The Ends, the Beginnings, & the In-betweens Part 2

MyStory Mondays is a weekly digest of our latest posts. 

Yes. We know. It is not Monday.

Our UAlbany MyStory Bloggers share their lives with you to help you to stay focused on your goals, to remind and inform you about the many supports that we have on campus to help you succeed, and to let you know that, whatever you are going through, you are not alone.

This week, we share more Finals Week inspiration, conclusions from last semesters’ posts, and some follow-ups to old themes. But first…

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“Since last semester, I feel like I can say that, through time, I have learned to let Albany in and I am just beginning to enjoy it.  In the beginning I felt like I didn’t have an identity but after a while I realized that the world doesn’t stop turning.” 

Was this your first year at UAlbany? Are you like Simonti? Check out the rest of her post, and consider volunteering with Project MyStory. While students are not asked to be biographical, they usually join MyStory to tell their stories. If there are topics that you feel would help other Danes to adjust to UAlbany and to thrive here,  Join the Team!

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Mid-Week Graduate Celebrations

 

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Internationalize Your Degree – Consider Adding Global Distinction to Your Diploma

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This week Franshelis Calderon shared her last MyStory posts. On Thursday, she will receive the Unsung Hero Award at the Lavender Graduation for sharing her personal journey with the world. Several persons have expressed how her blog has helped them through difficult moments. Your story matters. Own it.

Check out Fran’s last two offerings:

 

Latinos & Sexuality and Goodbye UAlbany

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Craig Stropkay graduated from UAlbany in Spring 2007. He has since earned a doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Brandeis University, and is now an entrepreneur. Many graduates are unsure about their future. Even those who intend on going to graduate school, may not be sure of their next steps. Craig has some information and words of career advice for those thinking about pursuing a PhD.

Check out Craig’s blog post here.

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Taylor Grant will graduate in a few days and he wanted to share a bit of his journey with future Danes.

The past four years at the University at Albany have been nothing short of life changing. Each year, I have grown academically, socially, and mentally.

As a freshman, I was thrust out of my comfort zone, which was quite an adjustment. Growing up in Long Island, I had the same group of friends since 1st grade. I had to actively force myself to engage with my classmates from various backgrounds and to not just rely on my stable friend group back home. I was also challenged by the new demands of time management – balancing my free time with my course load. – Click here for more.

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Brittany Newell graduated in Spring 2017.  We are sharing her last post for everyone who has no idea what is next. We want you to know that your future is bright. Click here for more.

 

 

 

Goodbye UAlbany

There are five days before I graduate. Five days before I get my Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics. Five days before I am set to step foot into the “real world.” It feels like just yesterday that I arrived on campus full of hope and wonder, ready to take on the next four years of my life. It’s a bittersweet feeling. I’ve made this place home. I have settled into my niche here. I have lost myself, and found myself again right here on this campus. How on Earth am I supposed to leave?

Latinos & Sexuality

For this post, I asked a number of people who identify as Latino/a and LGBTQ+  to share their experiences of balancing their sexuality and their culture.  I interviewed Vanessa, a pansexual, Puerto Rican and Peruvian who was raised Catholic; Haleigh, a bisexual Puerto Rican who was raised in a mix of Catholic and Protestant; Valerie, a bisexual Greek, Spanish, Dominican, whose mother is not religious and father is Roman Catholic; and Alex, a homoflexible Mexican and Colombian who was raised as Catholic.

Fransexual: I am out.

“The process of exploring your sexuality can be one of the most confusing and complicated things that a person can experience.” – Franshelis Calderon

Before Fran graduates in just a few days,  she brings us a few more installments of her  Fransexual Blog Series.

I am out. I am proud to be who I am. I am out to anyone who asks—even my mother. This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I am still dealing with the consequences.

Social Resolutions

Have you ever seen a person you know from school in public and tried your best to avoid them so you do not have to greet them and make conversation with them? That was me from middle school until the beginning of 12^th grade. I hated social situations. I preferred being in smaller groups of people I knew. Being in a social situation would make me very anxious and extremely fidgety. I would not know what to do with myself. When I was in a large group, I was afraid people would judge me. I would ask myself the same set of random questions in my head every time I was around a lot of people. “Is there something in my teeth?” “Is there a stain on my clothes?” “Does my breath smell okay?”

Embracing My Culture

Image from © Jorge Royan / http://www.royan.com.ar

Growing up, I was always, in a way ashamed, of my culture because of the ridiculous stereotypes that came along with being south-Asian, so I never really wanted anything to do with being south-Asian. I remember my parents always trying to force me into listening to Hindi and Bengali music or fit me into traditional attire and I was having none of it. They would be so angry, that I was trying “so hard to become American”. Although they never understood that it was not because I wanted to become “American,” but rather, it was because I did not want anything to do with the stereotypes. To me, Hindi music was always something foreign because of the very different instruments and rhythm used. Not knowing Hindi was also a major setback because I had no idea what the singers were singing about. My parents used to play the core Bollywood classics like “Kal Ho Naa Ho” or “Tujhe Dekha Toh Yeh Jana Sanam” to the point where I have the words engraved in my brain but I have no idea what they meant.

What Happens When You Let Other People Tell You Who You Are?

