A Common Reading Experience (Cre)

A Common Reading Experience (CRE) is a reading for first-year students to explore their identity, gender, race, ethnicity and civic responsibility. Recommending a new Common Reading Experience to NIU is a process of creating a text full of goals that will help first-year students succeed in their college career. A part of the Common Reading Experience is getting first-year students to establish a common purpose for their first time college experience. The first goal of this program is to establish a purposeful experience in the community for first-year students. This includes students recognizing their peers and facilitators, exploring community conversations and improving one’s communication skills. The second goal of this program is to direct students with the opportunity to explore new perspectives of viewing the world. This goal includes exploring one’s personal values and recognizing a safe environment for learning. The final goal is to help students with their critical thinking and the spirit of intellectual inquiry. This goal includes one’s individual responsibility and their personal initiative.

Being a first-year student can be nerve wrecking because of all the changes one endures. You move away from home and you become independent and have to learn to be on your own. You have so many changes and new experiences happening so quick, that many first-year students become overwhelmed. An article I read touches base with information on what first-year students would benefit on knowing before tackling this life changing experience. Deborah J. Cohan has a Ph.D. in teaching and has been a professor for first-year students for many years. She wrote an article that included 21 points first-year students should become familiar with for college success. She touches points on becoming organized and prepared for course work, learning about resources and organizations, creating relationships with mentors and professors, and being active in your learning and creating relationships. Cohan states that becoming familiar with your course syllabus is a way of becoming successful in your first-year. Having knowledge about the information on your syllabus will give you awareness of what the class schedule and coursework will be. The syllabus is your outline that will guide you through the course. The next point she discussed was having an organizing tool to help you keep track of assignments, exam dates, due dates, and other commitments. She states how a paper planner is the best way to keep organized and it is best to fill your planner out immediately after viewing the syllabus, with the understanding of the professor making changes. Being prepared for your classes and understanding how to interact with your professor is important. Cohan talks about how important it is to email your teachers through your school email and to be prepared for your classes. Buying all required textbooks and purchasing school supplies before the first day of class will help you be organized and prepare you. It is important to attend all classes unless sickness or emergency prevents you. Cohan states how you should learn how your professors teach and become acquainted with them. Knowing the professor’s office hours, the technology policy in their classes, and having a general understanding of the way they teach will help you succeed in their course. Cohan talked a lot about preparing oneself for school, but she also talked about going online and becoming familiar with resources that could help you. Finding the counseling service, tutoring center, and health service is information you should know ahead of time because it is something you might need throughout your college career. The last few points she talked about was going to social events, getting to know your roommates and suitemates, and get out of your room and make memories because “your best memories from college are likely to come from the connections you make and the things you get involved in on and off campus” (Cohan, 2017). This article would be an important part to the common reading experience because it hits points that can help a first-year student feel comfortable in the college life. This is a good source to read before going into your first-year of college because it could prepare someone who has a lot of mixed feelings about how they will survive in college. Having the understanding of what you should expect in college from classes to social life is all something that can help transform a first-year student and make them feel comfortable in this big transition.

Safe Environment – lexi

Going to university as a first year student can seem like a whole new world has opened up, suddenly you have all this time on your hands and freedoms you might not have had before. The problem with having all this time and seemingly zero responsibilities can be a bad thing if not managed properly. A great use of your time can allotted to joining organizations on campus and further squeezing out what college can provide to you. In an article by the College of St. Scholastica it list several reasons to get involved on campus including building a skill set, improved time management and meeting new people.

The reason we go to college is to better position ourselves in an already tough job market and joining a club can give you skills to further set you apart from everyone else. “It’s a great way to build your professional skills including leadership, teamwork, communication and prioritization,” says Alina Tubman, a career coach. These are all necessary skills required by jobs and internships when applying for them. Having an executive position on the club can further set someone apart, treasures of clubs deal with real money and can create relationships with outside vendors and presidents can execute high-profile events.

