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3.3 Personal Reflection (Required to earn certificate)
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Posted by CUNY Mindset Initiative on July 3, 2024 at 7:23 pm💬 Share your personal reflection:
How do we begin to explore the ways we can create a sense of belonging? We start with ourselves! It’s always powerful to take a moment and put ourselves in the shoes of our students, because no matter how long ago it was, we were once them. We were once starting college or moving through it and taking courses for the first time or embarking on a certain major.
We invite you to reflect upon the following questions before moving to the other components of this module.
- What was your college experience like? In what ways did you feel like you belonged in the greater campus community? Who or what do you think was mainly responsible for that? If you didn’t feel like you belonged, what do you think could have been supportive for you?
- Consider now, your proximity and relationship to the students you teach. What is their overall general college experience like? In what ways is it similar or different from your own? (Consider demands on their time, commuting versus living on-campus, and other key components of college life.)
- Finally, to what extent do you feel comfortable sharing your college experience with your students? What makes you comfortable or uncomfortable to do so?
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- When I was in college, I felt like I belonged in the greater campus community when I had some friends, companions, and when I had some interest groups in which we may learn, practice and move forward together. I had this kind of feeling particularly when I was in a writing workshop in which we reviewed each other’s works and made comments. Interaction with people and genuine conversations (written or verbal) would make me feel a sense of belonging.
- My students are commuting, and mostly are doing part-time jobs. They generally have lots of other things to do, in addition to their class. I feel my class is generally welcoming and my students are willing to talk to me about their concerns.
- I feel generally comfortable sharing my college experience with my students. I think this may make them feel more relieved and more included. I’ll try this next semester.
Hi Weiheng – thanks for sharing. Your example of interest groups makes me think about the relationship between sense of belonging (S) and growth (G). Growing together with others builds sense of belonging… and a sense of belonging (including genuine conversation) helps with growth.
Something I’ve been wondering about is the practice of setting up student groups at the beginning of the semester. I haven’t tried this myself, but I’m curious about whether others have done so and any advice on this.
- Overall, I didn’t feel like I belonged in the greater campus community. Perhaps this was in part due to being a first-generation student and feeling that (something which was probably far from true!) others had things more figured out, as in what college life was all about. I also didn’t engage in many extracurricular activities, at least not until my junior/senior year. It would have been supportive to have a greater variety of activities available along with courses that integrated extracurricular activities.
- I lived on campus and had a part-time job, but it was on campus and only for a few hours each week. My students all commute, and many of them have part-time or even full-time jobs, usually off campus.
- I sometimes share about my academic experience and things such as picking a major… but have not shared about my sense of belonging in college and more. I will think about ways to do that so as to support students through their own challenges.
Hi again – I was just reading this article, h/t Dr. Kevin Kolack @professork and brought me back to this thread! It’s interesting that based on this research the impact of peer groups on motivation has “tended to be ignored.”
“Five Keys to Motivating Students”
Pintrich notes that research on social goals “highlights the importance of peer groups and interactions with other students as important contexts for the shaping and development of motivation, a context that has tended to be ignored . . .” (p. 675)
- During my college years, I felt a sense of belonging to the courses I was attending and my major, rather than the greater campus community. In my major (which included far fewer students than the other majors), there was a strong sense of community, with everyone helping and relying on each other for notes and materials. Even though I have always preferred to study and do my work in a solitary setting, sharing a path with other students and knowing we were there for each other helped me a lot. I had a very active life beyond college, with various volunteering activities, which I feel is the main reason why I never participated much in general campus activities. However, more events and efforts to reach out to students would have helped. When I started my graduate studies in New York, I struggled to feel like I belonged because I came from a foreign country where academia is very different, and it was a completely new world for me. I felt very self-conscious about my English and, in general, insecure about my own work because the methodologies used were very different from what I was familiar with. I think this experience helped me empathize a lot with first-generation students and those whose first language is not English.
- Teaching at CUNY has been a mind-opening experience. When I was in college, my only focus was studying for exams and pursuing my personal interests. Now, I know that most students have complicated lives; many of them have jobs and families to take care of, and I am aware that I cannot expect them to only focus on their schoolwork. This also makes me feel more responsible for motivating and supporting them.
- I realize now that I share my recent experiences (graduate studies, research abroad) with them, but I rarely talk about my college years or why I chose my major. Maybe I haven’t done this as much because I feel my college experience is very different from their own, but I’ll think more about this and how sharing more could help them.
During my time in college, I found the experience fulfilling and demanding. I had the chance to build strong and meaningful friendships while delving into new and complex academic subjects. The nursing college I enrolled in was relatively small and exclusively focused on nursing education. This created a close-knit community where I felt a deep sense of belonging. Our small class sizes allowed for great connections with like-minded peers, fostering effective collaboration when working on assignments.
