobby that they want to share.
SatCo takes place one weekend each semester and always includes a variety of subjects. This semester, classes include rock climbing, jewelry making, personal financial budgeting, juggling, and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity or the Domestic Violence Shelter of Cleveland.
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January 14, 2008
What They're Reading on College Campuses
The Chronicle of Higher Education surveyed the bookstores of several American universities, including ours, to compose this list of the top titles that students are reading for class or fun (or both!). Are any of these titles on your shelf?
1) I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert
2) Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
3) Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Màrquez
4) Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Edition by The Onion
5) Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Check out the complete list.
Related
Case selects a book for common reading and discussion during orientation for each first-year class. The 2008 title is The Reluctant Mr. Darwin.
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November 22, 2007
Case offers a different type of Greek
Compared to other universities, Case’s social Greeks are a little more than above average when it comes to academics (over 73% of Case’s social Greeks have over a 3.0 GPA!). But for students even more interested in scholarship, professional fraternities are the way to go. Based on a common academic interest or major, these groups give students opportunities to network in their field of interest. They also hold events that benefit both students and the community.
Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, holds a Bookswap at the beginning of each semester for an easy way to buy and sell used textbooks. Alpha Kappa Psi, the professional business fraternity, auctions off management professors in order to raise money for charity. Alpha Chi Sigma, the professional chemistry fraternity, helps to organize the Science Olympiad, which is a competition geared toward local middle-and high-school students.
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November 12, 2007
Care Packages: Like a Hug from Home for Case Students
Parents, here’s an easy way to send that perfect “I miss you” box of cookies.
Bon Appetit, our campus catering service that runs the dining halls on campus, runs a special Web site that few know about. Through them, anyone is able to send care packages of freshly baked munchies ranging from cookies to birthday cakes. They even use all natural, kosher ingredients so you won’t feel as guilty devouring that new Brownie Sampler Box (my personal favorite). Look online for lists of available and seasonal goods.
Another service that Case also promotes is CarePackages.com. These packages have a much greater range than Bon Appetit, including cups, stuffed animals and even some toys--perfect for that weekend before exams, when sugar and caffeine are necessary for survival.
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May 07, 2007
My junior year
I am a senior economics and political science major at Case, I am also a marketing and communications intern. This means that I answer a huge range of emails from prospective students these include the easy: “Where do I send my teacher recommendation?,” the unusual, “Please tell me more about Case’s equestrienne team,” to the difficult, “How do I know if a school is right for me?”
That last email sparked my memory of my junior year of high school. (lots of varsity soccer games, weekly presidential outlines in my AP U.S. history class, and an overwhelming dread that I was making the wrong decisions about college). I knew that I wanted a school with strong academics, in a city that wasn’t too big or too small. And as I paged through my Fiske Guide to Colleges, I often felt like Goldilocks, ignoring schools that fell outside of my very specific criteria.
I went to high school in a small town just outside of Pittsburg, and my college plans were very different than what the rest of my friends were doing. Almost all of my friends, including my best friend, and my boyfriend were staying in the Pittsburgh area. More specifically they would be in Oakland, the Pittsburgh neighborhood where several of the city’s colleges are located. My boyfriend was two years older than me and had been living in Oakland during that time. My best friend (the sat next to her on the bus in fifth grade, spill your guts, laugh until milk comes out of your nose, best friend) was also going to be in Oakland. I couldn’t imagine my life without seeing these two people regularly. But the problem was: none of the universities in Oakland felt right to me.
When I spent the night at Case, I felt right at home. I loved the campus and the students. I sat in on a feminism seminar-style class (7 students) and I was blown away by the group discussion (which they encouraged me to join: a huge deal to my 17 year old self). I prattled on and on to my mother during the drive back to Pittsburgh. Case felt like the right school to me, but I was terrified of moving away from my friends and family.
I obviously ended up choosing Case, but only after months of deliberations. Despite my type A methods for selecting potential schools (see above), when it came time to make the final decision, I went with my gut. And I couldn’t have asked for a better college experience. Yes, I missed my friends, but we did just fine. I learned to write great emails, and I depend heavily on my free night and weekend cell phone minutes. Sonny is still my best friend, she will be beginning her Ph. D. next fall in molecular biology, and I couldn’t be prouder. The boyfriend and I broke up a few years later, but we still get together anytime we are both in town. Picking the place where you will be spending the next four years is scary, but the only advice I can give is: go where it feels right.