If you ever find yourself short on friends joining organizations will allow you to meet like-minded people that are interested in the same topics as you. Friendships form effortlessly when you’re with peers who share the same interests and passions as you and in the future these people can help you in your professional career, possibly opening up future career opportunities.

Time management can be a huge factor for your success in college. Being a part of clubs in addition to your academic responsibilities is something future employers take note of. Recent college graduate Nihar Suthar says time management is a handy skill to have in your personal life, and it’s one that future employers will be looking for after you graduate. “Recruiters and hiring managers like to know that applicants will be able to juggle tasks and handle all the demands of the job.”

You’ll get a lot of your involvement on campus both as a student and as a graduate because the benefits don’t end once you graduate. Every single job opening ask for some sort of experience and the skills you get from joining clubs and organization will carry over.

The addition of this article to the CRE is important because it highlights many of the positives of exploring community conversation including building a skillset, improved time management and meeting new people. All of these are valuable opportunities and skills a first year student needs to informed about early on in their college education in order to be successful in the next few years of college.

Being able to communicate with your peers can be a struggle for many students. Some common thoughts are “my mind goes blank!” and “I just don’t have anything to say” Luckily, a man named Jeff Callahan has gone through 90K conversation over 13 years and wrote about what he learned from them. His post is broken up into mindsets, starting conversations, and two methods for conversation: the spokes method and the loop method.

Callahan goes into this preconceived mindset many people have and that is that there is a spotlight on them. This is called the spotlight effect, and it says that we tend to place more importance on ourselves in any given social situation. The truth is that people are too busy thinking about themselves to pay attention to you, while it sounds harsh it can actually be a good thing. Conversing with someone is a compromise someone has to listen and someone has to talk, so it is important to remember that it is not all about you.

Learning how to small talk in groups is essential to getting to bigger conversations. The whole point of small to get to a point where you can go deeper. Callahan relates this to boiling a pot of water, it takes a few minutes for the water to heat up enough before it can start boiling. The easiest way to get the conversation going is to ask questions. It is easier to ask someone else a question than it is to answer a question. This works because people want to talk to the person who wants to listen. Things to avoid are topics that bring people down, no talking about how you had to put your dog down last week, religion, gun control and politics. No one has ever asked to be brought down because they are having too much fun. Near the beginning of conversation you need to keep the energy level up: match people’s energy, then add 10%.

Talking to people is a skill, so it is something you can improve through repetition. A good exercise is to start tiny conversations throughout the day. This will build your conversational muscle memory, no one knew how to first put their shoes on as a kid but now isn’t it automatic? You are surrounded by people on campus all day, the barista at the coffee shop, the person sitting next to you in class, the person waiting at the stoplight with you. The fact that we have places to be on campus gives us an easy out for these conversations and you should find comfort in that.

One method for forming conversations and avoiding those awkward silences we all dread is to use the Spokes method. Callahan says “imagine a bicycle wheel. In the middle you have a hub, and radiating out from the hub are several spokes. Now, imagine the hub as the conversational topic. The spokes are different, related topics that can be introduced.” For example, someone brings up Harry Potter unfortunately you have 0 interest in Harry Potter but want to keep the conversation going. There are a few spokes you can take, you can talk about magic, other favorite childhood movies, what it would be like to be sent away as a child to a faraway school. What to take away from this is that there several options in conversations just do not change the subject.

The second method is called the LOOp method. It stands for Listen Observation open-ended question. When thinking of people you want to conversate with would you rather talk to someone who listens or someone is quick to say something as soon as you are done speaking? The best skill you can hone to be a good conversationalist is to be able to listen because listening is a powerful way to to foster a connection between two people. Observations do two things: they show the other person that you listened and they force you stay present in the conversation because you are making comments on things the other person has just said. Lastly opened questions are your bread and butter, they cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. They make the other person provide a more thorough answer. Callahan says The LOOp method and the Spokes method are powerful ways to keep the conversation going so that you create a deeper connection with people.

