Final Reflection

Writing Goals from the beginning of the year:

•  Become more confident in writing my essays and make good outlines before I write them
• Get better at using more colorful and less common words in my writing
• Get better at constructing good thesis statements

 Looking back at my goals, I'd say that I have improved my writing from the very beginning. I don't exactly enjoy writing essays, but now that I have started to make good, thoughtful, outlines I've become a bit more confident in writing them. I feel like I have been able to organize my ideas better and have gotten better at giving more details and evidence in my essays. My first in-class essay was not very good and lacked a lot of evidence and detail, but I like to think I improved a little bit in that area of my writing. Thesis statements are another story; they have always been a challenge to me. I know how to write them, but making them good is the hard part. Although I do think that I have improved a little bit in writing good thesis statements since the beginning of the year though. One goal I don't think I have improved that much in is using more colorful words. It's sometimes difficult for me to get out of the habit of using common words, but I'm still working on it. Overall, I think that I have improved as a writer and accomplished my goals to some extent.

I think I should earn an A in my participation grade. I tried to step it up and respond more in class after the last time we graded ourselves for participation, and have been a leader in the small groups, and provided thoughtful responses in class

facebook

Thought this was funny. It does a good job of describing the news feed I constantly read on my own Facebook, and how I don't even talk to half the people that come up on my feed. 

social networks

The number one social network that I use is Facebook. I used to use Myspace, but moved on to Facebook around sophomore year of high school. I also use YouTube, Pandora, and StumbleUpon. On Facebook I post pictures of me and my friends, and update statuses about my life, comment on my friends posts. I have over 400 friends, but i don’t talk to half of them. Some of them could just be from my third grade class and I haven’t talked to them since, or some are my best friends and I post things on their wall all the time. I don’t really use YouTube that much, and I really only created an account my junior year of high school so I could post videos of me doing gymnastics for college coaches to see. Now I just go on there randomly to watch funny videos or get songs that I like. On Pandora, I just enter music that I like and listen to the playlists that it makes for me, and I can also see what other people are listening to as well. StumbleUpon is a website where you choose topics that you’re interested in and you “stumble” through websites that are related to those topics. I can also see all the websites that my friends have liked and can looke at them as well. 

Quotes

• For every $1 invested by the state, the CSU generates $5.43 for California's economy.
• CSU-related spending generates more than $17 billion in economic impact in California which supports 150,000 jobs in the state.
• The CSU, more than any other public or private university in the state, provides more job-ready graduates to California's competitive industries — industries which account for nearly 5 million jobs in the state.
• Even a relatively modest increase of 5% in the bachelor’s degree percentage yields about an $8,000 increase in household median income statewide.
• By 2025, the state will have one million fewer college-educated workers than the economy will require, according to PPIC projections.
• This report proposes that the plan set explicit new goals in several key areas, including UC and CSU eligibility levels, community college transfers to four-year institutions, and college completion rates.

Interview

It would have been awesome if I could have interviewed the chancellor or maybe even our governor, but apparently they have better things to do than help me with my paper! So instead I interviewed a Senior here at SJSU.

Interview with Lauren Green, Senior at SJSU.

Do you know how much you are paying for tuition here at SJSU?

Yes I know that I'm paying about 2,500 dollars for just my tuition, and thats for my 14 credits. But I also know that new fees are tagged on like every semester, which I don't pay much attention to because I don't have much of a choice other than to pay them.

Have you had any difficulties getting classes you need that are required for your major? 


Yes! Last Spring semester was the worst! I had to take six units of just "filler" classes, which I didn't even need. I'm a Child and Family Development major and I could barely get any classes for my major. I had to give up my spot to a Senior that needed the class so they could graduate sooner. Which was very frustrating.

Have you had more luck this year with getting classes? 


Yes, thankfully I have, since I'm a Senior now and they want to get rid of me. It's just annoying because you'd think that my required classes would be the biggest since an entire major of students need them, but instead I was stuck in art class and geology.

Do you think you will graduate in four years? 


I really hope so! I had to go to Summer school right before this semester since I couldn't get any of my classes last semester. Which was even more frustrating since Summer school cost over $1000 just for a three unit class. Now that was a nice dent in my family's wallet.
But I am lucky because I know a lot of people are "super seniors", and I might be lucky enough to graduate in four years, but I'm also afraid I might have to go to Summer school again or have an extra semester here at State.

Do you feel like your classes have prepared you for skills you would need for a job pertaining to your major? 


Yeah, I guess so. Luckily Child and Family Development (CFD) can be kind of self explanatory so the only hard thing will be finding a job after college!

Anything else you'd like to share or any suggestions on how to solve this problem? 

Well, basically I'd just say that going to college is real expensive, and it's very frustrating not being able to get into the classes I need. I didn't think it would be so hard to get the classes I need, but it really is. If we could just have more classes available, I think it would help people to graduate faster, preferably in four years...Except that would also require the schools to have more money, so I'd say that California needs to give more money to the school.

URL

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/aboutuc/masterplan.html

Essay To Do List

• Find out hidden fees on students
• Use more attention grabbers
• Find statistics and numbers that support my idea
• Suggest how to improve the Master Plan