University of St Francis Top Questions

College has truly been one of the most challenging, painful, and yet exciting times of my life. I have bounced back and forth between struggling to pay bills and working more, to working the other side of the coin in getting behind in school work and taking more time off from work. In this respect I find the greatest struggle to survive and succeed. While this has truly been difficult, positive changes in my own character have occured in the process. Responsibility, intellectual development, and life experience cannot have a reasonable price tag. The internal changes I have gone through parallel to my struggles I will carry with me for the rest of my life. In less than one short year I will be able to attest that not only did I complete the difficult task of attaining a bachelor's degree, but I have attained one of the more difficult ones: a degree in mathematics (and secondary education). The confidence and pride I will carry with me after attaining this prize will carry me further in life than the mere paper certifying that I have recieved said education, to heights in life I have yet to even fully realized.

Albert Einstein once said that "the significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." This quote holds true to me because in my opinion, knowledge and education is always evolving. College has given me the opportunity to expand my mind and upgrade my level of thinking so I can make a difference in the world whether it be big or small. However, college has not only been an educational experience for me but also a life experience. I feel as though I have grown as an individual since I began college. It has brought out qualities within myself that I forgot I even possessed. My work ethic, organization skills, and motivation has significantly increased since I embarked on this journey of college. It has helped me become a leader and not a follower through the independence it encourages. The most valuable thing college has provided for me, however, is many opportunities for my future. I have obtained the confidence in myself to pursue whatever I choose to and that truly is how freedom is supposed to feel; for there is nothing more freeing than the power of choice.

To be honest, college is a very fulfilling personal experience. It is something I have done on my own and can take pride in my own grades and accomplishments. I had initially attended college and received an Associate's degree. After working for a few years I knew that my college experience needed to be expanded as there was much more I could learn and use to grow as an individual. I have remained working nearly full-time in my field and work on homework as much as I can during my lunch hours and evenings. You just need to get started and motivate yourself to accomplish things and college was definitely something I wanted to take further. Now that I am in the college mode again I will be starting my Master's degree program immediately after my Bachelor's is complete. I have filled out numerous college essays and spent hours filling out scholarship forms to no avail. I work hard, have no children, and am not of a specific ethnic background which puts me out of most scholarship runnings. I would just like some extra help to support myself financially. Honest!

I have had a lot of time off from school and have learned that in the medical field you have to have some degree of some kind. I have 2 children that I am trying to set an example for and hope to inspire to get a higher education. The college experience that I have obtained has given me confidence in the health field. When I get into the world I will be able to use the wisdom that has been given to me and that I have learned on my own from my classes. In the near future, I want to make a difference in my patients lives, even if it is just one.

I am a first generation college student in my family. I am a teenage mother she is one. Also I am married College educated people are more likely to be able to support their families in the future. If you want a bright future you must attend college it seems to hard to do right now even in this economy but it will be worth it in the end. If it wasn't so important I wouldn't go out of my ways to attend college. I want to show my daughter and family that even though I had a rough start into adulthood I can make the best of it by planning out my future and education.

I for one can attest that a college education is valuable. I started school ten years ago, received my associates and then quit since I still had no idea "what I wanted to do when I grew up". I entered the work force and got a really good job as a 911 dispatcher. The only problem was that I hated it. Sure it paid really well, but I dreaded going to work every day and having to work with the corrosive police officers' personalities. Three years later and still working at a job I hated I unexpectedly became pregnant. The stressful job and the stressful pregnancy became too much for me and I decided to make a huge change in my life. I quit my job and started going to back to school full time. Except this time I was a single mother. Having had experience in public service I knew I liked that aspect of working so I decided to go into nursing. The only way I can become a nurse is with a college education. But the struggle of being a mother and balancing school so far has been rewarding. I hope my son will be proud someday.

OMG the first time I visited my new college was this week and my feeling was like Awesome. I look forward to attending this school in fall cause they have every facility I need for my major and its a very good school

I am a nontraditional student. I am a single mother of 5 daughters, one of which has cerebral palsy. I also have 2 granddaughters. Completing my degree has been a dream that I never lost sight of while I raised my kids even when I thought it would never be possible. Since I have gone back to school, I have grown personally and professionally. The support I recieve from my instructors has encouraged me to set my life goals high and empowered me to reach them. My determination has set an example for my daughters and has incorporated in them the value of an education regardless of the difficulties life may throw your way. My mother once told my girls to marry doctors. I told my mother to never tell them to marry doctors, but rather to be doctors. As a result of my experiences in college my girls have set their education as a priority. This alone makes my college experience invaluable.

I have not yet started college. I will be a Freshmen during the 2010/2011 school year. But what I hope to recieve from my college experience the ability, education, and training to help another person that I aspire to experience. Whether it is giving a flu shot or being able to assist in the detection of a harmful disease at an early stage. From the smallest aspect of help to a life altering service; I want to be there for my patients just as others have assisted me with my medical problems and emergencies. Just the feeling and accomplishment of improving someone’s life is the unique experience I am seeking to obtain from my college years. Not only am I looking to experince the the wonders of my career as a Nurse, but I also hope to experience a unique experience that will not only affext my life now, but also impact my life in the future.

I have gotten a lot out of my college experience. Before I started college, I was the shy, quiet kid that tried to make myself invisable. When I went away to school that all changed. I became very active in life on campus including joining three clubs and the track and field team. In my second year of college I even became the president of one of the clubs. These are all thing I would not have imagined doing in high school. Going away to school has taught me to be more independent and speak up when I feel strongly about something. Not only has college been a value to me academically, but socially as well. I am more open to talking to new people and have made many new friends. If I had made the decision to not attend college, I would probably still be too shy to do all of these things that I have listed. Because of all these reasons, and many more, I say college is a very worthwhile and valuble experience.