In Jeff Callahan’s post “I’m A Recovering Awkward Person. My Mind Used To Go Blank Constantly. Here Are Some Lessons That Took Me 13 Years & 90K Conversations To Learn” he goes over the lessons he has learned from 13 years of trying to master the art of conversation. This is an important article to include in the CRE because an objective of the CRE is to improve the communication skills of first year students. Many students have a hard time starting conversations with strangers and when most of the people you meet in college are people you have never met it can be difficult to find success in college.

Exploring new perspectives is important for first year students, since they are planning on staying for four years. College is a great place to get experience with meeting new people from outside your comfort zone. College is filled with students from different places and perspectives. It is a great time for students to get to know their campus and interact with new people.

Therefore, a huge impact on colleges is the amount of diversity they have. For a college to do this, they need to check the first-year students background on their college application. In the article “Diversity at Colleges and Universities through Multicultural Recruiting” it mentions that “Because of diversity is important to college, it may affect your chances of getting into the college of your choice” (Brian, 2017). This may be one of the reasons why students don’t get into the college of their dreams. Also, he discusses in detail how diversity can be an impact to students’ experiences, the characteristics of diversity, and the schools mission statement.

As stated above, students can experience diversity in college by being around new people in class or in their residence halls. Diversity means more than the characteristics race, ethnicity, and gender that we are used to. According to Brian, “it also includes sexual orientation, religion, age, and socioeconomic status”. Students and other people may not define diversity as this, but colleges look into student backgrounds with those characteristics. Because of that, students can explore new perspectives.

In addition to colleges having diversity, first year students can explore events that take place on campus. The mission statement includes activities, clubs, organizations, and anything else that students can involve in. These are good opportunities for first year students to get to socialize with new people and to be involved.

First year students need to understand the importance of personal values. Therefore, a Common Reading that first year students need to understand is personal values. An article that can be used for this Common Reading Experience is “Personal Growth: Your Value, Your Life” by Jim Taylor. He talks about the decisions people make in life and how people should understand values in steps. Also, this article focuses on one person which is you and it reflects on your life.

Values are an important thing to have in life when you are trying to accomplish something. For instance, students are in college because they want a degree in some kind of way. First year students may not know what they want to major in yet, but they will find out once they know what makes them happy and what they value. Jim Taylor says that people need to ask themselves questions based on their values. That being said he states that “you must ask if you are finding meaning, happiness, success, and connection in your life”.

In addition to first year students finding out what values make them happy, they need to reflect on how they use their money. Money is mostly used on everything, but there isn’t enough for everybody to get what they want. Because of this students need to value their money wisely.

Personal values are all about thinking back to when you were a kid and changing your personal values to something meaningful to you now. Your values might change a little because now students should know what values are used for and how they have an impactful meaning. Students should reflect their values on what they want to become in life, so they can accomplish it.

Another important idea to include in our Common Reading Experience is to have first year students understand individual responsibility. Students have to know what they are responsible for in college including classes, health, personal life, and so much more. In the article, Getting Students to Take Responsibility for Learning, Weimer talks about a student’s responsibility and motivation to learn. Students should also have responsibilities to be prepared for class. Weimer also explains how students can share responsibilities with the teacher and other students by creating a productive learning environment. Weimer believes that a lot of the guidelines that teachers provide for students are responsibilities that they should have themselves. “We require attendance, participation, and strictly enforce deadlines. In our commitment to help students succeed, we do for them what they should be doing for themselves” (Weimer, Getting Students to Take Responsibility for Learning). Students should not feel obligated to come to class because of an attendance grade. Instead, they should want to come to class to learn and succeed. Teachers are only setting these boundaries upon students because they believe without them, students will not feel the need to follow them. This article is important to include into a Common Reading Experience for first year students because it gives simple responsibilities for them that applies to all classes they will take throughout college. Overall, these responsibilities will push students down the path to success. Students need to be motivated to learn and participate in class so they can absorb every piece of information that they will need to know later in life.