Joanie Chase
Economics and Political Science
Class of 2007
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February 26, 2007
Junior year revisited
My junior year of high school was packed with activity. I was learning to drive my white Chevy Cavalier (which I still drive, five years later), desperate to trade my spot on the school bus for a parking spot next to our football stadium. I was more than settled into high school -- knowing where to go and who to talk to. The bittersweet "end is near" feeling of senior year had yet to grasp me.
But as the year trotted on, the college decision process seemed to be following me everywhere. My mother, certain that if I didn't apply yesterday there wouldn't be any spots left for me, asked me daily how many schools I'd researched, how many applications I'd started. Our dining room table was littered with college guides that she checked out of the library, cycling in new college advice with every due date. She pored over them while I ignored them, spending my time watching Dawson's Creek with my friends or gossiping over a raspberry mocha at Starbucks.
But through the year, I found time for the books. I'd page through one while I ate cereal before dashing off to school. I'd look up a school I heard a friend talking about between classes or a school a trusted teacher had attended. I wasn't as frantic as my mother was, but I slowly learned to care.
By the time summer approached, I had a list of some schools that I was interested in. There weren't a million of them, but there were a few that I thought might be real gems. The books had helped, but so had my friends, family and teachers. I followed my gut and pursued schools that looked appealing overall, not just on paper or in the rankings. It didn't require months of research or immediate action during the first week of my junior year. It was simply something that was in the back of my mind, something that got my attention when I had some free time or it was a topic of discussion. I never stressed, never stayed up late, never missed a fun night because I was searching for colleges.
My relaxed, leisurely approach allowed me to only pursue schools that were truly amazing to me. I didn't have a quota, demanding that I become interested in 23 schools by summer. I just did what felt right. And the best part? It worked.
Jenn Parson
English and Marketing
Class of 2007
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April 11, 2006
Liberal Arts Weekend
Spring time is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year to work in Tomlinson Hall here at Case. The gallery and hallways are always jumping and filled with visiting students and their families, which is great for those of us who do more behind-the-scenes work in the Office of Undergraduate Admission (and not just because sometimes there are extra snacks around we can munch on).
Spring time gives us a chance to finally see the students we’ve worked hard all year recruiting, and sometimes a chance to meet students and families in person who we had previously only met via e-mail or the phone. All of Case’s spring programs are great, and like Bob has already mentioned, visiting campus is a great way to really see which of your many college options is truly the best fit.
What I really want to talk about though, is a program this year for admitted liberal arts students (coinciding with Case’s Humanities Week 2006 the theme of which was “Childhoods.” Check out this lineup!) called… wait for it… Liberal Arts Weekend! I had the privilege of helping out with the program this year, and it was a complete blast from beginning to end. What I like about the program is that it really highlights what it is like to be a humanities major here at Case and the nowhere-else-in-the-world opportunities that our liberal arts majors get to take advantage of all the time. Lemme hit some of the highlights:
Students each had a SAGES-style seminar taught by some of our outstanding faculty members, Jonathan Sadowsky from the history department, John Orlock from the theater department, Darci Brandel from the English department and Alan Rocke from the history department.)
Students and their families (and some UGA staffers) had a great lunch with some of Case’s humanities faculty members (complete with delicious asparagus and great conversation, especially at my table!). Mark Turner, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, spoke during dessert about the history of liberal arts at Case and the SAGES program.
Our student tour guides and some faculty braved the rain to show off our beautiful campus. (To the left, check out tour guide Sean giving a tour to some parents along with History Professor Ken Ledford.)
Probably the highlight of the day was the reading by author Anne Lamott and follow-up discussion moderated by Florence Harkness Professor of Religion and Director of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities Tim Beal. Anne Lamott’s reading was laugh-out-loud funny and her conversation with Prof. Beal, as well as her answers to questions from the audience revealed (if you’ll pardon the cheese) the humanity that makes her such an amazing author. For anyone interested in any type of writing (or as Anne pointed out, any creative endeavor) let me recommend Anne’s book, Bird by Bird, which is full of insight into the creative process as well as some hilarious anecdotes from Anne’s life. (The pictures are of visiting students waiting for the lecture to start, as well as Tim and Anne’s discussion. Quality isn’t the greatest, darn flash!)
