Meet Vincent Guarnere! Vincent is a Sophomore Biology Pre-med major, minoring in Chemistry from Nacogdoches, Texas. Vincent is involved with the Taekwondo Club, National Society of Leadership and Success, and intramural sports with his friends.
Transitioning to college from high school can be difficult for many reasons, but one method that can make the transition from home a little easier is time management. Learning how to manage time when your student is first getting acclimated to the college lifestyle can be a challenge. There are clubs to join, friends to meet, and classes to attend, therefore balancing time that consists of fast moving dates can be daunting.
During my freshman year of college, I knew my schedule and where my classes were but I felt like I was behind and there were always things I needed to do that I was forgetting. Let me be clear, this was syllabus week. I was paranoid that there was assignments or meetings that I was forgetting; there was a constant feeling of unknown. Thankfully there was not anything I was actually missing out on, but I needed to come up with a solution that would satisfy my needs once the school year was in full swing. In high school, I had a schedule and I knew it full and through; I took duel credit classes at the local college and I had a thorough syllabus of what was expected of me and when. Through high school and duel credit classes I never had any difficulty managing my load of coursework. I thought once I got to Arkansas, everything would run the same. Yes, the distribution of coursework was the same but what caught me off guard were things that didn’t necessarily have to do with classwork. It was living away from home the first time, what was I going to eat for breakfast or dinner; it was running errands that my parents usually do but now I have to; it was “oh yeah I need to call home.” Everything was happening so fast and add in coursework and tests, it seemed like a lot to manage. I finally found my calendar/ planner that my mom had bought me and decided to give it a try I learned that to be successful in college and to not worry about forgetting something important, that I was going to need to write it down. I planned out every month from each syllabus from all my classes so I knew what was going to be expected of me. At the beginning of every week, I would spend at least thirty minutes planning out my responsibilities, writing every detail from school work to activities so I would not forget. Personally, I like writing down my schedule in my planner and to actually see and think to myself “this is what I have today.” I was able to manage my time and do really well my first year of college. Managing time may seem simple, but can get very complicated, very quickly. I highly recommend at least have something to write down important dates from all your syllabi so you’re never behind or missing an assignment.