College can be overwhelming for many, especially as a new semester begins.
While the many things required to continue your education can be stressful, students shouldn’t have to worry much. Salt Lake Community College provides multiple resources to address these issues, including DegreeWorks, MySLCC, and helpful, dedicated professors and academic advisors.
SLCC professor Kelly Jones is very passionate about her students and wants them all to stay focused and finish college. She sees the biggest issue for college students is attendance, or the lack thereof.
“The single most important part of college is putting your physical body in the seat,” says Kelly Jones, a professor at SLCC. “There is so much that happens in a classroom environment that cannot be recreated otherwise.”
Jones is an advocate of the advising process, and recommends using the school’s advisors and professors as a resource for future studies and career goals.
“You are probably feeling burned out after spring [or summer] semester, right when you are supposed to be scheduling your classes for the next term. Take a deep breath and do it anyway. Visualize your end goal,” says Jones. “Meet with a school counselor to identify what you need to finish up. Identify what went well last term and what you want to work to do better with.”
While advisors and professors alike provide a wealth of information on how students can stay focused, other students can also offer some insight for those that need it. SLCC student Jaclyn Daly has seen her classmates struggle with focus near the end of a semester.
“A common problem is that we get burnt out during the last few weeks,” says Daly. “[To counter this] I put a lot of important dates in the calendar on my phone of when things are due. I also have the Canvas app downloaded on my phone, so I receive a lot of updates from that.”
In order to keep themselves focused on their academics and to stay prepare for future semesters, Daly suggests that students should take at least one class during summer semester.
Jones acknowledges that college isn’t easy and sometimes students may want to stop trying. Even with these struggles, she encourages all students to just keep trying.
“Half of the success is just plugging along and making yourself keep progressing,” she says. “It’s going to feel like slogging through thick mud sometimes, but if you persevere, it will come.”
