Students blog

At the beginning of 2018, I created an obscene amount of New Year’s resolutions. As the year came to a close, I only consistently achieved one of my goals—to start a journal. When I looked back on it, starting a journal was the only New Year’s resolution I needed as it helped me have the best year academically and in my creative projects. If you want to produce better papers and projects, get in touch with your emotions, and become your most creative self, all while documenting memories of your college years, the only resolution you need in 2019 is to journal.

But what do I write about?

Anything! The most important thing to remember about journaling is that no one will ever look at it or give it a letter grade. It is one of the only writing outlets that is for you and you alone. However, most people (including myself) need more guidance when considering what to write. The two most common types of journaling are morning goal setting and nighttime reflection. My advice is to switch between these two types as you see fit. When deciding when to journal, I usually go with my mood. If I think I need some extra motivation, I journal in the morning and if not, I journal at nighttime. Sometimes, I even journal in the middle of the day when I need help working out a problem or have writer’s block on a project.

Goal-Oriented Journaling

For morning goal setting, you can write how you want to feel throughout the day, what you will do to achieve that feeling, and things you are grateful for. This type of journaling sets your intentions for the day and allows you to live in a mindset of gratitude. It also helps you wake up in the morning and gather your thoughts so you are more prepared for the day ahead.

Reflective Journaling

Nighttime journaling is usually more free-flowing—describe what happened to you that day, what memories you created, who you spent time with, etc. I remember talking to a senior TA in one of my freshman classes who said memories and funny stories from freshman and sophomore year would have been lost if she hadn’t kept a journal. Reflective journaling can help you remember all the beautiful little things you don’t want to forget; like who you ate lunch with on Mondays or that big paper you got an A on. It is something to look back on for how your days have gone and what you have achieved.

Still stuck?

I understand that it can still be challenging to get started so here are some journaling prompts to get you started:

1. What are three challenges in your life right now and what are you learning from them?
2. How is your life different now from a year ago?
3. What do you have now that you wished you had once had?
4. What is the most memorable event from this week?
5. What brings you joy every single day?

When it comes to journaling, there are no rules. Add art and write in colorful pens or free flow illegibly and with no regard to grammar. The only rule is that when you’re starting out, you have to solidify journaling as a habit. To do this, try to always have your journal in your backpack and make it your mission to journal every day (even if it’s just a sentence) for the first two months after you start your journal. If you can create journaling as a habit, I promise you will have a more introspective, creative, and productive 2019 while also documenting your favorite college memories. So, why aren’t you starting your journal right now?

I have always been one to toss my hijab in the ring for any scholarship opportunity and hope for the best. Imagine my surprise and excitement when I received the call from Pearson saying I had gotten theirs. Through the Phi Theta Kappa scholarship portal, applicants are able to apply for multiple opportunities via one application.  I had completely forgotten about the Pearson scholarship, one that would eventually expose me to some of the best people and experiences in my life. Up until that point everything had been going great for me and this just seemed like the perfect icing on an almost perfect year.

The mentorship component along with the Pearson textbooks included made this the opportunity of a lifetime. I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to see who I would be paired with. Up until that point all my mentors had been people that were similar to me in one way or another. The Pearson Scholarship mentor program is a virtual one; my mentor and I would meet monthly via video calls. A few weeks after the initial congratulatory email, I received a second one that contained the name and preliminary information about my mentor. I looked at her name, location and job title and I really didn’t know what to make of it. We were so different and my thoughts were all over the place, “What’s an English Portfolio manager?” “Upstate New York? That’s a long way from San Diego!” I spent the time between then and our first video meeting trying not to let apprehension take over as it usually does when I’m put in a situation I can’t control. How would we connect? Would we even connect?

As soon as I met my mentor, Sherri, my apprehension went away. We started sharing more and more of our lives. We talked about our families, our childhoods, and our education/career journeys. We bonded over our mutual love for the ocean, the sun and everything California. She may not have known it, but she became my motivator. We developed a routine of bouncing thoughts and ideas off of each other.

When I was trying to transfer, Sherri cheered me on and I was able to get through it. During the internship application season, Sherri looked over my resume and cover letters and helped me put together a coherent application. When I got rejected by a school I thought would be the best option for me at the time, Sherri reminded me of the other incredible opportunities I already had and helped me see the bright side of a heartbreaking situation.

Distance learning, or online education, is a great opportunity that provides students the ability to learn in a flexible environment and exercise self-discipline. Whether you’re taking one virtual class this semester or earning your degree completely online, here are some tips to help you excel in this type of course.

