Beth, UNCG Student Class of 2023

Being able to go to college has been an invaluable experience for me. I have always been a good student but I never truly felt like I was learning things until I came to college. In high school the things that you are taught feel so controlled. You can only learn the history that the school wants you to know, you can only write papers the way the school wants you to, and so on. College was a liberating experience because finally the focus was more on actually exploring the material we were learning about than it was about memorizing facts that the teacher told us. History is the biggest example of this. So much of the history that you learn in high school is watered down to be easily teachable to children and to portray America in a good light but in college I finally started to learn about all the things they don’t teach us. I have learned more about Black history, Queer history, and the history of inequality in America in the last four years than I learned in all of my high school career. This was possible because I was in an environment that was allowed to teach me that and teach me how to critically analyze that history that I was learning. Knowledge is power and this is the kind of knowledge that has made me a better and more conscious person. 

College also taught me the practical skills for how to learn. College courses offer a structure for learning but a large portion of the actual learning comes from forcing yourself to learn the information. From four years of classes like this I have learned a lot about myself and the ways that I personally learn things. I have also learned how much I really like expanding my mind by choosing a topic and really digging deep into it. My experiences in classes in college have given me the skills I need to know how to teach myself. This is an invaluable skill that I hope will follow me for the rest of my life. I believe that we should never stop learning and that going to college will be a key experience in my life that allows me to continue growing and expanding my knowledge as I go through my life.