Personal initiative is an important concept for first year college students to learn. A student’s initiative is important because it is their entire motivation to participate in their education. Attending college does not directly give a student all the information they need. They need to take part in learning every concept, and put in the effort for every course they take. Telling a student to succeed does not automatically make them succeed. Students need to use their initiative to accomplish every small success in order to lead up to a larger success. The smaller things matter in terms of accomplishing anything. No one can tackle a lifelong goal in a day, but they can accomplish smaller goals everyday that lead up to a lifelong goal. The article chosen to present personal initiative to first year students in our CRE is effective because it is straight to the point. It describes exactly why personal initiative is an important thing to have and how it will achieve anything throughout life. In the article, The Power of Personal Initiative, Smith states that people who use their personal initiative will have a greater influence upon others as well as boosting their own self esteem. No student can advance in their education or career without acting upon it. Smith also writes, “Success comes to those who are proactive” (The Power of Personal Initiative). This quote is not too long, and can seem unmeaningful because of that. However, these words portray the entire purpose of the article. In order to succeed, students must learn that they need to put in their own effort.

As a first-year student there is a very big open mind set of how you express yourself. Then, with college being in start of it all you will have to start being more of a critical thinker. Getting more in-depth with your thinking and teachers are going to be looking for that going deeper into why you made that statement, then there is the how did you get to think point in your thoughts.

Furthermore, first-year you will have to be able to organize your thoughts and be able to express them in a way for everyone to understand. However, we as students come up with a lot of ideas and reasons for things from experiences most is how I get through certain things that I must write about. The point of gathering your information is sometimes the easy part really you think about what has happen to you or the topic you are able to relate to will give you much of a push in your writing process.

Students sometimes feel like it is easy to express your goals and values. There as being a first-year a student will being a create goals for themselves because first start of college is when you have the decision of if you want to stay or play. Being able to separate the two willing to do what you must do to not fail or joke around. Goals and values play a big part in that because some students let it take over them due to all the freedom. They don’t have a teacher down their neck telling them when an assignment is due or how their behavior is in class. It’s the freedom that takes over some students. Coming to college having a mission to sink or swim. The big goal is wanting to graduate.

The state of having goals and morals for yourself not just school is reality what it comes down to worth you know the rights and wrongs of things. Knowing that something’s will put you in harms way worth than being the best way. Sometimes you don’t value you goals and morals with who you are hanging around meaning friends. You know yourself must never change due to your change in environment means because you’re in such different space you will always be yourself.

The guest speaker who would come talk for the CRE Recommendation for two years would be Elizabeth Smart. Of our time, her abduction case was the most followed. She was abducted on June 5, 2002 and was returned safely to her family on March 12, 2003. She was held captive for 9 long months and was controlled by her captors by being threatened to hurt her family if she tried to escape. Elizabeth has become an advocate and has created a foundation to promote “The National AMBER Alert, The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act and other safety legislation to help prevent abductions” (CITE). When older, she wrote a book called “My story” and a survivor’s guide called “You’re Not Alone” to help children who have gone through similar experiences as her. She writes about her experience and helps children to not give up after losing hope for your life. Her story is well known by many parents, law enforcement and leaders worldwide. “Elizabeth’s example is a daily demonstration that there really is life after a tragic event” (CITE). She has since gone on with her life with receiving degree in music as a harp performance from Brigham Young University and married in 2012. She would be an excellent guest speaker because college can become stressful at times especially for first-year students. Many students may become very overwhelmed or have gone through traumatic experiences and not feel they can achieve. Hearing someone else’s story and how you can become something great is always a motivator. I believe students hearing about her story would motivate them in school and truly help them find their inner-self and what they want to become in their life.A Common Reading Experience (CRE) is a reading for first-year students to explore their identity, gender, race, ethnicity and civic responsibility. Recommending a new Common Reading Experience to NIU is a process of creating a text full of goals that will help first-year students succeed in their college career. A part of the Common Reading Experience is getting first-year students to establish a common purpose for their first time college experience. The first goal of this program is to establish a purposeful experience in the community for first-year students. This includes students recognizing their peers and facilitators, exploring community conversations and improving one’s communication skills. The second goal of this program is to direct students with the opportunity to explore new perspectives of viewing the world. This goal includes exploring one’s personal values and recognizing a safe environment for learning. The final goal is to help students with their critical thinking and the spirit of intellectual inquiry. This goal includes one’s individual responsibility and their personal initiative.