Tip 1: Get up and get dressed

One of the appealing things about online classes is being able to stay in your pajamas all day! As wonderful as it is to be cozy, try to get up and get dressed like you would if you were going to campus for class. Your bed isn’t the most conducive learning environment, since it is associated with rest and relaxation rather than hard work and hustle. Getting yourself ready and doing work at a desk, in the library, or at your favorite coffee shop will make you feel like your online class is more legitimate, and will make you want to put in the effort!

Tip 2: Make an impression

When you are enrolled in an online course, it’s easy to hide behind the computer screen and profile picture. Make yourself stand out by creating a relationship with your professor! You could set up a phone call appointment. Reaching out however you can is guaranteed to impress your professor and signal your commitment to learning. Who knows, they might even help you get internships or jobs in the future! A 5 to 10 minute chat could lead to a lifetime of referrals and network connections.

Tip 3: Utilize campus resources

Online students are students, after all! If you are near the campus offering your online courses, don’t be afraid to use all the wonderful resources offered there. Having trouble writing that paper? Contact the Writing Center! Struggling with those math problems? Try seeking help from tutors or during your professor’s office hours. Don’t be scared or hesitate to capitalize on all the perks of being a college student. Being connected to the campus – even virtually – can enrich your experience and help you create great memories.

Tip 4: Manage your time

It’s easy to get carried away with the freedom that comes as a perk to online courses. In order to be successful, you must exercise self-discipline and time management skills. My advice: treat your school like a 9-5 job (assuming you don’t already have one). Setting up certain periods of time to be productive can help you avoid furiously typing a paper to meet that 11:59 pm deadline.

Technology has made online learning available to all kinds of students. However, keep in mind that online learning isn’t for everyone, and that’s perfectly okay! Give it a try and see how you adjust to the new setting.

Getting back into the swing of a new semester can be a difficult. Here are 10 easy tips to help ease the process of managing your time effectively.

1. Use a Planner– Write out your commitments such as homework assignments, work hours or a workout class so you can visualize what you have coming up for the day or week.
2. Get Adequate Sleep– Many believe that staying up to get ahead on assignments will be beneficial, however in the long run the lack of sleep will leave you less productive in the days following the all-nighter.
3. Take Breaks– A person can only correctly focus for so long. Pushing yourself to work for four straight hours on an assignment is less effective than breaking it into two shorter sessions with adequate breaks. This is important when working on a computer as your eyes need time to rest from the blue light emitted.
4. Get a Social Media Timer– One of the biggest forms of procrastination for many is getting sucked into checking social media. In order to prevent your 10-15 minute breaks from stretching to 45 minutes, set timers on your phone to remind you to get back to work or download an app that locks you out of your phone so you can focus on the tasks at hand.
5. Say No– One of the reasons people begin to fall behind on commitments is because they are over scheduling themselves. This in turn creates stress and anxiety, ultimately reduces productivity and wastes time. Make sure you are not over-committing so you can put your best effort forward in your priorities.
6. Remember Your Goals– By remembering your goals, you can prioritize tasks in order to accomplish your most important ones and ensure you are completing the more time pressing issues first.
7. Get Organized– Similar to using a planner, make sure the other parts of your life are organized as well. This includes your work area, bedroom and life in general. Working in a cluttered area can be distracting and lead to a lower level of productivity. Trying to get to sleep in a messy room can be harder because the mess is a reminder of the “mess” of commitments you have.
8. Delegate– Some people like to be involved in every step of their commitments, however, this can get overwhelming. In order to be successful, individuals need to delegate tasks to their peers and not take everything on themselves.
9. Create a Routine– This can be written down in your planner but make sure you get some kind of pattern in your daily life. For example if you want to ensure you work out on Monday and Wednesdays, plan to do it at the same time on those days. Eventually, it will become second nature for you to come home from work or class and immediately get ready to sweat.
10. Take Time To Do Nothing- Similar to taking breaks in between studies, it is important to have a couple hours or a day of few commitments to relax and rejuvenate. If you’re constantly on the go, you may get burned out or even sick, which all contribute to a lack of productivity.  

Managing time is one of the most challenging aspects of college. With many commitments and cramped time to complete assignments, you may find yourself flustered at times. Just remember these 10 tips and keep an even head throughout the semester.

Getting organized for the first week of classes starts before the first week of classes. Professors will start sending out their syllabi weeks before the class begins. I always look at the syllabus as soon as the professor sends it out because occasionally there will be assignments listed there that are due the first day of class. I try to get the assignments done before I am physically back on campus because getting settled and catching up with friends can begin to get hectic. Even though it’s still break, it is important to put your best effort forward on these assignments. They are the first impression your teacher is getting from you.

I remember walking into a class on the first day and the teacher asked, “How many of you did not get a chance to do the reading?” No one raised their hand. After that, he began calling on students to summarize the reading for him and that’s when the truth came out. No one had done the reading for the first class and everyone got caught in their lie. After attending this class, I made sure to always do the reading assigned for the first day to ensure a situation like this would not happen to me.