I could go on with highlights and tell all about what a great time the UGA staff had hosting the event, as well as what a great time our current students, faculty, prospective students and their families had, but let me cut to the chase: While this schedule seems almost too cool to be true - days chock full of invigorating seminars, opportunities to meet with faculty outside of class, and lectures by world-renowned authors, musicians, scientists, researchers, politicians and civic leaders - days full of chances to extend learning outside the classroom are every day for students of the liberal arts at Case! Don’t believe me? Check out some of our students’ blogs, or slap this puppy on the portable listening device of your choice. Case Western Reserve University offers students the chance to create their own curriculum by building their own major, traveling abroad, and spending time at some of the coolest cultural institutions in the world like the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Playhouse Square, Severance Hall, the Museum of Contemporary Art, all with mentorship from our top notch faculty.
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February 08, 2006
Is this what liberal arts is all about?
So it's three days after the superbowl, and I've been eating leftover chili for that entire time. I realized today, while picking out some charred bits, that my fatal flaw was in not having one of those magnetic stirrers that we had to use in Chem Lab at Case. With the aid of such a device, I could have kept my chili blanco moving while it simmered over low heat--thus avoiding both the charred bits in the leftovers and the insurmountable task of cleaning my stock pot.
I also find myself thinking about chem lab when making pasta sauce--to combat the phenomenon known as "bumping" (I think that's what the prof called it--it basically was the result of part of your solution boiling and throw all your good stuff out of your beaker) we would direct a stream of air at the surface--it's all that PV=nRT stuff. When I'm cleaning my stovetop after a particularly messy red sauce, I often wonder whether I should install some kind of air hose...
I don't work in an environment where I use chemistry every day. So why is it that I can remember these crazy details? What is it about some classes--or lab work--or profs--that makes us remember things like we learned them yesterday, while other things seem to be lost and gone forever?
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January 30, 2006
I made it! Now get me outta here!
There was a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer today about students who transfer colleges as early as freshman year. The angle was basically about how you can think that a college is everything you want...but when you get there, it's not always what you thought it was going to be. Overall, I thought it was a well-balanced article. On the one hand, it was like--if you know a place isn't right for you, there's no point in beating yourself up over it. On the other hand, you need to be sensitive to the possibility that if you're transfering because you're unhappy, it's not necessarily the institution that's the problem, and it may be that there are some personal issues you need to deal with--regardless of how green the grass is.
Anyway, I got to thinking about my experience when I was a student at Case. I remember a little in my freshman year, and definitely in my sophomore year, I was like--man. I'm not so much into this place. I was having a hard time, because I wasn't sure what I wanted to study, and what I originally thought I wanted to study didn't turn out to be what I wanted, so I was kind of floating. Case is a tough place to feel like you're floating, because the classes are demanding, and your classmates are by and large pretty focused and geared up.
Looking back on it, I also realize that I was struggling with some identity issues. I had come from a small town, where I had grown up and lived all my life, and so my role was pretty set. But at Case, all of that was shaken up. I wasn't the smartest kid in class any more. Success didn't come nearly as easily. And so I guess I was figuring out how I was going to cope with all of that.
Long story short, I didn't transfer. I guess I eventually found my groove--got into some classes where I dug the subject matter and/or the professor, sunk my teeth into various outside-of-class pursuits, became closer with the friends I had begun to make freshman year, etc. And now, I have so much passion for Case, and have this incredible fondness for my experiences as an undergraduate here--so much so, that my job is to tell the Case story to high school students who are thinking about coming here.
Of course, in that light I question myself--am I presenting an honest picture of what Case is all about? Am I giving prospective students too much of a rosy perspective? Are the visit programs as true to life as they should be? etc., etc. I think we do a pretty good job of this, but I'm always asking myself these kinds of questions.
I think that's where a venue like this can be valuable--in a blog, we're giving you the Real McCoy. There aren't any glossy pics, classes meeting on the quad, tweed-jacketed profs, etc. And you can cruise through blog.case.edu for more voices.
