Hi everyone,

I’m pretty excited to share that I will be participating in an Instagram takeover for the first time this Friday! Anyone interested in checking it out and joining me should head over and follow @StanAdmissions on Instagram 😀

Some things I expected to talk about include the graduate student life, campus layout, things to do in Turlock, and maybe a few tips on how to be successful at Stan State. I’m super honored and excited to partake in this because I feel I will be providing a graduate narrative that is focused not only on highlighting the grad experience, but also the undergrad resources and spaces that exist at Stan State that did not exist at my undergrad institution.

I’m also excited to do this because on Friday because it’ll be May 1st, which is the last day to SIR if you’re an incoming first-year! I hope my words resonate with potential students who weigh their options. I still remember when I SIRd in high school. It was such a stressful moment. I was really torn between going to the university I wanted to attend and attending the one others wanted me to. I did not only SIR once after high school, I also had to SIR when I transferred from one 4 year institution to another 4 year institution. Both in high school and as a college student, the SIR deadline was something I knew would be a very definitive moment in my life.

If anyone has suggestions, please feel free to send them my way! I want to touch on a variety of topics and hope I am able to deliver quality content. My peers have been doing such a great job honestly. I’m so excited! 🙂

Everyone’s undergrad experience is different. Sometimes the most difficult thing to discover is your major, interests, and ambitions. For many first-gen students, not giving in to imposter syndrome is not just an on-going matter, it can be a routine hindrance. It can tedious enough to find out what we (actually) find interests in and committing to it. On top of that, undergrad can go by so quickly and deciding where to go and what to do can be extremely cloudy and stressful. The hardest thing for me to answer throughout my undergrad career has been the big question: “Once you graduate, what’s next?”

It is now April 2020. In two months it’ll be my full-year college graduation anniversary! I am so excited to celebrate turning one. Somehow through all the essays, projects, homework assignments, and endless sea of classes and major requirements, I managed to answer that once daunting question and am now a full-time student in the social work masters program at Stan State! *pats myself on the back** 

Getting here was not easy, though. I had so much to decide on. I was torn between accepting my offer of admission into some very big and extremely known schools or accepting my offer from a school that’s a part of the largest four-year public university system in the United States. After weighing all the pros and cons, I knew I had to choose the school that fit my interests best. I was looking at things like:

· Class sizes

· Graduation and retention rates

· Financial aid offers

· Professors backgrounds

· Student Demographics

· City and University Culture 

In the end, I chose the MSW program that offered the small class sizes, high graduation rates, supportive financial aid offer, made up of diverse professors, a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), and located in a city I can easily navigate. Surprisingly, I also chose a school that has shifted my entire professional and academic objectives.

Prior to enrolling in the MSW program, I was determined on completing the masters and taking a very large break (time-wise) from the academic setting. I told myself I would only ever re-enter the university for another master or to polish up on field practice and theory. I never, not once, thought I would enter this MSW program and consider pursuing a Ph.D. 

Throughout undergrad, at a very large research institution, I never cared for research. Who knows how, but very, very quickly Stan State instilled within me the excitement to pursue research as not only a career but also as an interest. 

While I say I chose Stan State, I also like to think that Stan State chose me. Had I gone elsewhere, I don’t know if I would contemplate pursuing a Ph.D. so soon. I am grateful this university has already helped me determine the next chapters of my life even while I work to experience fully this current one. 

Hello all,

Today I visited campus to pick up a device the university is lending students and I managed to captured the image below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was surprised to find a campus with some activity to it. There were people exercising, construction going on, and a few vehicles in the student parking lots. However, it was extremely empty in comparison to normal days where life is going on all around the university. All in all, it was nice to be back on campus. I forgot how beautiful campus can be. Spring is definitely in the air and campus is looking greener. Campus felt so rejuvenating. Simply walking around campus for a second made me forget that this pandemic is going on.

Online classes are going (okay). Professors seem to be working with caution and doing all they can to ensure that we’re not feeling too pressured. I am grateful for that. I cannot imagine continuing completely like normal because this is not normal. I’ve realized that online classes have given me a greater interest in researching our class topics in ways that extend beyond the mandatory readings. During the normal school term, it can be difficult to do the assigned reading let alone anything extra. Now that I have more time on my hands, I am doing just that. I am not only reading my assigned texts but also googling dates, figures, and events in order to give myself more context. I wish I was doing this before! It would definitely have given me a firmer grasp on class topics.

 

I do miss in-person instruction but this is fine. I miss being a student inside a classroom, with a professor, but this is necessary right now so it’s fine. I hope everyone else is doing okay! This is our new normal and it’ll take some time to fully adjust to but with everything going “smoothly” so far academically, I have no room to complain.

I just know that in some time, this will seem like such a long time ago and it’ll make me appreciate the beauty that is Stan State in more profound ways.