Grace Cahill

Linda Frost

UHON

1 August 2019

2018-2019 Year-End Reflection

The 2018-2019 year was probably the most challenging year thus far. I would have to say

a big accomplishment that I have had this past year was maintaining my grades fairly well, while

dealing with a more involved job, more course hours, and a bunch more unhelpful professors.

This year, I continued to tutor lower level math and economic classes through the Center for

College and Student Success. I even tried to get more involved by becoming a Supplemental

Instruction Leader with them as well. I had to go to there classes, create lesson plans, and hold

sessions for students in the class. This forced me to have better time management regarding my

school work. Speaking of which, the classes I took this past year consisted of mainly 3000-4000

level math and business classes. These were harder than I was expecting, but it forced me to get

to know more people within my major as many of us were taking the same sets of classes. Also,

our study groups became very helpful as both semesters went by.

Similar to last year, I would say focusing on managing the time I work on school and the

time I spend doing things I enjoy was my biggest challenge. Because I took so many hours this

past year, I was extremely busy, so much so to the point where I was just able to start my

homework around 8 at night. This led to less time for myself if I didn’t get ahead of the work

during the weekends. Forcing myself to do this was hard as the weekends are supposed to be

when you relax, not when you’re prepping for the next busy week. I also tried to set aside about

hour or two every day for me to just relax. Whether this was going to a friend’s room, going to
the gym, or just lying in bed and watching tv, I tried to make time for me instead of focusing on

school 24/7. The only way I was able to do this and keep my grades up was because of my

dedication to school, my time management, and my organization. If I didn’t have even just one

of these things, I would not have been able to do this.

My contributions to the Honors College this year came through being a Peer Mentor for

this year’s High Achieving Mocs. My mentees this year seemed to have it together. One of them

in fact was probably doing better with the whole time management thing than I was. I really

enjoyed seeing all the new HAM and Brock kids get to know one another as I stopped by a

couple times to see my sister. I also enjoyed getting to know them a little bit better as well. I

contributed to the University this year by remaining a math tutor and becoming a SI Leader. As I

said above, one of my short-term goals has been to become more involved on campus and I think

that working with the CCSS and being able to get to know and to help fellow students really

accomplishes that. I chose to do this partially to work on that goal I had and also because I

needed to make some money throughout the school year.

This upcoming year I hope to begin my DHON and also to continue to figure out some

sort of job that combines my mathematical approach to problem solving and also my interest in

criminal justice. While I would have loved for my DHON to be able to combine these two

interests of mine, there was not a faculty member that would help me in this process. I have

always been fascinated with the spectrum of diverse problems that the criminal justice system

analyzes and I think it would be so interesting to be a part of. Being able to combine this with

math, I think, would really suit my personality and would make going to work in the future a

desired experience instead of just a job. I would also like to figure out what’s next for me,
whether that be a gap year to sort through my options, going straight into a job, or starting

graduate school the following fall, I am still trying to figure that out.