By Elaine Bonilla/reporter
Some students have created new semester resolutions to help themselves improve in school and overcome life’s obstacles.
South Campus students Tien Tran and husband Jonathan Mata ended 2010 with the birth of their first child. As the year passed, these new parents saw the difficulties that came with being a student and a parent as well as working.
“I used to overwork and try to study around [work], but now with a baby, I lack energy and time,” Tran said.
To better succeed in 2012, Tran said she will devote more time to her studies and wants to be more prepared before attending class by reading the material before each class.
Kinesiology major Faith Jessop resolved to have better attendance.
“This past semester, I missed several classes, and because of that, I missed out on crucial information,” she said. “I plan on attending every class, and if I can’t make it, I will get the notes from a classmate.”
Jessop said she started classes at TCC during the summer semester and attended every class, studied often and checked CampusCruiser daily, which resulted in a 4.0 GPA. During the fall semester, she wasn’t quite on top of her schoolwork, and her grades showed it, she said.
In addition to school, Jessop also works.
“My work hours are very flexible,” she said. ”And I believe as long as I manage my time wisely, my schoolwork will not be affected.”
Second-year student Daniel Fancher says his job doesn’t always comply with how many hours he would like to work.
“I’ve tried everything I can when it comes to the hours I prefer to work,” he said. “It’s up to my managers to see that I get the hours I want.”
Fancher plans to change what he can when it comes to schoolwork, such as doing assignments when they are first assigned to avoid procrastination.
Procrastination was a major issue with communications major Amanda Mitchell, who saw it affect her grades last semester.
“I wasn’t very consistent when starting my assignments as soon as I found out about them and slowly started getting back into old habits,” she said. ”And it showed in my work.”
To stay on top of schoolwork in 2012, Mitchell plans to take advantage of downtime by studying more and not waiting until the last minute to do anything school-related.
Sophomore Bianca Guevara attends NW Campus and had an addition to her family in 2011. She is a full-time student whose husband supports her education, and they agreed she didn’t need to worry about working while attending school unless she absolutely had to.
“I had taken 16 hours before, but when I return to school, I think I’m going to cut down to just six hours,” she said.
