Week #1 Date: September 1st, 2017 Name: Katya Ehresman

Week one of college has just commenced and as I sit here on a Friday night reorganizing

my planner for what looks like the 3rd time today I realize that the course work isnt as

overwhelming (so far) as I expected it to be. In EDUC, which I suppose is what the bulk of this

journals focus will be on, has set up interesting questions and goals for the year as to what our

learning potential is, goals, etc. and outlined models on how to improve ourselves as people

and students. This week we were assigned Issue Time Management where I learned something

that I had been guessing for a while, that I have an issue over-committing to different

organizations, people, requests and that I have a hard time organizing myself when trying to

accomplish all I have agreed to do. This was true in high school when I overcommitted senior

year to be president of NHS, the Student Body, Principals Council, the Debate Team, Art Club,

Key Club and Womens Alliance/GirlUp!. In high school, I was stuck in a prioritization of quantity

over quality, thinking that was what was best for college apps or scholarships or just peer

expectations of me as a leader on campus but often sacrificed being able to enjoy everything I

was doing because I was too busy trying desperately to complete it all. I hope to fix this as the

year goes on and based on the curriculum presented by Dr. Huerta I think that better organizing

my life, thoughts and commitments this year which be a very practical goal. She seems to be

dedicated to our success to an extent that exceeds almost every other teacher, professor or

coach I have ever had and it is only week 1 so I look forward to what the rest of the course will

offer.
Week #2 Date: September 8th, 2017 Name: Katya Ehresman

Week 2 is done and it seems like the class is still awkward/quiet/shy around each other

but Dr. Huerta hasnt failed in trying to open us up and become more comfortable as adults and

public speakers. We have been grouped into chapter assignment sections with the hope to

build teamwork, communication and depth-of-knowledge for 2 specific chapters. Despite

sharing other classes with a few classmates, though none in my chapter project group, I still

find it hard to talk to new people in a social way. This course wont be able to fix social anxiety

haha but it is a great idea to force us to work with new people and collaborate on new projects

we arent familiar with. I am worried that the group will procrastinate or wont be like me in the

sense of wanting to get everything done early and have it be perfect. However, getting out of

that comfort zone will be good for me and force me to adapt my organizational plan on the

spot and truly test that capacity for growth. Aside from group project assignments, Dr. Huerta

also had us take & submit out CRI Pre-Assessment and listen to presentations by ACC Academic

Coaching Services. The CRI Pre-Assessment didnt tell me many things I didnt already know

about myself i.e. poor communication skills and time management issues. I plan on using the

confirmation of my problems through this assessment to better set me on track for the

semester, year and throughout my college career to improve in these areas. Finally, the

academic coaching presentation was especially informative. As someone who has always been

afraid to ask for help it was amazing to see the amount of services that ACC offered to aid in

their students' success. It was also very helpful that they sent someone to the mandatory

classes (i.e. EDUC 1300) to educate the students on the different opportunities so they couldnt

use ignorance as an excuse to not seek help.

Week 3 Date: September 15th, 2017 Name: Katya Ehresman

We began group presentations this week and it seemed remarkably like high school

where our peers would half-heartedly present and few people in class would truly listen and

pay attention. As someone who did competitive debate in high school public speaking has

never bothered me, but as someone with social anxiety it is terrifying to talk in front of people

who already dont want to listen. The group talked about the practicality of college assignments

as well as the theory of multiple intelligences. While none of these concepts were necessarily

new it was definitely a welcomed refresher on respecting and acknowledging everyones

individual strengths as people and learners. Something that tends to happen a lot in schools,

and I predict to happen a lot in competitive job markets, is a toxic habit of comparing ourselves

to other, often more successful people. This presentation reminded me that everyone has their

own developed intelligence and each type is important and unique which is something that is

applicable to myself and Im sure others in the room. I personally find myself closest to the

intelligences of verbal, logical and visual learning but it also opened my perspective up to

observe my working with others as developing my interpersonal intelligence. This assessment

has increased my introspection and metacognition and forced me to be more critical of my

learning so that I can better assess myself going forward and develop into a more well-rounded,

intelligent person.
Week 4 Date: September 22nd, 2017 Name: Katya Ehresman

This week my group and I were set to present on Thursday, contributing to some

unnecessary anxiety when as of Thursday morning some members hadnt finished their slides. I

had reread the chapter over the weekend and finished my slides then but the group hadnt

even began communicating until the week prior. While this is something that I could have

stepped up to initiate, albeit because of my anxiety or because of my busy schedule where I

didnt have a moment of downtime to assign everyone chapter pages I dropped the ball and let

someone else lead. After the presentation Thursday, I felt relieved that it was done but

immediately worried about procrastinating on the next one. However, after years of being

expected to take lead on all projects it was a refreshing change to have someone else take

control and organize. Practicing being on the other side of a group dynamic was very personally

rewarding because it showed me that I dont have to be in charge or take responsibility for

everything for it to be done well it was a much-needed lesson in delineation and maturity.

