During my first semester in college, I was enrolled in a first-year English class. In high school I was usually able to pull off an A on my honors English papers without much work, and I thought I was a pretty good writer. So when I turned in my first college essay, I was expecting […]
From Homeless to High Honors
In 2002, I hit rock bottom when I moved into a homeless shelter. For the next four years, I cycled in and out of one shelter after another. There, I saw how people can become passive and numb, with no life or hope left in their eyes. They smell bad, walk with their heads down, […]
The Pleasure of Homework
When I began college, I was unmotivated and chose to blame others for my problems and my shortcomings. I was so much smarter than everyone that I didn’t need to do all the work that everyone else did; at least that’s what I thought. My favorite pastime was staring blankly at a television, rather than […]
Helping First-Year Students Transition to College
Academic Strategies for Excellence (AS198) is a three-credit course designed to assist first-year students make a successful transition to college. The course, rooted in research and best practices for guiding first-year students, helps students develop academic, personal, and professional skills. Wesley College is a minority serving institution (MSI) with approximately 53% of its student population […]
Grit + Growth Mindset
The individual concepts of Grit and Growth Mindsets are familiar terms in the lexicon of student success. More recently, Hochanadel and Finamore have studied the interplay of these two concepts, encouraging educators to explore the synergy created when students are provided with the tools to learn how to develop both grit and a growth mindset […]
