Joining a Higher Learning Institution - Personal Statement Example

31/10/2017

Students adjust to their new environment during freshman year.

Joining a higher learning institution is an experience that most people find challenging in as much as it is fulfilling. It is the point when first-year students get to experience a new learning environment and associate with new people. As they come into the institution, the freshmen associate with people from different backgrounds with different cultural beliefs and personal characteristics. They are also required to abide by the rules and regulations which govern the institution. As such, the students are forced to adjust to their new life as fast as they can to enjoy their stay in the university.

One of the areas in which students are supposed to adjust in concerns personal and public space. In a learning institution, personal space implies the specific location where a student feels safe and away from other people interruption. On the other hand, public space is where the students freely interact with their comrades as well as other members of the institution. Students adjust between the public and private space through orientation. The freshmen are orientated by the continuing students as well as the university staff on ways of behaving in both private and public institutions. Furthermore, first-year students are guided by the continuing students on things that they should do when in the public spaces with the aim of accommodating other students as well as the members of the societies. For instance, the freshmen are guided on how to share the public amenities such as the library, washroom and even playing fields. On the other hand, they use their personal spaces by learning to protect their belongings.

The personal spaces and public spaces are used in various ways by the students to either create closeness or distance from the other students. Individuals can keep closeness with other students in the personal spaces by inviting other students to pass the time together, to study or to discuss issues that affect them with the school as students. As they interact in the private spaces, they bond of friendship between the students increase thus boosting the closeness between the students. Again, the students can use the personal space to keep others away by avoiding holding any social gathering in places that they consider to be personal spaces such as rooms. As such, they keep most of their interactions with the others in the public domain.

Students can also use public spaces to maintain closeness or to keep the distance from their comrades as far as possible. One of the ways of preserving closeness is by being friendly and sociable in the public spaces. Being friendly and sociable includes sharing not only institutional property but also personal belonging with the students while in the public spaces. Additionally, they can keep distance by avoiding the public spaces as much as possible. Some students avoid public spaces such as the school library and fields of play as much as possible. Such students would only be available in the public spaces when it is inevitable to so. Finally they, students use unions to maintain close relationships with their friends or amongst themselves in the institution. As such, it is observable that both public spaces and private spaces can be used to bring comrades close or to increase the distance between them.

Students have different definitions of the insiders and outsiders to their public and personal spaces in the universities. Regarding public space, the fellow students are considered to be insiders as they are all united under the same umbrella of learning institution as well as in other fields such as in core curricula activities. Again, some of the staff members such as the lecturers are considered to be insiders of public space. On the other hand, the non-students are considered to be outsiders to the public space. The non-students can include parents and relatives of the students, who are not required to interfere with normal operations of the students. Regarding the personal spaces, the space owners are the insiders. Students may have close friends are constantly invited and welcome in the spaces to form a part of the insiders. On the other hand, the staff members are considered to be outsiders in the personal spaces. They are considered intruders when they get to the researcher the personal spaces with the invitation.

The reaction of students towards my presence in the space was not bad. The students did not know that I was an undercover observer. As such, I managed to interact with them freely in both personal and public spaces. My social skills enabled me to get to most of their spaces and attend various events that they organized. As such, I was able to gather as much information as I could. I, however, believe that they would not have appreciated my presence the way they did if they had a clue that I was a journalist. Majority of them believed that I was just one of the freshmen who were interested in gathering information due to my continued questions.

Students make some adjustments when they join the university to fit into the spaces. First, they have to adjust their social skills. The students are bound to interact with people from different backgrounds. It is important that they adapt to simple social skills so that they can accommodate people from different backgrounds. Failure to adapt to the new environment would make the students remain isolated from the others in the school. Additionally, the students have to learn to share. There are various amenities that the students are required to share amongst themselves. Such kind of an adjustment would make them fit into the spaces promptly. Finally, the students have to learn to take care of public property. They are supposed to responsibly use the property of the institution such that their fellows can also use them when the need arises. Destruction of institutional property can make lead to suspension, fine or expulsion of the students. Therefore they have to adjust to being responsible for fitting into the spaces.

The students have a union with leaders who are functioning to make the lives of the other students comfortable in the institution. The leaders bridge the gap between the students and the administration. As such, they communicate the various issues that affect the student body with the administration and return feed the students with feedback from the same administration. Through the leaders, the lives of the students are made comfortable because the challenges that they face can be easily told to the administration hence making the process of solving them fast.

The students don’t face any hostility when they get in as freshmen. The continuing students are most welcoming and accommodative to the young men and women who come in. They take them through the orientation process and make their lives as comfortable as possible. The kind of fast reaction that the freshmen get from the continuing students makes them feel positive about their new environment. They, therefore, enjoy their lives within the institution as they study the various courses.

Conclusively, it is clear that first-year students bump into new things when they step into the university. They are forced to adjust in various ways so that their life can fit in both personal spaces and public spaces. Public spaces are those that can be accessed by different people at the same time while private space is that which is completely owned by an individual. The behavior of the students in both personal and public spaces can assist in keeping fellow students close, or it can increase the distance between the students. Behaviors of the students should thus be adjusted about the kind of environment that he or she is living in or working. In the long run, the behaviors assist in improving the level of respect as well as tolerance within the university. The lives of the students can also be made more straightforward and simple once they have all adjusted to coexist amongst themselves comfortably.