The instructors at the college were authoritative yet respectful, and many of them demonstrated a passionate dedication to their teaching. Their mentorship and motivation played a pivotal role in guiding me toward success. As an educator, I have noticed that the dynamics with my students are more akin to a therapeutic adult-learner relationship. Most of my students are non-traditional, bringing valuable life experiences into the classroom. These experiences are not just helpful but integral to our learning community. However, it’s evident that the weight of their responsibilities, including work and family commitments, can lead to feelings of anxiety and stress.
Reflecting on my own college experience, I recognize notable differences from the experiences of my students. However, we all share the challenges and successes of the college journey. The learning environment was less competitive, offering more breathing room for personal interests and pursuits outside of academics. As a traditional student without additional responsibilities, I had the freedom to focus solely on my studies. Now as an instructor, I aim to share my experiences with students, offering motivation and coping strategies for navigating challenges. I believe that creating a sense of belonging and connection through shared experiences can greatly benefit my students.
When I was in college, my initial sense of belonging came from my friends who I made outside of my major. When I became more involved in research and spent more time working in labs and interacting with my professors, I started to feel more of a connection to the school itself. My college experience, however, was very different from my students, who are mostly commuting far distances and balancing outside work. I have noticed a big difference in students’ sense of belonging in my first semester students compared to my advanced students. Many of my first semester students don’t interact much with one another, but my upper level students all know each other and spend time with each outside of class in campus activities. I can see that many of them are friends with one another.
I was in a college in which first year classes were mostly large lecture halls and I never interacted with my professors. They were effective at teaching subject matter but I definitely felt completely on my own and it never occurred to me to ever ask them for help. When I progressed in my major, classes became smaller and I got to know my professors much better. I now realize how having a good rapport with my professors really helped me feel more connected with the school itself.
In reading some of the other reflections and thinking about my own experience, I also like thinking that despite any differences in our backgrounds and experiences, we are all united in our shared goal of a successful college experience and the achievement of meaningful work. We are (were) in school for the same reason and those shared aspirations can bring us together and help us feel connected to one another.
- What was your college experience like? In what ways did you feel like you belonged in the greater campus community? Who or what do you think was mainly responsible for that? If you didn’t feel like you belonged, what do you think could have been supportive for you?
I went to a commuter school in Chicago, so didn’t live in the dorms. I didn’t really feel like I was part of the campus “community”. I tried to get involved in a few groups but I didn’t feel like I belonged at the social level. On the other hand, I felt very comfortable in my “belonging” from the academic sense. College was always part of the plan and I was well prepared for college academically, so I did not have any doubts about whether I belonged from that sense.
My students’ academic experience is vastly different. Many of them are first generation college students, English Language Learners, and under-prepared for college academically, or some combination of the three. They have a myriad of responsibilities related to working, caring for younger siblings, and economic obstacles such as insecure/crowded housing, food insecurity, transportation barriers, etc.
Further, I’m unclear on how well the students feel supported and valued by the actual college due to issues such as class cancellations, limited schedules, high proportion of adjuncts, lack of physical presence of faculty and staff, etc.
While my college experience was similar to my students’ in terms of being a commuter, our overall college experiences are quite different due to divergent SES backgrounds.
Hi. Based on some of the readings I have been doing as part of these modules, I am seriously considering setting up peer pods this coming semester. I have tried in a bit half-hearted way doing this previously but I think I will try full on to see how it goes!
Well, I come from a troubled family, so I didn’t feel at peace anywhere, though I began to heal by joining I’d say rather bohemian communities. This began my healing. So, though I was still kind of a depressive, I think the community I was in was a good thing. I transferred in the middle of my college career to a more competitive school. There, I was intimidated because I believed most of the other students came from more well-to-do families and had better educations thus far, than I did. I overcame this by doing very well at this second school. I think that if there were as much conversation about mental health back then as there is now, I would have begun to heal faster.
Above, I described my anxious feelings, or feelings of displacement because I came form a middle class family and thought the other students I came to study with came from upper-middle-class families. So, I imagine that such issues are even stronger for our students, who are often first generation college students with considerable financial problems. Too many arrive with the question of whether they belong in a college atmosphere because of various messages they’ve gotten from society, schools and family about education and belonging. Certainly stressors and financial worries are a much larger concern for our students than they were for me. Also, they don’t have the same opportunities to socialize because of commutes and job hours.
I have often talked about my experiences, what stressed me out, what scared me, how I studied, but I believe I need to be more honest about the financial privilege that I’ve had. I talk a lot about my strange family, and how gaining emotional health over the years helps me believe very strongly in neuroplasticity and thus in their obvious potential, but I think it’s time to more publicly discuss the class differentials in the way we’re educated in the US. I believe this honesty will bring us closer, and we can work on building their confidence so they know they have the same potential as more monied students, and clearly they have more challenges.
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