Essay On Student Involvement

As a first year student living in the residence hall I had a lot of opportunity to get myself involved in different on-campus activities. However, I thought of these events as irrelevant and time wasting as I did understand the value of the involvement that can bring to my personal and academic development. It was hard to have any interaction with faculty as I struggled to find a voice in class size of 300 students; it was seen that only the brave ones asked questions during lecture as everyone turn to look at the person who asked the questions. For the two quarters of the first year at University of California of San Diego was an interesting time where I struggle to find the right place that I want to be part of and become an active member. According to Astin’s Theory of Involvement, students need to actively engage in their environment in order for students learning and growth to occur. Involvement is defined as an amount of physical and psychological energy that the student is allocated to the academic experience. My …show more content…
I realized that lot of relationships that I established were conditional where they became my friends because they wanted something from me such as money, ride, protection, etc. When I was an active member as a campus ministry leader, I was in love with all the friends who were serving passionately. However, when I decided to leave my senior year I saw that the relationships that I established were falling apart. I also experienced hurt when some of my non-campus ministry friends decided to unfriend me when I started studying at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena. I heard them saying that they do not want associate with a “holy” person. They simply did not understand why I am not going into business just like them. It was a tough challenge for me to lose so many friends throughout college but I am happy to say that the six true friends remained through all my struggles and