So how about it? How are we doing with presenting an honest image of Case, and in what ways can we improve in telling you what we're all about? What questions do you have that the website and brochures aren't answering?
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January 09, 2006
College buddies = lifelong friends
It's a cliche to refer to the college experience as "the best years of your life". And for me, it's not even true. The best years of my life came after graduation, without a doubt.
But, I have to agree with Gest that the college years do represent critical years. Some of the people I've met during my years as an undergraduate student at Case have had a profound impact on my life, extending long after graduation. I've stayed in contact with many of those people.
My husband, Vic, is also a Case alum, so our wedding included many college pals. It's still funny for me to think of how well-mannered Vic's fraternity brothers were that evening. I had expected them to be the crazy hellraisers I knew years ago!
Vic has remained very close to many of his friends from Case, especially the ones he had met in the Case commuter lounge. They played on sports teams together, devised and managed fantasy football leagues (Case engineering students + sports fanaticism = supercrazy!), helped each other get through challenging classes, etc.
During the holidays, we have an annual Case commuters reunion where we all get together for a night of food and games. One December, everyone cheered when Vic and I announced our engagement. The next year, we spread the happy news of our pregnancy. It's been wonderful being able to share everyone's triumphs - weddings, babies, new jobs, etc.
Yesterday, though, we shared a very sad day. Our friend Zaid's mother passed away late last week and yesterday was her funeral. Zaid and all three of his siblings graduated from Case with undergraduate and graduate/professional degrees, and the funeral service included many Case grads. While it was sad to see so many Case alums - doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, educators - mourning together, it was also heartwarming too. People had flown in from all over the country (and world) to comfort the family.
I guess that's one of the things we don't really talk about in our publications or on our Web site. Besides the top-notch education you get at Case, you also make lasting relationships that carry you when you really need it.
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November 29, 2005
On and off the field
In college, the soccer team felt like an extension of my family. Being an only child I have never had sisters and now they seemed to come from all over the country. We practiced hard, won games, lost games, studied together, laughed a lot, sang on the bus in a not-so-good harmony, listened to one another, learned from each other, and without knowing it, we were all growing the whole time. (Of course some were growing more than others -aka "freshman 15"!)
I seemed to be surrounded by soccer, but really it was much more than just a sport. We had a coach who really cared about our well being. Some of us had supportive families who celebrated our every success. But we also had one another and it felt like small groups of our larger group grew closer each day. My roommate played soccer, my new best friend played soccer, and for a few months it was all I knew.
Then my friendships blossomed and soon I was meeting new friends and developing rich friendships outside of this safe niche. In college your friendships seem to branch out like a great oak tree, and then you realize that you feel part of this good, sometimes great, place. The place is called college and sometimes accidentally (hopefully not in front of your Mom) "home". It's the place where you learn how to really learn, grow in ways you never imagined, and leave feeling like you just might be able to change the world you are headed out into.
As a result of this good experience, of course, I became nostalgic and sentimental during my senior year. Off the field the seniors and our closest underclassmen friends found ourselves talking late into the night asking each other important questions, like, "What will we be when we grow up?” On the field, each game edged many of us closer to the last game of our "soccer careers" - for me, the one that started back in second grade.
In my teammates, I had found different backgrounds, different ways of thinking, fantastic humor, unimaginable strength, unending courage, oh yah, and also scored some goals and won some games along the way. I found friends and mentors on the field and in the classroom. On long bus trips, one friend always helped me with my sociology homework, another with my communication papers, another with all my science classes, and another made all of us laugh the whole time. During tough games I loved yelling my best friend's names on the soccer field just as much as I loved playing the game itself.
Along the way, my teammates and I lost a friend and a teammate, one sunny February day, and it changed us all. Our lives were different from then on and a natural closeness developed on our team that seemed to help us, most of us barely past 20, see beyond ourselves.
All the lessons on and off the field that my friends and I learned seemed to come full circle, and I learned more lessons in those four years than I ever knew college would offer to me. That final game of my college soccer days did in fact come and go, full of anticipation and ending with tears. Even though it was sad to let it go, I had the memories both on and off the field, and I still have them today.
PS: Add your comments! What great memories do you have that include your high school friends, either on or off the field?
