I Got A Questionnaire

I was part of a great pipeline program at Cerritos College: Project HOPE. They sent me a questionnaire asking for advice for the current program people. I thought I'd share my two cents to everyone. Here's the entire answer form:

Answers in bold blue.
Thank you for the communication.

john reinier f. narvaez

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

r e s f i r m a , m i t e s c e r e n e s c i t . . .

--- On Wed, 1/7/09, xxxxxxxxxxx@Cerritos.edu> wrote:

From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@Cerritos.edu>
Subject: Project HOPE Alumni
To:
Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 4:35 PM

Dear: Project HOPE Alumni

Project HOPE would like to have a moment of your time to answer the following questions, we appreciate your time.

What is your status?(I'm not sure how to approach this question, so...) A college senior planning to take another extra year to finish up my upper-division classes and to complete the medical school application cycle.

What school are you attending or have attended? Cal State Long Beach

What is your major? Biological Sciences-Physiology, Chemistry Minor

What is your current GPA? (I'm not publishing my response to this)

Where are you at this moment in life? At the hardest part of being premed- studying for the MCAT while studying for everything else, doing research, working at a hospital, tutoring science and math classes, and trying to balance all of these with non-academic pursuits.

What are your strengths and weaknesses you have encountered? weakness- overwhelming myself with a lot more than I could handle. strength- being able to prioritize my activities and being able to manage my time

If you have had any difficulties, how where you able to over come them?
By prioritizing, doing risk-benefit analysis on things. Learning to use on-campus resources for academic help when needed, GOING TO OFFICE HOURS, pestering my professors, and thinking long-term: visualizing the dividends that I am going to reap with all the hard, seemingly bitter investments that I am making.

Are you part of a support group?
Yes. I am glad to be part of UCLA-SMDEP. Although we attend different schools, we still take time out to get together and study, call each other for support, party when able, and remind each other of why we are all traversing such a hard path.

If you were to give advice to a Project HOPE student, what would it be?

• GO TO OFFICE HOURS.

• GO GET TUTORING EVEN WHEN YOU DON'T NEED IT.

• READ, READ, READ! I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH! YOU WON'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH YOU'D GET OUT OF JUST READING YOU TEXTBOOK.

• Join clubs like CCM.
• Hangout with like-minded people. Avoid those who will bring you down.
• YOU are still in a COMMUNITY COLLEGE. HOW DO YOU GET OUT? GET A HIGH GPA! Extracurriculars are great only when you can balance it. You can always do extracurriculars later on, or maybe on an academically tolerable schedule.
• Prioritize!
• There are a LOT of great resources at CERRITOS COLLEGE. PLEASE take advantage of those! Frequent the Project HOPE building. Frequent the math learning center. Frequent your professors (we have a great chemistry department- don't be afraid to abuse Bradbury/Zewail/ Shimazu- in so doing, I ended up tutoring OChem at CSULB- you can do it)
• VISUALIZE YOUR FUTURE when you feel weak and discouraged. You HAVE to get there. Don't quit for dumb reasons.

I hope this helps. I'm glad to have been part of Project HOPE.

Please email me back your responSes, I would kindly appreciate it.

Thank you,

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxx@cerritos.edu

So to my dear JC student-readers...make use of this!