Your Promise to Walden

Each experience we have throughout our lives, negative or positive, is an opportunity to learn and grow. From those experiences, we make changes, adapt, and adjust. If we look at them in a positive light, we can actually move our lives forward and become better people. Education is extremely important in today’s World. Surrounding yourself with successful, driven, and encouraging people will only benefit you; finding a school that contains people like that is your best bet for academic success.

Today I am

School has been a part of my identity from the very beginning; if you aren’t learning, you aren’t moving forward. I have always considered myself very book-smart and I quite enjoy learning and attending classes. Education is something that I pride myself on, and who I am as a student is important to me. As a Walden student, I am a young woman, looking to further her life, even though she doesn’t know where she wants to go in life. As a Walden student, I am getting back into a further education while some knowledge is still fresh. I am taking advantage of having time to myself, without children or a husband, to invest in my future and my intelligence.

Walden has provided a plethora of tools to help their students succeed. This class is a great example of how important it seems to be to Walden as an institution for their students to do well. The entire first six weeks of school at Walden is dedicated to teaching students what they need to succeed and having them each figure out a plan to do just that. Walden’s library provides access to any literary resources you will need throughout your school career. Also, Walden’s advisors are very involved, friendly, and helpful throughout application, classes, and beyond. There is even a writing center that will help you edit your papers, or help you with any formatting questions you may have. By providing all of this help and then teaching us how to access and use it, it is essentially making it impossible for us to fail. By taking the guess-work out of finding help, and figuring out how to do things correctly, all the time we have as students can be dedicated to learning and completing the work to the best of our abilities.

While I consider myself already pretty tech savvy, this class has been about more than just that. Critical thinking is a big component of HMNT1001. Also, it has helped to foster a safe environment to practice locating, accessing, and implementing all of the resources Walden provides. Even the assignments directly tie into our success plan for school. In one assessment, I was able to get a clearer idea of what my learning style is, which helps me to recognize my strengths and plan accordingly. All of the things being taught about ourselves in this class will help not only in school, but moving forward in life as well.

I Promise To

I promise, to my classmates, my teachers, and most importantly myself, that I will not give up on my education. Knowledge is one of the most important things to me, so I promise not to walk away from school again without proving myself, to myself. I promise to seek out help and promote good study habits for myself throughout my school career. I will use the resources that Walden so kindly and blatantly set out before me to my advantage and take to heart all of the constructive criticism that my instructors offer me. I vow to use my knowledge to help others whenever possible, and to promote a better self to create a better world. I will change the world in a positive way, even if it is just by my personal contact with one person at a time.

How I Will Become Part of the Walden Community

To continue implementing all of the things I mentioned that I learned above, and to find someone who will hold me accountable for all the promises I made previously, I will need a mentor. After completing the Support Network Exercise in week two, I learned that my support network is rather shallow. I hope as my classes become more course specific, and I begin to find like-minded students who share similar aspirations with me that I will find someone traveling the same path as I am that inspires me. I plan to reach out to people in my classes to get advice, brainstorm with, and eventually connect with a mentor if possible. Because of my tendency to procrastinate, I need someone who is aware of what I need to be doing, and that will hold me accountable for the work that I need to do. I hope to find a mentor who will not take my excuses, and will constantly remind me that I am capable of anything and should be achieving at that standard.

School and education are one of the top priorities in my life right now. I believe the choice you make in schools is nearly as important as the type of degree you go to school for. With Walden I believe that I have chosen a school that actually cares about my academic success, and has set me up to succeed. I will hold on to all of the information I have learned about myself, as well as all the general information taught in this course and use it to benefit me in my life, and my schoolwork moving forward. By working at being the best person and student as I can be, I hope to inspire others along the way, causing change in this world for the better, for myself and as many others as possible.