Being a first-year student can be nerve wrecking because of all the changes one endures. You move away from home and you become independent and have to learn to be on your own. You have so many changes and new experiences happening so quick, that many first-year students become overwhelmed. An article I read touches base with information on what first-year students would benefit on knowing before tackling this life changing experience. Deborah J. Cohan has a Ph.D. in teaching and has been a professor for first-year students for many years. She wrote an article that included 21 points first-year students should become familiar with for college success. She touches points on becoming organized and prepared for course work, learning about resources and organizations, creating relationships with mentors and professors, and being active in your learning and creating relationships. Cohan states that becoming familiar with your course syllabus is a way of becoming successful in your first-year. Having knowledge about the information on your syllabus will give you awareness of what the class schedule and coursework will be. The syllabus is your outline that will guide you through the course. The next point she discussed was having an organizing tool to help you keep track of assignments, exam dates, due dates, and other commitments. She states how a paper planner is the best way to keep organized and it is best to fill your planner out immediately after viewing the syllabus, with the understanding of the professor making changes. Being prepared for your classes and understanding how to interact with your professor is important. Cohan talks about how important it is to email your teachers through your school email and to be prepared for your classes. Buying all required textbooks and purchasing school supplies before the first day of class will help you be organized and prepare you. It is important to attend all classes unless sickness or emergency prevents you. Cohan states how you should learn how your professors teach and become acquainted with them. Knowing the professor’s office hours, the technology policy in their classes, and having a general understanding of the way they teach will help you succeed in their course. Cohan talked a lot about preparing oneself for school, but she also talked about going online and becoming familiar with resources that could help you. Finding the counseling service, tutoring center, and health service is information you should know ahead of time because it is something you might need throughout your college career. The last few points she talked about was going to social events, getting to know your roommates and suitemates, and get out of your room and make memories because “your best memories from college are likely to come from the connections you make and the things you get involved in on and off campus” (Cohan, 2017). This article would be an important part to the common reading experience because it hits points that can help a first-year student feel comfortable in the college life. This is a good source to read before going into your first-year of college because it could prepare someone who has a lot of mixed feelings about how they will survive in college. Having the understanding of what you should expect in college from classes to social life is all something that can help transform a first-year student and make them feel comfortable in this big transition.

Safe Environment – lexi

Going to university as a first year student can seem like a whole new world has opened up, suddenly you have all this time on your hands and freedoms you might not have had before. The problem with having all this time and seemingly zero responsibilities can be a bad thing if not managed properly. A great use of your time can allotted to joining organizations on campus and further squeezing out what college can provide to you. In an article by the College of St. Scholastica it list several reasons to get involved on campus including building a skill set, improved time management and meeting new people.

The reason we go to college is to better position ourselves in an already tough job market and joining a club can give you skills to further set you apart from everyone else. “It’s a great way to build your professional skills including leadership, teamwork, communication and prioritization,” says Alina Tubman, a career coach. These are all necessary skills required by jobs and internships when applying for them. Having an executive position on the club can further set someone apart, treasures of clubs deal with real money and can create relationships with outside vendors and presidents can execute high-profile events.

