When I was young the college experience was probably my most inflated expectations for the future. I figured with how much of a milestone College is for life it had to be this unreal and almost mythical thing. It was really the first point in life where you were an adult or at least the closest you could get to it. So I thought about college a lot; not a lot about the experience of it, but more about getting to it because that's where the goal was when you were younger. I prepared a lot for it, the resumes and the programs I knew exactly what colleges were looking for. When I finally got to the point where I was accepted and I reached my goal I had a new problem. Focusing on getting to my goal I really didn't think about what this goal would be like. I really had no idea about what college would be like for me. I barely even thought I would make it to this point. Of course, it didn't stop me from having an image of what it would be like. Although I'm here now and that image in some capacities is completely different than how it actually is, in others, it's completely the same.
College Park Scholars was a huge surprise to me. I had no idea what it was. I just got an email one day and saw my acceptance. I've never been the type to reject anything even if I knew it'd be more of a course load so I accepted. Very similar to my college expectations I had no idea what to expect especially from this program since I'd never heard of it in my life. That did change a little bit during my orientation when I learned a little bit more about the program. I was actually kind of excited to start. Both of the professors seemed positive and fun and I really liked that. I figured that this would be a really fun class although that was about it. Although going through it now Scholars is so much more than I originally thought. I had the passive thought that it would be fun or interesting to get into. It was so much more fun and engaged me like no other class. I even found the supporting classes that we take along with the core to be one of my favorite classes and reignited my interest in environmental policies and justice.
The events or something I didn't see coming I knew it was talked about a little bit during orientation but having to actually experience it was completely different. I had so much fun exploring DC or going to different places that I'd never been to before. Surprisingly the scavenger hunt was the second time I've ever taken the Metro train since then I've been utilizing the Metro train way more. Overall Scholars really helped me interact with the world more and that was something I didn't realize was going to happen. I am really grateful for the experiences I've gained already and my expectations are much higher now that I understand what Scholars really do.
The class also didn't really cover what I expected it to cover even though I had very little idea what was going to come up. I figured that it would at least be related to Environmental science or something adjacent to that. A lot of the things we learned though we're really targeted toward a student like how to get the most out of a class as a freshman, the process of going through academic dishonesty and even pointing out logical fallacies. Those had nothing to do with the environment but it was still important for us students. This class ended up being so much more than just global warming or the environment. As someone going into this expecting a class based on its title that was a real shocker and beyond any expectation I had.
Ask someone who didn't really live in the dorms. There are definitely social interactions that I missed out on. Although I still didn't feel left out socially with the peer mediators and all the events held by College Park Scholars. I interacted with so many new people I wouldn't have interacted with before and that was completely different than what I thought I was going to do. I thought I would interact with the people in the class and maybe a couple of people outside of it just in Scholars and not in our specific section. I ended up interacting with a lot more people than I was expecting through all these events and Gatherings held.
So to me, College Park Scholars succeeded a lot of my expectations I had but that's probably because I didn't have many expectations to begin with. This is really completely different from high school. It did have remnants of it like with the work and study habits I had to keep up. Although there is a new level of Independence and freedom you get from now being at University. I advise the next generation of students to understand what they're getting into. Look forward to the future instead of just focusing on getting as many tasks out the way as possible. I didn't fully understand what College Park Scholars entailed and what they were offering to me. So for the coming year, I will have much higher expectations and I hope to still be surprised with how much it succeeds above it.