Moreover, we also got a presentation from ACC Accessibility Services and assigned a

Focus2/Career Assessment assignment. As someone who strives to involve herself in multiple

intersections of social justice it was rewarding to see that ACC was dedicated to helping make

higher education more accessible to persons with disabilities. Also, as a dedicated student with

low financial stability it was educational to know that I could sell my notes for money that

would help me continue to attend higher education as well. Overall the week was personally

productive and the school year is beginning to develop an exhausting rhythm.

Week 5 Date: September 30th 2017 Name: Katya Ehresman

I am later writing this journal than normal this week due to an escalating schedule of

adding weekly volunteering, getting accustomed to 2 jobs and weekly debate tournaments

Friday-Sunday and trying to keep up with studying and staying ahead of assignments. However,

this week in EDUC we learned about career readiness, analytical thinking and wrote about our

learning profiles. I had finished my paper last weekend between rounds at the debate

tournament so it didnt become an issue with affecting my normal homework except for the

occasional reread and edits but overall I felt confident in the work that was produced. We were

asked to analyze our learning profiles from the multiple intelligences that we learned in chapter

3 to the different types of learning that we learned in chapter 12 to the access to learning

potential we learned through the numerous presentation in the course proper. Combined the

different pieces of introspection that I had abstained throughout the semester thus far into a 5-

page paper gave me confidence in my growth as a student because I am fully convinced that

becoming aware of your shortcomings is the first step to growing from them. Throughout the

year Dr. Huerta has given us a lot of emphasis and examples for service learning outside of

school and the organization she has endorsed have been amazing but I was intrigued by the

Caritas presentation this week. The commitment they have to diversity work was inspiring and

something that I am interested in getting involved with in the future.

Week 6 Date: October 7th, 2017 Name: Katya Ehresman

My first full month of college has officially passed and I am starting to hit the wall of

exhaustion and potentially fall captive of my over-extended responsibilities. I was forced to

miss EDUC Thursday of this week because I am unfortunately looking for apartments to move

into due to financial and family situations but I am trying not to let those situations get me

behind on my class work and responsibilities. Tuesday of this week we got a library

presentation where we learned the helpful sections of the library, its potential and the services

that the librarian at ACC PIN and the library staff throughout ACC have put together. It was

helpful to see the research resources that had been developed and I especially look forward to

utilizing the pages of combined research and overviews on subjects and fields that certain

librarian specializes in. I am normally in the library for 2-5 hours a day during the week so the

benefits that it provides are not lost on me but the online presence and accessibility that ACC

has worked to build are a respected and useful surprise. On Thursday I missed the Midterm

exam review which was just going over the chapters that we have learned and general

knowledge about the past 6 weeks of course curricula that we had been taught. To make up for

this I will be making time to heavily review on my own by going over the PowerPoints and notes

that I had taken to make sure that I get an adequate grade on my first college midterm. Despite

having scheduled my apartment search at 1:30 so that I would be able to make it back to ACC in

time for EDUC I will be using this experience to better budget my time for traffic and

scheduling these meetings before or after school instead of on my breaks during.

Week 7 Date: October 12th, 2017 Name: Katya Ehresman

This week was shorter than usual because Dr. Huerta had to travel so we only had 1 day

of classes to report on. Despite the short week, we packed a lot into an hour and a half with a

motivating and educational presentation by IACT and a midterm exam. IACT, despite its

Christianity/denominational origin conflicting with my lack of religious interest, was

inspirational to me because it bridged the gap between different communities in a peaceful and

respectful way that brought out city together. It was especially interesting seeing this program

exist in its full fruition today in a political culture that thrives on political, social and personal

partisanship and divides. From its services in refugee assistance to its lunch discussions or its

commitment to helping aid the housing situation for many of our elderly population in Austin, I

was motivated to make a difference and get involved in their movement for peace and justice.

After the presentation, and signing up for volunteer opportunities, we took a midterm that

summarized our learning experience the past 7 weeks into 10 questions. While I feel

moderately-confident about my ability to retain taught information I am worried about the

grade for this midterm because of my enthralled distraction from the IACT presentation. I will

be using the experience and nerves felt after the exam to better adjust my studying habits

going forward and use different learning styles taught in this course to change the way I study

for exams, like this one, that are so predicated on information recollection.