Life File: Respond with Wonder and Awe
When I walked into Student Success Center at the Parham Road campus in June, I had no idea what to expect. I told the Director of First Impressions there, that I had come that day to get “all set up” for the upcoming academic year, register as a student, and get my classes in order. I thought I was ahead of the game, getting ready before everyone else. Essentially, a step above all others, and I felt good, but wary.
After the basic greetings, the Director asked me if I had taken “the test…” Before this moment, I had no idea that I needed to take a test to get into Sarge. I thought High School was that test, so having to take another one was surprising. I said “no” after tripping on that word a couple times and walked out and drove away from the campus, to embarrassed to ask when and where I could take this test. Later as I relaxed, I wondered about the placement test I had to take and came to the sudden, and startling conclusion that having to take this test made perfect sense. I was in awe that I had not thought about how many students must go to J. Sargeant Reynolds, and how varying their levels of knowledge must be. To even try to put students in classes, or even let them try to place themselves in classes they thought appropriate, would prove to be a minor catastrophe. There would be so many transfers, dropped classes, mixed and messed up schedules, there would be academic pandemonium. As we skip forward a few months, my first day of classes was fast approaching, and I hadn’t even bought a pen. I wasn’t particularly worried about that though.
The next day, I walked into my Business 100 class, bleary eyed, but excited. The first thing I noticed was that the chairs were office chairs and not small, uncomfortable desks. I gladly took one. As the professor walked in, any tensions I had seemed to melt away as I observed Mr. Cobbs walk in with total confidence, and an air of knowledge about him. I was amazed already amazed at the differences in seating and classroom layout (however minor those may seem) but when Professor Cobbs walked in, my awe was utterly complete. I knew he was a good teacher then and there, which was hard to come across in high school for me. In fact, all my professors seem really good. Practically exponentially greater than any of my high school teachers. Although the fact that I have good professors is nice, I would have liked some insider advice from a student or willing faculty member before I came to J. Sarge the first day.
Advice I would give to an incoming freshman would be to get your foot in the door early, get to know an academic advisor personally, and learn to use the course catalog and schedule in conjunction with the VCCS online system. All these together would create a sort of network in the mind that would act as a catch all for most questions that would arise for a freshman.
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