If you ever find yourself short on friends joining organizations will allow you to meet like-minded people that are interested in the same topics as you. Friendships form effortlessly when you’re with peers who share the same interests and passions as you and in the future these people can help you in your professional career, possibly opening up future career opportunities.

Time management can be a huge factor for your success in college. Being a part of clubs in addition to your academic responsibilities is something future employers take note of. Recent college graduate Nihar Suthar says time management is a handy skill to have in your personal life, and it’s one that future employers will be looking for after you graduate. “Recruiters and hiring managers like to know that applicants will be able to juggle tasks and handle all the demands of the job.”

You’ll get a lot of your involvement on campus both as a student and as a graduate because the benefits don’t end once you graduate. Every single job opening ask for some sort of experience and the skills you get from joining clubs and organization will carry over.

The addition of this article to the CRE is important because it highlights many of the positives of exploring community conversation including building a skillset, improved time management and meeting new people. All of these are valuable opportunities and skills a first year student needs to informed about early on in their college education in order to be successful in the next few years of college.

Being able to communicate with your peers can be a struggle for many students. Some common thoughts are “my mind goes blank!” and “I just don’t have anything to say” Luckily, a man named Jeff Callahan has gone through 90K conversation over 13 years and wrote about what he learned from them. His post is broken up into mindsets, starting conversations, and two methods for conversation: the spokes method and the loop method.

Callahan goes into this preconceived mindset many people have and that is that there is a spotlight on them. This is called the spotlight effect, and it says that we tend to place more importance on ourselves in any given social situation. The truth is that people are too busy thinking about themselves to pay attention to you, while it sounds harsh it can actually be a good thing. Conversing with someone is a compromise someone has to listen and someone has to talk, so it is important to remember that it is not all about you.

Learning how to small talk in groups is essential to getting to bigger conversations. The whole point of small to get to a point where you can go deeper. Callahan relates this to boiling a pot of water, it takes a few minutes for the water to heat up enough before it can start boiling. The easiest way to get the conversation going is to ask questions. It is easier to ask someone else a question than it is to answer a question. This works because people want to talk to the person who wants to listen. Things to avoid are topics that bring people down, no talking about how you had to put your dog down last week, religion, gun control and politics. No one has ever asked to be brought down because they are having too much fun. Near the beginning of conversation you need to keep the energy level up: match people’s energy, then add 10%.

Talking to people is a skill, so it is something you can improve through repetition. A good exercise is to start tiny conversations throughout the day. This will build your conversational muscle memory, no one knew how to first put their shoes on as a kid but now isn’t it automatic? You are surrounded by people on campus all day, the barista at the coffee shop, the person sitting next to you in class, the person waiting at the stoplight with you. The fact that we have places to be on campus gives us an easy out for these conversations and you should find comfort in that.

One method for forming conversations and avoiding those awkward silences we all dread is to use the Spokes method. Callahan says “imagine a bicycle wheel. In the middle you have a hub, and radiating out from the hub are several spokes. Now, imagine the hub as the conversational topic. The spokes are different, related topics that can be introduced.” For example, someone brings up Harry Potter unfortunately you have 0 interest in Harry Potter but want to keep the conversation going. There are a few spokes you can take, you can talk about magic, other favorite childhood movies, what it would be like to be sent away as a child to a faraway school. What to take away from this is that there several options in conversations just do not change the subject.

The second method is called the LOOp method. It stands for Listen Observation open-ended question. When thinking of people you want to conversate with would you rather talk to someone who listens or someone is quick to say something as soon as you are done speaking? The best skill you can hone to be a good conversationalist is to be able to listen because listening is a powerful way to to foster a connection between two people. Observations do two things: they show the other person that you listened and they force you stay present in the conversation because you are making comments on things the other person has just said. Lastly opened questions are your bread and butter, they cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. They make the other person provide a more thorough answer. Callahan says The LOOp method and the Spokes method are powerful ways to keep the conversation going so that you create a deeper connection with people.

