As the end of the school year becomes a reality, those of us like myself who are graduating from CMU in April have begun to reflect more and more on our time here. Now I know for myself that we often talk a lot about the great things that we experienced during our years at university: the community, the mentorship that develops between professors and students, the classes and classmates that made our days here so memorable. But as my time as a student at CMU draws to a close I have begun to ask a new question: what will I take away from my time here? How have these experiences shaped me into the person I am as a transition from the life of a student to one of a full-fledged grown-up in the “real world” of post-university adulthood? The answer has found its way to me under three ways: learning to live outside your box, thinking and living bigger, and coming into your own.
Category: academics
I don’t really like getting up at 7:30 AM snoozing until 8:00, forcing myself into a shower, propelling myself to a hastily eaten breakfast, and then speedwalking to my 8:30 class. But as soon as Professor John Brubacher opens his mouth, I am content.
My name is Beth Downey. I’m a third-year English student and I started volunteering for Peer Assisted Learning (PAL), CMU’s volunteer tutoring program, in my first year. PAL gets most all of its volunteers by gathering recommendations from faculty; you’ll understand why when I say that I might never have joined up if I hadn’t found out that one of my English professors recommended me. I would have assumed I needed to be older, more experienced, more advanced. And looking back, I would have missed out.