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Reflecting On Freshman Year

This year has been long, difficult, and stressful, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Coming to UCI, I was set on achieving personal growth and academic success. Although it’s hard to really measure things like growth objectively, I can say with certainty that I have at least achieved my goals to some extent. In high school, I really wasn’t as involved as I should’ve been. I preferred to do only what I could to get by, and although I did participate in extra curriculars, I never felt like I was making the most out of my time. I wanted to make sure college was different and that I’d take advantage of all the opportunities this school provides.

My number one priority throughout the year was transferring from UU to Business Administration, and although I have yet to apply for the change of major, I am on track to apply next quarter. I was able to get all but one of my prerequisite classes out of the way this year, and I was able to maintain a 3.9 GPA while doing it. I know it’s pretty lame, but this is probably the thing I am most proud of accomplishing this year. I knew college would be a step up from high school, both in terms of workload and course difficulty, but I am happy to be able to say that I’ve handled the transition well. As I prepare to move onto sophomore year, I hope that I can continue to find academic success and seek out more and more opportunities. I owe a lot of my success though to UU administration and the counselors who were always happy to help me work out any course confusions I may have had. I especially want to thank counselor Andrea Licata and the First Year Excellence Program for always being there to help and encouraging all of us to get involved and be successful. The philanthropy project that Andrea organized ended up being an amazing experience, and I’m so glad I was able to be a part of it.

In terms of campus involvement becoming a part of ZotBlog was definitely an opportunity that I’m so glad to have taken. Although I was hesitant about extra work on top of regular classes, writing for the Blog never felt like work at all. In fact, it has been so cathartic in the sense that it gives me time to reflect on how I’ve progressed this past year. It’s so easy to get lost in the quarter’s rapid pace, but this served as  a real way to take a step back and chill just for a bit. It’s also helped me establish relationships with my UU peers and faculty, all of whom I am so thankful for. As a new student, it’s reassuring to be able to relate with the struggles as well as the successes of your peers. I couldn’t have asked for better partners than Nancy and Josh, and I’m so excited to continue forward with both of them through the coming years. Of course, I  can’t forget to give thanks to our wonderful counselor Lauren as well. She is one of the most chill and friendly counselors you’ll ever meet, and made sure we were all comfortable at the beginning meetings when everything was still unfamiliar. If any of you first year Anteaters are looking to get involved on campus, (which you should) I urge you to consider applying to be a ZotBlog writer.

As I close out this year and come to the end of my final post, I just want to say that I sincerely hope  that Zotblog has been able to provide you all with some entertainment and useful information. I also wish the best of luck to our future writers . I’m sure we’ll be in touch next year 🙂 If anybody has any questions about UU or anything at all really, don’t be afraid to hit me up on Facebook or anything else. I  should come up if you just search for Brandon Ro. I suppose with that, it’s time to say goodbye. I really wish all of you the best of luck here at Irvine.

Thanks for the picture Nancy :^)
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“Zot Snaps”

As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, UCI is a school with a wide variety of interesting and useful resources. My fellow bloggers and I took some time to take some stylish selfies by particularly cool places, and here they are.

Antrepreneur Center

Do you have a particularly cool or interesting business idea? If so, this is the place for you! Located by the Paul Merage School of Business, the cleverly named Antrepreneur center is a place where you can propose your business ideas and potentially have them backed by experienced people who know how to help your idea succeed. Even if you don’t have a specific idea, the Antrepreneur center may still be useful to you. Every so often they’ll hold an information session where interested students can learn more about entrepreneurship in general. Be sure to stop by!

Gateway Study Center

The Gateway Study Center is located across from Langson Library, and is in my opinion one of the best places to study. If you find that the dorm study rooms are too noisy to concentrate, and the Library is too cramped, the Gateway Study Center might be just the place you’re looking for.  It’s full of computer labs, study rooms, and collaboration rooms for you and your friends to utilize. You can even reserve rooms if you need a private space for a certain amount of time. Be sure to check this place out next time exam season comes around.

Chick Fil A

 

And last but certainly not least, we have Chick Fil A. Although technically not on campus, I think it’s close enough. Just across the street from the flagpoles, Chick Fil A and other restaurants at the UTC are perfect for when you get tired of Pippins or the Anteatery. Sometimes it’s a little too tempting to head over and buy and unhealthy amount of chicken nuggets, but it’s definitely worth splurging on every once in awhile.

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Taking Advantage of FYEP

As many of you readers begin to SIR to UCI, you’ll begin the process of applying for housing. With so many different choices, I understand how difficult it can be to choose. I personally didn’t even know that there were differences between dorms aside from the obvious differences between Mesa Court and Middle Earth. When the application website told me to decide a housing option, I was taken aback. There were dorms that were researched based, outdoor/exercise based, and one that was even centered around video game players. In the end however, I decided to choose the First Year Excellence Dorm. I found the idea of extra assistance and counseling for undeclared students like myself very attractive, and I’m really glad that I made the choice that I did.

The FYEP dorm for Middle Earth this year was Grey Havens, and it has offered a ton of opportunities and resources to help me succeed as an undeclared student trying to transfer into business administration. I know it probably sounds like I’m trying to sell FYEP to you, but I’ve honestly found it incredibly helpful. One of my favorite parts about living in the first year hall is that every Thursday, undeclared/undergraduate academic adviser Andrea Licata comes to the dorm and provides counseling to whoever wants it. Normally, you have to go to the undeclared office and schedule and appointment to meet with a counselor, but FYEP makes it super convenient to meet up and discuss next quarter’s schedule or any other issues. Knowing what classes to take can be pretty confusing, so having Andrea there to help us whenever has taken a big burden off of our scheduling confusions.

