Artifact 1 presentation draft

Artifact 1:

BUZZCARD

Let's go!

Time to Apply!

Hover on icons to see pics of my journey with college admissions.

College applications can be one of the most difficult times for seniors in high school. You enter years of studying in the classroom, scores from standardized tests, and hours spent extracurricular activities into a fill in the blank common application and press submit. Imagine trying to convey your personality, your work ethic, and all your positive qualities into an over simplified application and let that decide your future. It’s truly an experience that tests your nerves and makes you evaluate your identity. You want to convince an admissions officer that you will be a great fit at their university and are the type of person they want on campus. Even though this process is extremely nerve-wracking, the true test of one’s self hasn’t even begun. It also doesn't help that Georgia Tech is extremely competitive...

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Congrats! You've been accepted!

Opening that decision is another task that is hard on one’s nerves. You’ve been removed from the application for a while and it’s time to see if you were able to sell yourself well enough on that superficial application. For me this looked like sitting on my couch opening my admission portal and casually mentioning to my mom, “Oh yea I got into tech.” Over the summer I had to submit a photo for my buzzcard and start packing my bags. Getting ready to leave my family and home, was one of the hardest things I've done.

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...Now what?

Now I am on campus. I know essentially no one and no one knows me. I remember attending the mixer event for the whole freshman class and feeling like just a face in the crowd. My whole history and identity is being summed up in “name, hometown, major.” This oversimplification of myself made me feel trapped in just what people saw on the surface. It's common for college students to feel negative emotions regarding their identity, such as confusion and anxiety (Source 3) and I was starting to feel those same feelings. That first week was truly a time to be intentional with first impressions and decide how I wanted to be perceived. It’s rare that you are able to go into a new environment with no reputation behind you. I tried to reflect on how I wanted people to think of me and how I wanted to view myself. Being presented with so much freedom and choice all at once, I was subconsciously forming my identity.

My name is Olivia White

I'm from Canton, Georgia.

My major is environmental engineering.

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Identity

College students all over the world are faced with these identity defining moments and don’t even realize it. During the first week, students don’t spend much time, if any, sitting in lecture halls. They explore campus, go to events, and start forming their priorities. With so much happening, students are choosing what is important to them and how they want their college career to look. Famous psychologist Erik Erikson proposed that a key challenge for adolecents is finding their identity "[He] argued that exploring identity possibilities and making identity commitments laid the foundation for healthy adult functioning” (Source 1). Without this trial period and time of exploration, students heading into adulthood cannot fully develop their identities. An invaluable experience all college students go through is identity formation. As they define themselves and learn how to funciton as an adult, students grow in many ways. Recently, I've learned how to make a schedule and am currently working on how to create a work life balance. It's been tough for me to turn down friends when I have homework to do. Although the student ID card is part of what you pay for, the authentic identity formation is the true product you receive.

What should I do?

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Challenges

Aside from tough academics, students face many other challenges regarding their newfound independence. It’s how they cope and react to said challenges that contributes to identity formation. Researchers at Stress and Health Journal say “young people face the challenge of both fostering understanding of oneself and meaningfully connecting to others who are similarly in a phase of identity exploration" (Source 2). Being around my peers who are also adjusting to student life is both a blessing and a curse. I sometimes feel envious of others' success, yet I have also been comforted by friends experiencing the same hardships. Furthermore, "these new tasks, and their accompanying emotions, require utilizing a wide range of personal and interpersonal resources to cope” (Source 2). As a college student I can say I have been met with struggles that can be very frustrating. For the first time, I had to attend tutoring sessions. Before, my academic independence was a source of pride, and now asking for help and receiving it is necessary for my success. Across campus, other students are having to deal with failure and adjusting to new sources of stress too.

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Conclusion

Beyond academic growth, the benefits of pursuing higher education extend to the formation of one’s identity. Many are apprehensive when deciding whether university is the best choice for them coming out of high school. Having a degree can help you become qualified for many jobs and is helpful for almost all careers. However, what truly makes college a worthwhile investment is the environment for forming your identity. I, among students across the globe are making the transition from adolescent to adult. College is the ideal environment for that as there is structure, support, and peers to help you along in the process. Crossing the border of childhood to adulthood comes with difficulty and change. For me, getting handed that buzzcard was receiving one form of identity and forming another.

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Sources:

Source 1: “The Roles of Identity Formation and Moral Identity in College Student Mental Health, Health-risk Behaviors, and Psychological Well-Being.” Journal of Clinical Psychology, vol. 69, no. 4, Oct. 2012, pp. 364–82. Wiley Online Library, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jclp.21913. Source 2: "On the role of mindfulness and compassion skills in students’ coping, well-being, and development across the transition to college: A conceptual analysis.” Stress and Health, vol. 35, no. 2, Dec. 2018, pp. 146–56. Wiley Online Library, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smi.2850. Source 3: Zhang, Qianyu. “The Crisis of Self-identity among College Students from the Perspective of Educational Internalization and Its Resolution.” Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, vol. 7, no. 6, 2024, https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS. Graffic 1: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/guy-worker-strong-figure-climb-carry-1450624247

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