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Self-Reflection #1

My Definition of Academic Success + My Academic Goals

I define academic success as a person who can achieve their goals through the pursuit of education and the need to learn new knowledge. Furthermore, I define academic success to be related to students in which a student can achieve academic success if they balance their schedule between making time to study for classes, work, volunteer, be involved at school through clubs, and lastly having a social life outside of school. I see my academic goals as something I can pursue successfully through school if I believe in my own self to want to accomplish the goals I set for myself, which I do. My academic goals include graduating from UCLA with above a 3.5 gpa, going to graduate school, being part of Teach for America, obtaining my masters in either Education or Education Administration, and lastly receiving my teaching credential to be an elementary school teacher.

Moreover, the steps I plan to take to achieve my academic goals include balancing my time management between my school responsibilities and responsibilities outside of school, being involved with clubs and internships related to teaching and working with kids, and lastly self-managing myself in how much preparation I need when it comes to studying and doing work for my classes. Furthermore, what will I do in order to ensure this class will support me are to take advantage of the resources UCLA provides to transfer students such as myself and also learn more about what steps I can take personally myself in order to feel accumulated to the quarter system. Ultimately, from my UCLA experience, I hope to gain a sense of confidence and reward knowing how I can better utilize my resources at school as a transfer student.

Self Reflection #1

Self-Reflection #2

Time Grid Activity

(Managing My Time + Taking Care Of My Mental Health)

I currently organize my time to study and complete tasks by having a calendar on my desk in my dorm. I write down all important due dates for assignments, midterms, and finals in multi-color pen for each class to stay organized. I take about an hour to an hour and thirty minutes to study material for a class, then take a ten minute break, and then move on to the same subject and do the same routine again. I further organize my time to study and complete tasks by also using a passion planner. In addition, I use my passion planner for school, work, extracurricular activities, friends, and family in order to manage my time.

I am most engaged in my studies when I am learning something I want to learn. I am engaged most in my studies when I see what I am learning can be utilized to my everyday interactions with others. Moreover, I am least engaged in my studies when the topic is not interesting to me and makes me not want to study. I am also least engaged in my studies when it comes to reading information in an article that repeats the main point of the article. Overall, my engagement in my studies depends whether or not I take an interest in learning the material.

One step I plan to take to manage my time more effectively for this quarter and beyond is to not commit to many activities. I plan on doing so by simply saying no to commitments where I know I cannot handle. In addition, to manage my time more effectively, I want to set up using Google calendar on my phone as I always see for my friends, having a planner on their phone is also extremely helpful in managing time. Furthermore, another step I plan to take to manage my time more effectively is to take more time for myself by going to the gym regularly.

Self-Reflection #3

Assesing My Development In My Academic Career

Arriving at UCLA, I was very afraid of my future, struggling to figure out what I had wanted to do as a future career. Coming into UCLA as a transfer from Santa Monica College, my biggest fear was not making friends who I could connect with through my interests and passions. However, that all changed, when I started my academic journey at UCLA. Taking Sociology classes such as Sociology of Comparative Assimilation and Race and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity: Considering the University my first quarter made me a more confident and outspoken person, finding peers in my classes who came some of my closest friends. In University Studies, a class designed to assist transfers, I learned about how to connect with professors by going to their office hours and asking them about class material. Through taking University Studies, I truly learned how to create interpersonal relationships with my professors and peers by becoming involved on campus through organizations geared toward the UCLA transfer student body.

Furthermore, by taking University Studies, I learned the importance of having a growth mindset and how I could apply this mindset to my outlook on school and life. Learning about the growth mindset made me a more outgoing and optimistic person not afraid of the future. I also learned the importance of failure and how it is okay to fail the first time and then grow from mistakes. Before taking University Studies, I would say I had a mindset between fixed and growth since sometimes I would think that failure means that I cannot accomplish my academic and personal goals. But, after being in University Studies, I have truly expanded my mindset and have become positive about my future by journaling my thoughts pertaining to my future career.

Self-Reflection #4

My Relationship With Social Identities, Self-Authorship

(How I See The Diversity and Privilege As Issues)

After taking Univeristy Studies, I learned so much about how my fellow peers identify themselves with multiple identities. I also learned how social identity plays a factor into how people get jobs and how others are perceived based on their identity. My relationship with social identities is that I identify with many things such as being a transfer student, being a daughter of immigrant parents, being a sister, living in a white-affluent community my entire life, and being a Filipino-Iranian American. All these social identities define who I am as a person and how I interact with others. Furthermore, my relationship with self-authorship is that I am working on my intrapersonal development and my interpersonal development. I am further trying to find the right balance between figuring out more of who I am as a person by creating relationships with my professors, peers, and my community outside of UCLA.

I think privilege is such a prevalent issue in our world. For me, I feel I am privileged to be from Calabasas, a suburban city in the Greater Los Angeles where the majority of the population is white and rich. However, sometimes I do not feel privileged to have grown up in Calabasas since most of my life I was faced with bullying from white people who looked down upon me because of my skin color. I further think diversity is an issue in my city for I rarely see people of my own color and only see people with white skin. Yet, I believe diversity is not an issue at UCLA. Everyday, I am able to see diverse groups of people interacting with one another. I further get the privilege to be at a school where diversity is welcomed and stressed not only inside the classroom but outside the classroom.

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