In Jeff Callahan’s post “I’m A Recovering Awkward Person. My Mind Used To Go Blank Constantly. Here Are Some Lessons That Took Me 13 Years & 90K Conversations To Learn” he goes over the lessons he has learned from 13 years of trying to master the art of conversation. This is an important article to include in the CRE because an objective of the CRE is to improve the communication skills of first year students. Many students have a hard time starting conversations with strangers and when most of the people you meet in college are people you have never met it can be difficult to find success in college.

Exploring new perspectives is important for first year students, since they are planning on staying for four years. College is a great place to get experience with meeting new people from outside your comfort zone. College is filled with students from different places and perspectives. It is a great time for students to get to know their campus and interact with new people.

Therefore, a huge impact on colleges is the amount of diversity they have. For a college to do this, they need to check the first-year students background on their college application. In the article “Diversity at Colleges and Universities through Multicultural Recruiting” it mentions that “Because of diversity is important to college, it may affect your chances of getting into the college of your choice” (Brian, 2017). This may be one of the reasons why students don’t get into the college of their dreams. Also, he discusses in detail how diversity can be an impact to students’ experiences, the characteristics of diversity, and the schools mission statement.

As stated above, students can experience diversity in college by being around new people in class or in their residence halls. Diversity means more than the characteristics race, ethnicity, and gender that we are used to. According to Brian, “it also includes sexual orientation, religion, age, and socioeconomic status”. Students and other people may not define diversity as this, but colleges look into student backgrounds with those characteristics. Because of that, students can explore new perspectives.

In addition to colleges having diversity, first year students can explore events that take place on campus. The mission statement includes activities, clubs, organizations, and anything else that students can involve in. These are good opportunities for first year students to get to socialize with new people and to be involved.

First year students need to understand the importance of personal values. Therefore, a Common Reading that first year students need to understand is personal values. An article that can be used for this Common Reading Experience is “Personal Growth: Your Value, Your Life” by Jim Taylor. He talks about the decisions people make in life and how people should understand values in steps. Also, this article focuses on one person which is you and it reflects on your life.

Values are an important thing to have in life when you are trying to accomplish something. For instance, students are in college because they want a degree in some kind of way. First year students may not know what they want to major in yet, but they will find out once they know what makes them happy and what they value. Jim Taylor says that people need to ask themselves questions based on their values. That being said he states that “you must ask if you are finding meaning, happiness, success, and connection in your life”.

In addition to first year students finding out what values make them happy, they need to reflect on how they use their money. Money is mostly used on everything, but there isn’t enough for everybody to get what they want. Because of this students need to value their money wisely.

Personal values are all about thinking back to when you were a kid and changing your personal values to something meaningful to you now. Your values might change a little because now students should know what values are used for and how they have an impactful meaning. Students should reflect their values on what they want to become in life, so they can accomplish it.

Another important idea to include in our Common Reading Experience is to have first year students understand individual responsibility. Students have to know what they are responsible for in college including classes, health, personal life, and so much more. In the article, Getting Students to Take Responsibility for Learning, Weimer talks about a student’s responsibility and motivation to learn. Students should also have responsibilities to be prepared for class. Weimer also explains how students can share responsibilities with the teacher and other students by creating a productive learning environment. Weimer believes that a lot of the guidelines that teachers provide for students are responsibilities that they should have themselves. “We require attendance, participation, and strictly enforce deadlines. In our commitment to help students succeed, we do for them what they should be doing for themselves” (Weimer, Getting Students to Take Responsibility for Learning). Students should not feel obligated to come to class because of an attendance grade. Instead, they should want to come to class to learn and succeed. Teachers are only setting these boundaries upon students because they believe without them, students will not feel the need to follow them. This article is important to include into a Common Reading Experience for first year students because it gives simple responsibilities for them that applies to all classes they will take throughout college. Overall, these responsibilities will push students down the path to success. Students need to be motivated to learn and participate in class so they can absorb every piece of information that they will need to know later in life.