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November 22, 2005
Choose the school that fits
Dave made some great points about choosing a school that was the right fit for him, and the rewarding experience that followed both inside and outside the classroom. I thought I might add a few words.
As an aside, Dave is really modest. He was an All-American kicker on the Division III football team he played on in college!!
OK so here goes...
Growing up in a university town in Ohio, going to college was something I took for granted. I assumed that I would go to college following in the footsteps of my parents (and my dad worked at the local university.) Soccer was a factor in my college decision, but much more than that, was the school that “felt right”, “the school that fit”.
After countless visits to Division III liberal arts colleges, I made my decision right around Valentine’s Day of my senior year. Full of excitement, my mom and dad and I drove down to The College of Wooster to hand deliver my deposit. I walked into the admission office and handed the receptionist, Jane, my deposit. I vividly remember saying to her, “Maybe one day I will work in the admission office at Wooster?” Who knew that this year I would be ushering in my fifth year as an admission counselor?
As one of the 13 admission counselors at Case, now I find it my gratifying job to review your applications, hear your stories, ask you questions to calm your nerves during interviews, and listen to your voices on the other line full of the same excitement I once had as a prospective student.
Send in those applications knowing that you have a group of admission counselors here that are in your corner rooting for your success.
And remember, choose the college that “feels right!”
Apply to Case by January 15, 2006.
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November 18, 2005
Choosing the best fit
I was inspired to compose an entry after reading the fine post by my colleague, David Beckham...I mean, Emily Cole. Emily stressed the importance of college athletics, or any team activity, in the development of young men and women. I wanted to take the discussion in a slightly different direction. What are the most important factors in choosing a college?
I realize that my path was much different than many of the students applying to Case. Regardless, my story is as follows. After having some success at the prep level, I based my entire college decision on football. Which program that showed some interest in me was the most successful, and where could I get on the field the fastest?
Before I knew it, I found myself in a heated battle to become the starting place kicker for that year's reigning Mid American Conference champion. I eventually lost the starting role to the incumbent, a junior. The university was on a quarter system and as classes were just beginning and autumn was in full swing, I soon realized that basing my college decision on football alone was a BIG mistake.
Coming from a mid-sized and somewhat sheltered Catholic high school, I had trouble adjusting to the large, state school environment. My classes were overwhelmingly large. I never met my professors and received instruction from teaching assistants who were only a few years older than me at the time.
In addition, balancing a Division I football schedule and workout regimen with academics and, oh yeah…a social life too, was difficult. Make no mistake about it, Division I athletics is a job and I would have had to continue this schedule for at least another season before actually seeing significant playing time. While warming up before an ESPN televised game was exciting, I could not help but feel completely lost as a college freshman...and my grades and personal satisfaction suffered. I could have pushed on and made the most of it, but transferring to a smaller school was clearly the best option.
With no hard feelings, I made the decision to transfer after my freshman year. After a redshirt freshman season, I went on to have a successful four seasons of football at the Division III level. More importantly, I felt much more comfortable on campus and in the classroom. I knew my professors by name and face and they knew me as well. Academic advisors, career counselors and tutors were easily accessible and the small class sizes fit my learning style much better than the large auditorium lecture halls. Plus, I kind of enjoyed being a bigger fish in a smaller pond.
From my experience, there are certain sacrifices that a student makes when attending both large schools and smaller schools. The decision comes down to fit and which sacrifices the student is willing to make. As a high school senior, I should have been keener to this because being a transfer student has its obstacles as well. I am, however, happy with the way things worked out. Yes, it would have been nice to play football at the Division I level…but I would rather have played four seasons in front of 5,000 fans than sat on the sidelines in front of 50,000.
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November 02, 2005
If you don't know where you are going...
Are you tired of people asking you what your major is going to be? I only ask because I keenly remember being a high school senior, hating The Question, and wanting to puke every time I was asked it (like, gag me with a spoon!), and that was many, many years ago.
Oh, I had an answer to The Question. It was the one my parents wanted me to have. I was going to major in chemistry. Unfortunately, I could never quite get myself to really believe it. Every time I heard it, I got this feeling of shear panic that I was supposed to know what I was going to do and I really didn't. For me, it was worse than worrying about SAT scores.