Another thing I do to get ready for the first week of class is to go through all my school supplies from the previous semester and see if there is anything I can reuse. This is a great way to save money and time and you don’t have to go through the hassle of spending hours at an office supply store. And honestly, in college there aren’t many school supplies to get except pencils and notebooks.

Hold off getting textbooks. Many times, bookstores on campus will have a list of the books you need for a class before your class has started. I have found that these lists are not always accurate and can end up costing you more money than you need to spend. Wait until the first day of each class or until you’ve read the syllabus before you go buy textbooks because your teacher may say you don’t even need it in their class.

Syllabus week is not a week of no homework, although we all wish it was. Most times professors will already have a homework assignment prepared which is why it is important to have your house, dorm, apartment, or wherever you may live set up before the first week of classes. This way you don’t have to come home from class and organize your living space.

If you organize the week before classes start you will have a much better and relaxing start to the semester. I love spending that first week of classes exploring my campus and catching up with friends before the real work starts!

College… the place where most students get their first taste of freedom! The place where you eat ramen for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The place where you have near impossible classes, and even more impossible assignments. The place where YOU have everything figured out.

I’m sure these are all rumors we’ve heard and thoughts that we’ve shared when leaving our last year of high school and entering our first year of college.

However, the reality of it does not exactly fit that stigma (except for maybe the ramen part).

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things that you’ve probably heard from upperclassmen that are true. The classes are hard, the assignments are even harder, and you have to stay on top of everything, in order to get good grades. But there is one major misconception for both incoming freshman and new students in general. And that is… having your life figured out.

As high school wraps up, students are pressured into selecting their major. Although this isn’t a permanent decision and can easily be changed during your time at any university or institution, it is made out to be a concrete selection.

As a college sophomore, I am here to tell you it’s okay to not have everything under control. There will be times when you feel overwhelmed and completely flustered by everything you have going on. You don’t have to have everything figured out during college. The truth is, most students don’t.

Have you ever had an idea for a blog topic for the Pearson Students blog but stop short of submitting it because you think you “aren’t creative enough” or “aren’t a good writer”? It’s time to put a stop to those negative thoughts and instead, focus on your approach. Whether you are writing content for a blog or an essay for school, creativity comes from how you think about the task. Everyone has their own unique approach, but I recommend mapping out all your thoughts and breaking down the process in order to captivate the right audience.

Get your ideas on paper

Most students fret sitting in front of a blank screen, their hands on the keyboard, as if something is just going to ignite their fingers to type out something amazing. I found that most of my creativity comes when I write out all my thoughts using actual paper and pen. Before you even turn on that computer screen, get all your ideas onto a piece of paper because there is something about the glow of the computer that makes your mind flutter when trying to think a coherent thought. This might just be me, but I also find that I am much more creative when I write on blank white copy paper; it’s like the blue lines on notebook paper constrict my thoughts.

Organize your thoughts

Blogs or essays, no matter the length, follow a standard pattern: Introduction, main points, and conclusion. Most people start with the first sentence, but I usually keep those for the end. It sounds backwards, but you first need to know what’s going to go inside your sandwich before you start laying out the bread.

Start with your main points

Depending on your topic, organize four or five points that strongly support your main topic and that you can elaborate on in order of how strong they are. Once you have solid main points with good explanations, go down to your conclusion and summarize them. If your piece is a blog, you might ask the readers to reflect on the topic. If your piece is an essay, you would want to demonstrate your understanding of the material, maybe by adding some personal insight.

Do not save the best for last

Capture your reader’s interest, put the best content first in your introduction, but write it last. Once you have the rest of your piece done, you know about the entire topic and should be pretty knowledgeable and passionate about it. While it’s still fresh in your mind, ask, “What is the most exciting thing I learned through this piece? What is something I want my readers to think about?” You usually want to have a catchy opening sentence that either relates the topic to the reader or tells them something they may not know.

Whether writing a short blog or a long essay, it’s easy to make your content captivating and creative. It’s all a matter of how you approach the situation. When it comes to writing, I recommend mapping out your thoughts on good old fashioned paper and organizing them before going to the computer screen. When you start typing out the content, start from the middle, then move on to the conclusion, saving the introduction for last.

The summer break of 2018 was a special one. I first went back to Japan, my home country. Then I worked part-time to save some money. However, the most memorable experience of my summer was when I went to Brazil to participate in a week-long MIT Innovation & Entrepreneurship Bootcamp.