Personal initiative is an important concept for first year college students to learn. A student’s initiative is important because it is their entire motivation to participate in their education. Attending college does not directly give a student all the information they need. They need to take part in learning every concept, and put in the effort for every course they take. Telling a student to succeed does not automatically make them succeed. Students need to use their initiative to accomplish every small success in order to lead up to a larger success. The smaller things matter in terms of accomplishing anything. No one can tackle a lifelong goal in a day, but they can accomplish smaller goals everyday that lead up to a lifelong goal. The article chosen to present personal initiative to first year students in our CRE is effective because it is straight to the point. It describes exactly why personal initiative is an important thing to have and how it will achieve anything throughout life. In the article, The Power of Personal Initiative, Smith states that people who use their personal initiative will have a greater influence upon others as well as boosting their own self esteem. No student can advance in their education or career without acting upon it. Smith also writes, “Success comes to those who are proactive” (The Power of Personal Initiative). This quote is not too long, and can seem unmeaningful because of that. However, these words portray the entire purpose of the article. In order to succeed, students must learn that they need to put in their own effort.

As a first-year student there is a very big open mind set of how you express yourself. Then, with college being in start of it all you will have to start being more of a critical thinker. Getting more in-depth with your thinking and teachers are going to be looking for that going deeper into why you made that statement, then there is the how did you get to think point in your thoughts.

Furthermore, first-year you will have to be able to organize your thoughts and be able to express them in a way for everyone to understand. However, we as students come up with a lot of ideas and reasons for things from experiences most is how I get through certain things that I must write about. The point of gathering your information is sometimes the easy part really you think about what has happen to you or the topic you are able to relate to will give you much of a push in your writing process.

Students sometimes feel like it is easy to express your goals and values. There as being a first-year a student will being a create goals for themselves because first start of college is when you have the decision of if you want to stay or play. Being able to separate the two willing to do what you must do to not fail or joke around. Goals and values play a big part in that because some students let it take over them due to all the freedom. They don’t have a teacher down their neck telling them when an assignment is due or how their behavior is in class. It’s the freedom that takes over some students. Coming to college having a mission to sink or swim. The big goal is wanting to graduate.

The state of having goals and morals for yourself not just school is reality what it comes down to worth you know the rights and wrongs of things. Knowing that something’s will put you in harms way worth than being the best way. Sometimes you don’t value you goals and morals with who you are hanging around meaning friends. You know yourself must never change due to your change in environment means because you’re in such different space you will always be yourself.

The guest speaker who would come talk for the CRE Recommendation for two years would be Elizabeth Smart. Of our time, her abduction case was the most followed. She was abducted on June 5, 2002 and was returned safely to her family on March 12, 2003. She was held captive for 9 long months and was controlled by her captors by being threatened to hurt her family if she tried to escape. Elizabeth has become an advocate and has created a foundation to promote “The National AMBER Alert, The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act and other safety legislation to help prevent abductions” (CITE). When older, she wrote a book called “My story” and a survivor’s guide called “You’re Not Alone” to help children who have gone through similar experiences as her. She writes about her experience and helps children to not give up after losing hope for your life. Her story is well known by many parents, law enforcement and leaders worldwide. “Elizabeth’s example is a daily demonstration that there really is life after a tragic event” (CITE). She has since gone on with her life with receiving degree in music as a harp performance from Brigham Young University and married in 2012. She would be an excellent guest speaker because college can become stressful at times especially for first-year students. Many students may become very overwhelmed or have gone through traumatic experiences and not feel they can achieve. Hearing someone else’s story and how you can become something great is always a motivator. I believe students hearing about her story would motivate them in school and truly help them find their inner-self and what they want to become in their life.