Continuing academic success Essay

Continuing academic success may seem like a distant dream that will never come true. In reality, it is possible to achieve academic success with hard work and persistence. The mind is a very powerful thing, if you set your mind to being successful you can be successful, that is one of the reasons why it is important to set goals and act with integrity in every aspect of your life. There are many factors that contribute to academic success such as knowing your learning style, learning the writing process, and taking advantage of the resources available. One of the things I have learned to use to help me learn and comprehend information is my personal learning style. â€Å"Learning styles are referred to as the characteristic ways in which a person gathers, identify, and process information.† (Alec, 2011 P. 1096) I believe that in life you cannot guess the outcome. So I use my learning style as a guide to further my education and knowledge in my everyday life. My learning style is doing; I like to try things out for myself and see if I get my desired results, I like to be involved in my own experiments. When being taught with a different learning style I make activities that I know will help me process the information in a way that I understand. Another aspect is my educational goals I want to get my bachelors in psychology. During school my target is to become more experienced, I would love to graduate with at least a 3.5 GPA. My career goal is to become a Suboxone counselor. Life has so much more to offer if you are mentally and physically present in your life to enjoy it. Writing was never my best subject in school; I went through many exams confused, after two failed reviews I decided to invest in my future. I asked a few professors, and I took a short course online. Soon I was able to past almost all my essays with flying colors. During 10th grade I begin losing interest, so I decided to do something about it. I joined a poetry club a few of the other students were putting together voluntary. I became more and more familiar with the writing technique I begin using it as an outlet, a personal sounding board to get my point across. Being successful whether in college or your career depends upon your writing and thinking skills. â€Å"The writing process is a chain of steps to follow as you take an idea and create a completed piece of writing.† (Anonymous, 2008, p. 18) The writing process is a guide that leads you through the different writing stages. First you  must choose your topic, recognizing the audience, references, and word count. Then it goes into making an outline, your thesis statement and writing a rough draft, and finally polishing it into the finished paper. It breaks your paper into smaller more manageable pieces that are easier to accomplish. I believe the writing process will help me in college a lot, because it not only helps you write papers, but it also gives you a guide to go by with any assignment. The writing process is a learning tool, it teaches you to set timelines, know what is being asked of you, and to gather correct and reliable information whether in college or on the job. I believe it will help me to reach my dream of becoming a Suboxone counselor. The writing process is one way I can improve my critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is when you look at every side of a problem or situation and come up with the best solution. The writing process is already helping me with that because it makes me look and find reliable sources which are one way I can improve my critical thinking. The ethical lens is another way that I can improve my critical thinking. My lens is reputation lens which means I look for the best solution that fits the community. By knowing my lens I can explore other lenses which will help me develop better critical thinking skills. By looking at everyone that your problem and solution will effect, it makes you think from each person’s perspective to see how each solution will affect them, which in the end improves your critical thinking skills. By learning to look at everyone involved, and how your decision can affect them you learn to make better decisions that will help the majority of the people involved. There are a lot of resources available to help college students succeed and reach their career goals. My main personal goal is to become a Suboxone counselor so that I can help people better their lives and families reunite. The university of phoenix is a resource in itself that I plan on using to further my education and learn the necessary learning materials I need to learn to be a counselor. Another resource is the phoenix career services which helps me know what education I need to reach my career goal, as well as aiding in resumes and job searches to get me started in my desired career. The university has so many resources to help students be successful inside or outside of the classroom such as the syllabus which puts your  learning activities and assignments for the current week and upcoming weeks on one page; so you always know what assignments and learning activities you need to complete and by when. I have started implementing this in my life so I always know when to do h omework, my work schedule, upcoming appointments, and free time that I can spend with my children. Another source is the life resource center. It teaches you how to balance life, work, and college. They have an assortment of online and telephone counselors, life coaches, and career coaches that are there to support you anytime you need them. One of my fears was balancing work, school, and my children, but this resource has articles, tips, and counselors that help me find a schedule that works for me. Another resource is the university library. The library has so many tools available whenever we need them. All of these resources are a great setup that I believe will help me be successful because I know that no matter what course I am in, there is an assortment of resources available, such as spelling and grammar checks, plagiarism checkers, math reviews and tutors. I feel like no matter what I will always have the help I need. Another big part of academic success is writing in almost every class there are essays involved, and a majority of the time you are required to have references. A big part of research is finding credible sources. Outside sources can be a lot of help; the internet has so much information from the present to the old days. You can find information on just about any topic you could ever want. However, the challenge of outside sources is digging into the information and making sure the information are facts and not a biased opinion. You have to make sure not only that the site you are on is credible but that the author and their information are reliable. In life and college it is important to have academic integrity. â€Å"Academic integrity is the set of core values and principles that underwrites the very mission of the university itself: integrity, honesty, hard work, and the determination to translate personal and professional principles into behaviors† (What is Academic Integrity-office of student Rights and Responsibilities, â€Å"2013). Integrity is a big part of college and writing papers, whenever you use sources you have to give credit where credit is due. Finally in all reality anyone can continue academic success. By setting goals and using your learning styles to learn and figure out how you comprehend information. You will be able to  learn any material given to you. Learning the writing process and your ethical lens to succeed in life, college, and your career while improving your critical thinking skills to help you balance and improve your life to make your dreams come true. Dreams can become reality with the right mindset and determination to reach them. Reference page Alecu, Irena. (2011, march)., Management, and Financial Markets, 6 (1), 1096-1103 Personality and Learning Styles. Economics. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/869529857?accountid=458 Anonymous. (2008, October 16). Go Get a Book in your Hands: The writing process and some great New York stories. New York Amsterdam News. Office of Student Rights and Responsibility. (2013). Retrieved from http://osrr.Missouri.edu/facutly/