Personal Statement

Georgetown Universities National Center for Cultural Competence describes health as “a relative state in which one is able to function well physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually in order to express the full range of one's unique potentialities within the environment in which one is living”(Georgetown). This definition of health resonates with me greatly. Growing up I was never an overall healthy child, in fact, the complete opposite I was quite unhealthy and overweight for the majority of my youth. However once I became more health aware I continuously worked to improve my health. Even as I made great strides in my physical health I felt as though I were still not “healthy”. I now believe that the missing aspect of my health was a

I decided to focus on school, this is because my mental struggles have mostly revolved around my personal scholarship. What I discovered is that I am like many other youths, I really sucked at studying. Learning how to study was both a confusing and exciting experience. The first aspect was figuring out exactly how to study. William Rapaport, from the Center for the Cognitive Science State University of New York at Buffalo, proposes a system of writing down notes in class and later rewriting the same notes at home. The key to this method is to “write down as much as possible” (Rapaport) The reason for this he argues is three-pronged. First, he says this encourages the note taker to pay greater attention to whatever the subject is. Second it will keep you awake. Third he argues that this leaves less information that has to be remembered later. Rapaport's points and his research seem to be admirable as well as efficient. Rapaport furthermore elaborates on the best methods to use while actually taking notes. These tips included using abbreviations instead of full text among others. Nonetheless, Rapaport and his research findings left me feeling secure in terms of study habits to implement in my personal

I had always gone by the rule that for every one hour of class time one should dedicate two hours of study time. So I would diligently plan to study 2 hours for every one hour in class, and I would usually fail in that venture. The trick, according to Education Corners, is to spread out your study time the way you would your hours at work. Although the goal is to study for 2 hours for every one hour of class, you don’t have to do it all at once. “Successful students typically space their work out over shorter periods of time and rarely try to cram all of their studying into just one or two sessions” (Education Corner). Acknowledging that my current study habits are not successful, and knowing I want to move to being more successful, I bookmarked this information for later