Junior Fellowship Experience (JFE) Third Journal Post: Personal Changes Before, During, and After the Internship

At the beginning of this internship, I experienced a significant level of fear that I kept asking myself how I would achieve academic success at a college I have never attended or known about, especially since I was a new Georgia resident and a sophomore who took five Advanced Placement (AP) courses throughout the school year. Unexpectedly, I also experienced one of the worst setbacks in my early life: lower back surgery, so this tragic event was also the reason why I feared a lot more about going to college at that time. Meanwhile, I remained very ambitious about what I wanted to get out from this college-freshman study experience by asking my fellow schoolmates who attended GTC about college life, workload, and their recommendations to academically perform better there, so the conversations I had with them eventually lessened my inner burden of college fear at the end of my sophomore year in May. The good thing that I also witnessed, by the time I finished my sophomore year on a high note, is that my surgery symptoms began to fade away, which started to boost my confidence back in putting academic effort to the college courses, such as Computer Concepts and Hardware Installation and Maintenance, I was going to take. After gradually recovering from the terrible surgery symptoms on my lower back, I initiated to take more pride in what I did at the college, similar to any other times I had at GSMST as a student, by turning in assignments punctually, coming to class sessions on a regular basis, and actively seeking out for help about the concepts taught at both online and class sessions throughout the summer semester. Because of the attitude I showed from that point, I experienced even more significant gains starting from achieving good grades on major assessments, such as the final exams, to access to more school resources about the eligibility to participate in Student Services and switch to the Cybersecurity Associates Degree pathway as a Dual Enrollment (DE) student. As both the fall semester and the school year began in this August, I realized that it was the perfect time for me to demonstrate to others how any student can manage challenging workload in both high school and college environments. The reason that I currently believe this was the perfect time to do so is because I believe that GSMST school administrators and teachers emphasize heavily on mandatory courses for students to take during the first two years, so they can later free time with themselves to study the career field of their choice through various fellowships, especially in both junior and senior years. Moreover, taking advantage of such opportunities can be a great deal for a Gwinnett County student since many regular high school students do not get the same offers to work at a particular location and share their experiences with their representative schools. Aside from that, I am getting free time for my seventh period just to take college courses and complete the necessary coursework to obtain the certifications, which can place me more than one step ahead of the game in my future plans of serving in the United States Air Force as soon as I graduate from high school and college as well as travel with my family to other places. Most importantly, I am taking the advantage of this specialized vocational education as the first person in the family to do it, which would sound like a special achievement to my family, but this is simply another enormous opportunity for me to demonstrate to the school my high-level college aptitude and bring greater success to the school’s reputation through my active participation in the MOWR program. What I have learned so far from the summer semester until now about college is that I am not going to be told to do everything or get reminders from your professors about assignment deadlines. If I have any questions about my current program of study and my future plans after college, I must seek out for college director appointments in person and make sure that I am getting the information I need to accomplish my short-term objectives on time. Reading assigned textbook chapters and turning assignments earlier or on time, similar in high school, will definitely save me time and relax my body from further stressful moments, which I can strongly reflect on the reason why I am achieving good marks on the assignments I have been turning in for my CIST 1601: Information Security Fundamentals class. Although I am not experiencing any issues with turning assignments in and finishing assigned readings every week, my ability to save money for both CompTIA A+ and Security+ certification tests by April 2019 still remains a challenge as each exam costs more than $90 and my family has been spending money on bills for gas, electricity, mortgage, and housing. However, I can overcome this adversity by communicating more with my parents about my suggested plans to save over $300 for my certification test registration fees alone and figure out efficient strategies or ways to make this happen. I am also hopeful that my surgery symptoms do not hit me again as it will shatter my confidence in succeeding at completing college coursework for future classes. Despite the recent struggles I experienced as a first-time college student, I used the academic skills I learned at GSMST for the first two years and applied the knowledge to the coursework without hesitation,which is now making me feel stronger at managing challenging workloads from both high school and college.