So I went in as a chemistry major, which lasted about one semester, and came out an English major. I wasn't bad at it -- I just didn't like it. I can't really say that I have regretted the decision. It developed my mind -- an intangible advantage that's enabled me to find different employment situations that best fit what I need in the moment -- from corporate PR jobs to a part-time, freelancing "sabbatical."
Apparently, I'm not the only one. The business publication Fast Company recently published an article called The New MBAs about five leaders who have parlayed their "useless" academic degrees into business success.
For some reason, I always like to hear what the philosophy majors end up doing. Maybe because popular culture places that below English on the usefulness scale. Maybe because the two philosophy majors I've personally known have been really successful -- one is a corporate communications guru and the other was last seen writing for Wired.
So if you are telling your parents that you are going to go pre-med or study engineering, but your heart doesn't jump for joy when you say it -- no worries. College is about exploring. Life is about exploring. You'll figure it out eventually. Very few people have career paths that are perfectly straight and uncomplicated.
In other words, if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.
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September 27, 2005
Professors and Professions
To echo Bob, getting to know your professors is one of the best aspects of the college experience. Like Bob, I was an English major at Case. Even though I graduated in 1993 (yes, I grew up in the '80s - that's why I still listen to Rick Springfield and Loverboy), I still keep in touch with some of my professors.
I'm still pretty close to two of my English professors, particularly. They guided me, as an undergraduate, when I was unsure of what to do with my English degree. My adviser, Bill Marling, was the one who convinced me that I was ready for graduate work. He helped me decide where to go when I was deciding between two graduate programs in journalism.
Judy Oster is another English professor who's made a difference in my life. Her class on "The Immigrant Experience" was thoroughly engaging. When it ended, I stayed on with a small group of other students from that class to work on an independent study project together. We produced a booklet highlighting some of the best work from that class. I had written a personal essay that was published in that booklet. The editor of Case's alumni magazine, Ken Kesegich, published that essay in his magazine. The editorial director for Ohio Magazine read it and contacted me to write for his publication. That began a magazine writing career. And it all started with an essay I wrote in a Case English class.
Pretty cool.
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September 21, 2005
Coming of Age
If you know me from my previous job or if you have talked to me here at Case you have, no doubt, heard me speak about the coming of age experience.
This, in many ways, is my answer to the question of “why we work in admissions.” Through my collegiate days, my fraternity experience and my first job out of college I became passionate about the role college plays in the coming of age experience. Actually, while in college, while an undergraduate fraternity member and in my first year or two out of college I wasn’t aware of what I had experienced. I didn’t realize the value these experience had on me or how they would continue to impact me personally and lead me to my current career.
My first job out of college was working for the Sigma Chi International Fraternity. This was to be a one year appointment traveling the continent to visit thirty chapters (colleges) of the organization as a Leadership Consultant. I ended up being on the Headquarters staff, in various roles, for four years. As I learned more about Greek life and higher education I began to reflect upon my experiences.
What I came to realize was that my college years shaped my life in more ways than any other period in my life.
The how:
I grew up a lot. Of the 145ish students from my class that went to college 130 plus went to the local University of Rhode Island. I left the comfort of Rhode Island and moved to Ohio—an out-of- state freshman at a 20,000 student public university. I was alone, but outgoing (this has saved me many times). I quickly engaged some kids in my residence hall, but quickly became bored of the constant video game sessions. I went out to fraternity recruitment. I met some guys like me and some not so much. The good thing was that they were all in the same fraternity. I was asked to join and did. This began my exposure to new people, new experiences and new ideas (some of which I agreed with and some I did not—which is good).
Without getting too long winded I submit this: college is about exploration. Not just exploring the history of the United States, not just exploring the far reaches of our solar system, not just exploring the complexities of quantum physics. It is just as important and critical to explore beyond the walls of the classroom. Explore yourself—what you value, your beliefs, your fears, your strengths. Become the person you want to be. Allow those around to help shape and expand, not necessarily change, your values and beliefs. Allow yourself to comfortably challenge and overcome your fears. Hone your skills.
To me this is the true value of higher education. You will work hard in the classroom, get a diploma and get a job. These other experiences, in and out of the classroom, will help you become the person that you desire to become. These elements, when combined, assist in the development of a complete personality and a successful collegiate journey.
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