By Catherine Ninteman
catherine.ninteman148@myci.csuci.edu
Many freshmen come to Channel Islands with big dreams and no experience of college life (save for what is seen in movies and second-hand information from others), but now after spending their first year on campus they’ve had the chance to reflect on their experience. Many share advice that they wish they could have told themselves at the beginning of the year.
Alexandra Seligman, a liberal studies major, said her advice to herself would be “to join more clubs on campus, because I’m part of two clubs right now and they are really enjoyable and are a great learning experience because you’re being placed in a new environment and meet new people.”
Seligman also mentioned living in the dorms, and she stated that, “I love my roommate, we got along right away (and) we respect each other.” The only downside of the dorms, she noted, was that there is no air conditioning.
Daisy Ortiz, a health science major, says that her advice for incoming freshmen “is to go to tutoring if you need it because it actually helps.” This is a great tip, as tutoring is a free service that CI provides for students.
Tutoring services can be found in the STEM center in El Dorado Hall, the Writing and Multiliteracy Center in the John Spoor Broome Library and the Learning Resource Center, which is also in the Library.
Evelyn Garcia, an ambitious double major in anthropology and biology, says she wished she “would have known how tired (I) would be everyday and how to manage (my) sleep schedule.”
For this, it’s smart to have a consistent schedule put in place and stick with it, even on the weekends. This will create a habit and will ultimately help maintain a healthy sleep schedule, but this is college so it’s very likely that this will be hard to keep up with so it’s best to find ideas to help: the internet, on-campus services, family and friends are resources that can help a lot.
“I wish I would have known to be patient,” Jenna Skala, a liberal studies major, said. “Everything may seem confusing around campus … just give it time.”
This is something that will develop over the course of each semester, but it’s always smart to keep an open mind and know that there are services on campus to help maintain a semi-stress free environment for students. Having a good group of friends can also make having patience easier to accomplish.