Image taken from: http://howigrewtoday.com/2013/10/how-i-grew-today-19/

I heard it, I felt it, and then I took ownership of it.
The label was my enemy, and my scapegoat.

When I was in fourth grade, I was called dumb for the first time by a classmate. I was called dumb because fourth grade was the first year I was put into a reading help class. I could not read as fast or as well as the other kids. I specifically remember sitting in class one day during reading time and looking over to see the girl next to me reading Harry Potter and then looking, shamefully, back down at my Junie B. Jones book. I could not even fathom trying to read a Harry Potter book. Harry Potter looked like a dictionary compared to the books I was reading. I know it should not have, but this set the tone for me for the rest of elementary school, and even followed me through my high school career. Because of that, I always felt behind everyone else. I was always struggling to keep up, even with the extra help classes.

MyStory Mondays 6-19-17

MyStory Mondays is a weekly digest of our latest posts.
We are all done for the semester, but we are going to go back in time and share some posts that, we hope, will be useful to our new Danes!

New Danes – Make sure to complete your course request form and register for Orientation at www.albany.edu/welcome.

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This week’s installment of MyStory Mondays focuses on identity.  As you gain more knowledge about the world and become exposed to information that will help shape your future, you are also developing – shape-shifting in amazing ways. This is a time to decide who you are and who you want to be. Several students have shared what this growth was like for them. Check it out!

Find out more about our students and how college has impacted their personal growth my clicking on the pictures below.

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The following two stories were posted by UAlbany Student Affairs on their Facebook Page. Click on the photos for more and like their page!

“I am a first generation college student. I attribute my success to myself, but mostly to my mother. She was a single mother who raised me and my brother and I watched her break her back to make sure we had everything we needed to get through life…
Click here for more.

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“The Honors College is fun. It fits me. I’ve come to appreciate the community of like-minded people. There’s this perception that school only teaches you what you need to know to work in the real world. People don’t look enough at how schools shape people as human beings…
Click here for more.

MyStory Mondays 5-22-2017

MyStory Mondays is a weekly digest of our latest posts.
We are all done for the semester, but we are going to go back in time and share some posts that, we hope, will be useful to our new Danes!

New Danes – Make sure to complete your course request form and register for Orientation at www.albany.edu/welcome.

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Excited or Straight-Up Nervous
about the Transition to College?

The following posts focus on this great change and what adjusting to college was like for other students. Enjoy! 

Many students have great difficulty asking for help. Some may not want to look ignorant, others may have had a bad experience with the help they received, others may simply not know who to turn to. If YOU have a question or your are struggling at any point in your UAlbany journey,  please know that WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR QUESTIONS! Even if we do not know the answer or have the help you need, we will connect you with whoever can.  The Help Me tab above, has a long list of resources. Check it out. The following students share what it was like for them to ask for help.

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Brittany just graduated from UAlbany and she has some things to say about what it was like for her to ask for help.

Being at the University has taught me a lot over the course of these last couple years.  It’s taught me the importance of diversity and inclusion, the power in speaking your mind, the strength that’s found in a community, the will to set and meet your goals, and the most crucial lesson of all, never be afraid to ask for help.  I say this to you guys now as a second semester senior at this University, with a very high tendency to run from anything that throws me in the spot light. Read More

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Jayvon Evans at right with his mentor Barbara Brown, Coordinator of Advising PLUS. (Photo by Naomi McPeters

Javon Evans found great help with Barbara Brown, Coordinator of Advising PLUS, a program designed to help students through various academic and personal struggles.

The following article is reposted from the UAlbany Students Facebook Page

I didn’t know what I wanted to do after high school. The one thing I really felt passionate about was fitness. I used to be overweight, and I looked for schools to help me with that. I found the World of Fitness Living-Learning Community, and it ended up changing my life. Not only have I grown as a leader, but I’ve also learned that I really do love helping people. Right now I’m working for University at Albany Campus Recreation at the SEFCU and Indian Quad gyms teaching Insanity on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. After I started Insanity, I realized that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Being in college and teaching and instructing all these different kinds of people, with different backgrounds, and different personalities, has enabled me to integrate them into my own being and knowledge. I’m able to talk to and relate to so many different people. Read More 

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Lee McPeters graduated today. He has overcome many struggles and he had to learn how to ask for help the hard way.

Pathways. According to Oxford Dictionaries (www.oxforddictionaries.com),  a pathway is “a way that constitutes or serves as a path. a way of achieving a specified result; a course of action.” Whatever you call it or how you define it, this concept of a journey or path through life is always on our minds. The future is always present in our thoughts and the decisions we make and how we spend our time impacts our futures. I mention this because in order  to overcome the obstacles I faced and start working to my full potential, I had to overcome my own mind and  find validation within  myself. As I have said, I was my own worst enemy and I want to help those of you who see the same things happening in your life. Read More.

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Click on the image below to read Drew’s story:

 

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Interested in participating in Project MyStory? Click Here

Transformation

It was August of 2014. I was a freshman. This picture was taken in between classes on my first ever day of college. Back then, I had no idea who I would turn into at this university. I didn’t know what things I would learn about myself, or in what ways I would mature. I didn’t know what lessons I was in for, and I definitely didn’t expect a lot of the things that happened. I didn’t even know what I was going to be studying for the next four years! I was just a young high school graduate, ready for the adventure that is college.