Just in my freshman year, I’ve had the opportunity to take a few of the many interesting and engaging classes offered on campus. Many of the courses I took to fulfill Gen Ed requirements ended up being some of my favorites. One course I found especially interesting was LARC152, “Greening Cities: Who Wins, Who Loses, Who Cares.” I took this course because it fulfilled two Gen Eds and one of the SGC course requirements, but also because I have always found questions of how we plan sustainable communities and how environmental health and human health interact very interesting. The course centered the history of the development of parks, lawns, and other green spaces, and it served as a very fascinating link between my previous coursework in biology and human geography and my interest in planning. I was pleasantly surprised by how in-depth this course went and how much I was able to get out of it. Just by scrolling through Testudo when planning my schedules, I have found many other specific, intriguing courses outside of biology courses that I would love to have the opportunity to take, from History of Popular Music to Film and American Landscape. I think that incoming students should take advantage of this opportunity to explore specific interests outside of their required courses, as you can also often find underlying connections between your field of study and the takeaways of these more obscure classes.
I do think it can be challenging to develop strong relationships with professors as a freshman because many students are focused on “getting by” academically, and because the large lecture hall style of many lower-level courses doesn’t facilitate communication as well as a smaller classroom. I found that the most interesting conversations I got to have with my professors came out of smaller classes with more collaborative approaches, such as ENGL101 and Communications. In the future, as I start to take more courses specific to my interests, I hope to work more on fostering relationships with my professors by having one-on-one conversations. I was very lucky to meet the faculty member whose lab I am going to work in during my hunt for a practicum project this year. I got to meet with her to discuss her research and what jobs I could take up in her lab, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to hear first-hand about her work. I would encourage freshmen to be proactive in reaching out to faculty whose work they find interesting—if nothing else, you will get to learn something new from an expert in that field! At a large research school, I think these one-on-one conversations are especially effective.
Being fully honest, my first semester was not the best, and that was something I didn’t really realize until I entered second semester. I had felt somewhat disconnected from the school community and struggled in forming the relationships I hoped to gain in college, and that was also disruptive in holding myself to a schedule and putting effort into my courses. Coming back from winter break, I knew I wanted to change how I was approaching college, both academically and socially. I’d definitely say I achieved this, and my second semester was infinitely more fulfilling than my first. I challenged myself a lot more academically with the course load I was taking, and ultimately found that this pushed me to schedule my time and distribute my work more effectively. I also became more involved in a select few activities, rather than being loosely involved in many, and I am so grateful for the friendships I have been able to build through this. In my first semester, I was really worried I wouldn’t find my people. After my second, I can attest to the fact that it just takes time and genuine effort to connect with others.
Even though I am very close to home while at UMD, I was still very unprepared to be alone for the first time. Having to set my own routine and hold myself accountable academically presented some struggles for me, especially in my first months. Yet, this opportunity to control how I allocate my time pushed me to evaluate what activities I found most important and worthwhile, and finding balance in these activities is what I think made my second semester much more enjoyable. I recommend that incoming students allow themselves to feel alone or unprepared, and then use that feeling to internally reflect and grow academically and personally.