I first found out about MIT Innovation & Entrepreneurship Bootcamp on EdX where I massively took random courses during my gap semester. I never thought that this discovery would influence my life so dramatically. As I have been interested in solving social problems through launching a company, I submitted my application while thinking I would not get selected (acceptance rate is 7~10%). Needless to say, I  screamed with joy when I got the letter of acceptance! My journey to the MIT Bootcamp started from there. Here are three lessons I learned along the way.

Have Faith in What You Do: Be Disciplined

MIT Bootcamp was extremely expensive; tuition for the one-week program was over $6,000. So, I started to fund raise. However, the public was not always as supportive as I’d hoped and some even harshly denounced my efforts. I was first battered by these “rejections,” but I never gave up hope. After over 4 months of hard work I finally collected enough funds. After this part of my experience, I learned the importance of being disciplined to what one believes. Naysayers exist no matter what we do.

You Are Not Perfect and Will Never Be: Hence Teamwork

When the program started and I was assigned to a group, I was very nervous. Not having much work experience and hard skills, I wasn’t sure if I could offer benefit to a team mostly comprised of mid-career professionals with MBA degrees. Yet, that was an unnecessary worry. After realizing that everyone had different specializations, I learned that nobody can be perfect. Even if they have 10+ experience in business, it doesn’t mean they’ll make the right decision every time. Teams exist so we can cover each member’s weaknesses. I learned the significance of a team and got reassured that we all make mistakes regardless of our backgrounds.

Pursue what YOU like

The decision to attend MIT Bootcamp was not easy even after I had collected funds. I haven’t had previous internship experience and while my friends were getting internships for summer, I was concerned that I would be missing out. Society does have trends and expectations, such as completing an internship as a necessary step to get a job. However, it is also important to think about what matters to you and to pursue it even if it contradicts what other people are doing. Doing something that deviates required a lot of courage. However, in retrospect, I am confident that it was the right decision to attend MIT Bootcamp.

Overall, my summer was very fulfilling. Not only did I learn entrepreneurship deeply and network with 120+ individuals from 40+ countries, I have also learned a number of life lessons including those shared here.

When you hear the term “community service”, what comes to mind? Soup kitchen? Picking up garbage? Homeless people? Graduation requirement? An alternative to prison? If any of these terms popped into your head, it is time for you to change that. Any form of volunteering can be a life-changing experience, no matter how big or small your contribution is.

I did not know what to expect when I applied to an Elks Scholar service trip to San Antonio last summer. I intended to go sight-seeing and play a couple of ice breakers with other students in between sessions of serving food to homeless people. We did do these things, but the experience provided me with three benefits that I never thought would affect me everyday: knowledge, travel, and relationships.

Practicing new skills

During the trip, twenty-two of us visited different organizations in San Antonio with varying levels of resources and success. Some shelters were very organized and had multiple facilities, while others were small and clearly needed more manpower and funding. The varying needs resulted in a variety of tasks for my group. We mostly provided indirect services (helping the organization operate rather than directly interacting with its clients) which allowed us to build upon our personal skills and learn new ones. We practiced leadership when creating efficient working rhythms for tasks like sorting through donations and folding clothes. We also got exposed to physical tasks we usually never do, such as painting ceilings, gardening, and building playhouses.

Despite the differences among the shelters, they each caused me to dismantle the idea of homelessness as an identity. Homelessness does not have to be a permanent experience. Each shelter had an incredible turn around period of their clients. Clients receive medical attention, dental care, allowances to shop for food, season and style appropriate clothing, and help obtaining jobs and homes. This information changed the way I viewed shelters and less fortunate people: they are not as hopeless as I assumed them to be, and I wish I had known this sooner.

Exploring new places

Some service experiences allow you to travel or attend nearby events for free or at a discounted price. I got to spend time in downtown San Antonio for a small fee. Through opportunities in my own state, I attended the Amazon VOICE Summit for free. Volunteering isn’t just for shelters and soup kitchens. You can totally volunteer at check in tables or merchandise booths at marathons, concerts, festivals, and conventions that interest you. All you have to do is search online for these opportunities.

Creating new connections

Finally, my favorite benefit of volunteering is forming new relationships. I bonded very closely with twenty other students who all share the same compassion for humanity. The work we did in Texas was genuine, which made the trip so enjoyable and emotional that we all cried when we said our goodbyes. I communicate daily with the friends I made on this trip, and I cannot wait to meet them again in the future. I also got to network with people in my field of study. I connected with a student who interned at Google and Apple, and upon sending him an email after the trip, I received a new LinkedIn connection and helpful resume advice.  

And because of this one experience, I decided to cancel my long anticipated trip to Costa Rica and instead apply for another service trip. The benefits of volunteering are certainly more valuable to me than any vacation, a feeling I would have not expected before my experience in San Antonio.