Mini Project #3: Interview

     For my third and final mini project, I decided I wanted to take the idea of the individual further regarding college readiness by interviewing Morgan Kepley, a freshman here at UNC Charlotte.  As I went through the interview, I asked her a series of questions pertaining to the idea of college readiness and her opinions about it.  The interview was on camera; however, I shared my input with her on every question off camera.  On the first question, "What is your idea of college readiness?" Morgan replied with, "My idea of college readiness is being academically ready for college like you've taken the SAT, you've taken all your high school classes so you kinda know what you're getting into, and knowing what you wanna do with your life like your major when you first come in.  It's also being ready to accept the responsibilities of being on your own.  You're not with your parents anymore.  You have to be responsible for your own decisions.  You have to make sure you do your own homework.  You have to be ready to do things on your own."  I agree with her statement because I believe that in order to be successful in college, you need to make a life change of living on your own and being able to do things on your own.  Most of the time it's a huge responsibility that we aren't ready for and therefore have to adapt to it.  In the second question I asked (Who in your life has most influenced you towards college readiness?), Morgan answered, "My parents have been a really big influence on me, they always encouraged me, they always made sure I do my best, even when I kinda messed up a little bit they would always say it's okay do better next time, or they would help me see what I did wrong. My teachers were also a really big influence too.  Especially my Spanish 4 teacher.  She was really awesome encouraging us and explaining...She had a kid in college so she knew what it was like and she would help us out if we had problems, and like when we were filling out admissions stuff.  So she was a really big influence too."  In regards to her answer I told her I didn't really have a model figure in my journey to college.  Of course my parents were always there for me and always encouraged me to do my best (s/o to my parents!), but for me, it was mostly my decision to work hard and to get into college.  Neither of my parents have been to college so I know what it is like to financially struggle at times and I see how money problems affects families.  My parents have always been there for me as much as possible and tried to give me everything I ever wanted, but that is the main reason why I'm doing what I'm doing.  I didn't want to have to financially struggle in my life.  I wanted to be able to take care of the family without worrying about where the next meal is coming from or where the next mortgage payment was coming from.  Also, where Morgan though high school somewhat prepared her for college, I completely disagree.  High school was honestly a joke for me... we hardly ever had homework and only had one major paper and project to do, the Senior project.  When I got to college I was extremely stressed when all the work piled up and I felt like I couldn't finish it all on time.  It's been very tough to adapt to the workload and studying you need to put in to get good results in college; so much in fact that I am still working on it.  In the academic source I found, the article said, "high schools have turned their attention to equipping students with the skilled needed to enroll and succeed," meaning that students would have the skills to succeed in college without remediation.  This statement is false because in order for Morgan to change majors to Pre-Nursing, she must first  take classes over the summer to catch up.  Also, early I discussed how I believe high schools do not properly prepare us for the work college has to offer.  The article also had a segment on academic preparedness that quoted, "align standards, curricula, and assessment to college ready expectations, use data to drive college readiness policies, intervene early to keep students on college-ready track."  This also goes hand in hand with what I said earlier about high schools preparing students for college readiness.  Not only this, but the article describes that everything high schools do is to support students through college planning process, and to engage families in learning about and supporting college going."  I don't know about any other high school's, but all mine did was introduce us to CFNC and hand out scholarship applications.  I had to pretty much figure out everything else on my own, and it was quite difficult.  Now without further ado, I hope you all enjoy my interview and I will see you in class! P.S. Sorry for making my reflection so long!

Source:
McAlister, Sara, Pascale Mevs, and University Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown. "College Readiness: A Guide To The Field." Annenberg Institute For School Reform At Brown University (2012): ERIC. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.