By Huong Cao, Staff Writer
As a new semester has started, Mason students are getting adjusted to their stressful but exciting college life. Whether you are a senior trying to balance school and part-time jobs or a freshman starting their college experience, Fourth Estate feels your worries.
Here are some tips on planning, choosing a club or organization to get involved with, and professional development from upperclassmen students to help you kick off the new semester.
1. Stay On Top of Schoolwork
To stay on top of schoolwork, printing new syllabuses and writing due dates of big projects and assignments in your agenda is a great way to plan ahead. Tashara Bully, a senior balancing a job and schoolwork agrees.
“I use a planner or reminders in my phone to schedule things one week in advance. I have to make sure things are in order and using a planner or my phone helps me plan things out.”
Tiarra Lowery suggested looking at the syllabus weekly to see what is coming.
“If you know the deadline of a big project is coming, just start brainstorming how to approach and prepare for the assignment even if you cannot do it right away,” Lowery added.
2. Get Involved at Mason’s Diverse Campus
In addition to planning to succeed academically, Mason students will miss out if they do not take advantage of the diverse community on campus. With 350 organizations and clubs at Mason, choosing which clubs to join is a challenging task.
To help those who are still looking for a club, Bully suggested looking at an organization or a club’s social media channels to see what they do. By searching online, students could also see the value and mission of an organization. For Bully, inclusion is very important.
“I hope on-campus organizations have diverse group members and are organized,” Bully added.
3. Be Patient
In regards to professional development, Bully suggested not being afraid if one feels like he or she is slower than others and to avoid any comparison.
“Find out what you want to do and be more patient with yourself. If it’s meant to be, it will be,” Bully said. Lowery shared that students need to be their own advocates and constantly improve themselves.
“Some people get ahead and some people are behind, but it is okay to be behind,” Lowery said. “The most important thing is to believe in yourself, and to make improvement at your own pace.”
Graphic by Billy Ferguson