One of  the other cool things that we had was the philanthropy project. It’s basically a voluntary project where you and your dorm mates help to organize and execute a philanthropy/community service oriented event. I know you’re probably thinking, “Dude I already have so many other obligations and responsibilities. I thought community service ended in high school.” To be honest, that’s what I thought when I first heard about the project too. I was reluctant,  but after going to the first meeting I kind of liked the sound of it. It not only serves to better the community, but it also helps to get something on your resume, which is likely relatively barren at this point in your college career. For us, we organized a roaring 20’s themed dance party at Brookdale Senior Living, and it went awesome. I was initially worried that we wouldn’t have enough participants, but the event ended up going really well. If you choose to go for FYEP, I urge you to at least check out the first meeting for your philanthropy project. You may find it to be a lot more interesting than it seems.

I’m sure that all the other dorms offer a lot of great things for you incoming freshman, but for undeclared students specifically, I would absolutely recommend choosing FYEP. It’s helped me to become way more acquainted with my counselors and undeclared peers than I would have otherwise.

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Spring Break , Spring Quarter, and New Students

 

Spring break this year was mellow, but enjoyable nonetheless. I was in a situation similar to Nancy, where both of my siblings were still in school, and as a matter of fact, a lot of my friends were as well. Most were either still in school or had just finished break, so I was only able to hang with a few. Either way, it’s always nice to decompress after finals, and just being at home is therapeutic enough. There’s something very comforting about sleeping in your old bed and going through your old routines. I find that when I’m home for break I spend a lot of time reflecting, and something that I’ve been thinking about a lot is how these breaks are some of the last times I’ll be able to spend at home with my family. I mean, I still have a decent amount of time. I’m only eighteen after all. But as I get older and start taking on more responsibilities, I’ll have less opportunities to visit home, and before I know it I’ll be living completely on my own. The though of that actually makes me really sad. Honestly, part of me wishes I could be really young again, just so I could go back and appreciate my home and family more than I did. It’s mostly sad for me because I feel like I took everything back home for granted before I came to college, and I just regret that so much. Now I really want to try and cherish all the time I have left. Although breaks do get boring after some time, I try my best to savor every moment of boredom. I would much rather be bored at home chilling with my dog than in my dorm stressing over finals. And I know once the tests start rolling up, I’ll be wishing I was at home bored out of my mind.

On another note, to any recently admitted UCI students, congratulations! That’s an awesome accomplishment and UCI really is a great school. If you decide to come, I know for sure that you’ll love it. There are so many opportunities to learn and connect with all kinds of different people. In terms of advice, I know you all know how important it is to study hard and study early, so I don’t really want to give academic advice right now. My advice to you as a student preparing to leave home would be to really enjoy the rest of your time in  high school and with your family. You will never get that time back, so make the most of it. Make sure that your parents, or whoever supports you, know that you’re thankful for everything they’ve done for you. As lame and cheesy as that sounds, I think it’s so important and it’s something that I feel we don’t think about enough until we’re out of the house.  I know I certainly didn’t and I really wish I did.

This quarter for me is an important one. At the end of it, I’m going to be applying to get into the business administration major, so it’s more important than ever that I study hard and get good grades. Business administration is one of the most competitive majors here at UCI, so I’m going to need to work hard to get in. It’s exciting though, and I’m looking forward to applying and hopefully getting in. I’m also looking forward to taking ICS 31, the intro computer science class. I’ve always been curious about computer science, and now I finally get to take it. Hopefully I find it’s as interesting as it sounds.

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Brandon’s Idealized Brain

Although my mind doesn’t always look like this, I think this beautifully artistic graphic represents my priorities pretty accurately. Of course, school and studying will almost always take top priority for me. UCI offers some really amazing opportunities and ways to get out and have fun, but the reality is that more than likely you are paying quite a lot of money with the primary purpose of obtaining a great education. Often times it’s easy to lose sight of that, and I’ve personally let my studies slip a little more than I would’ve liked this quarter. I think that as a student, it’s natural that your studies should take top priority. All that being said however, your health and well being are just as important in the grand scheme of things.

I’ve always believed that your studies and well being go hand in hand. It’s hard to be successful in one if you’re unsuccessful in the other. For instance, if you’ve been getting 3 hours of sleep for the past week you’re definitely not going to be able to perform well in your classes despite the studying you’ve done. On top of that, you’re probably going to feel terrible and not going to have the motivation to keep studying hard. At the same time, if you slip and let your grades suffer there’s a good chance that you’ll become stressed and that’ll take a toll on your health and well being as well. It’s important to balance both your studies and your health so that you can enjoy your time at UCI.

Social life and leisure time is the third section of my brain, and may as well also be a part of the well being section. Aside from friends at UCI, I find it’s personally important for me to keep in touch with family and friends back home. I get homesick quite easily, so part of taking care of myself includes finding time to call my parents and siblings. Me and my friends all love video games, so to keep in touch we play multiplayer games together. The icon to the right of the leisure section is for a pc video game client called Steam, which lets all of us connect and socialize while we’re playing.

The last section is extra curricular activities, which include clubs and hall activities like the FYEP philanthropy project. When I was in high school, I naively thought that extra curriculars were just a way to help increase my chances of getting into college, but now that I’m here, it’s more apparent than ever that they are still important. Counselors and mentors always stress that networking and making connections with a variety of people is one of the most important things you can do in college. Grades are important of course, but meeting new people is also important to help find opportunities which may even lead to internships and career paths.

Although this brain illustration is overly simplified, I hope it gives a good idea of what is important to me and how I try to organize my priorities here at UCI.