Dear Future FYE Pathways/College 1 Student

Hi, I am an international student who from South Korea, and I graduated

military school in Wisconsin. Before that I went a missionary school in Idaho. I
started college with mechanical engineering but I switched my major to
international business. I never had diploma because I had to serve Korean Army for
two years. I decided attend Pasadena City College because I want finish where I left
five years ago. Unfortunately my grade in former school wasnt good enough to get
decent job, so my plan was get good grade on community college and transfer to
nice college and get a job as soon as possible.
Before attending PCC, I wasnt expecting this much work because I already
experienced college level of study. But I had to change my thought sooner, because
first two month I was actually struggling to catch up all homework assignment from
each class. I was overwhelmed by large amount of work, while I was start classes.
And I learned some of homework was helpful to aid my attitude toward homework.
For example, an event reflection gave advises that couldnt learn from regular
classes. When I went to music session, I was listening music band playing. While I
was listening, I noticed all band members were enjoying the play. After first play,
Dan Khol, instructor said weve done a lot of fun together. It struck me huge, and I
thought it related my study attitude. Compare to experience in previous study at
former school was hard for me, because I didnt enjoy my study. And another event
that influenced was one series of speaker by Joshua Davis. He introduced himself
and current news from characters from the book spare parts. During his speech,
he was talking about Christian that he currently attending school at Michigan. And

he told us never give up, Christian took ten years to get back in school. I also
learned from reading books and course work, during the semester. One of golden
lines I like most was Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of
victory (Gen. George S. Patten. Spare parts 94). I interoperated this quote as facing
challenge and enjoy after triumph. The other gold line I liked was a growth mindset
which intelligence can be developed. I liked this idea because it was suggesting
me to dont ignore the problem and learn it from failure. I also learned two things
from the team project. First, team work was very essential to success. Separating
work and get the work done by responsible were the key success for group work.
The other value to successful group work was communication which accepting ideas
from team members. Our team communicated both on and off line which we met
face to face and we used cell phone or internet to share our idea.
So how did do all these works? I used four different resources that PCC
provided. One, I used TLC to making the e-portfolio. Be honest with I had no idea
how to create personal space in internet, but from a professors advice I went TLC to
get a help. TLC actually run program just for the e-portfolio, and I strongly suggest
you to use TLC. Two, I used internet based library which is Shatford library. It
provides with database for your research paper, MLA guide lines, and how to use
library. So dont just google what you need for a research paper, and use Shatford
library which is more reliable. Three, I met with my coach about my academic
problems. Your coach will suggest you what resources are available that fit for your
current obstacle. Four, use academic counseling. This isnt directly related to your
class, but it will give you concepts of transfer and you might set the goal from
counseling which will give you motivation to study hard. It also give advice which

class you should take for next semester, and it will help you to save time for
thinking about scheduling.
These are advises I can give you by far. I know there are lots of other
resources to help you throughout your study at PCC. I hope you find your goal here
and I wish you have best luck!

Sincerely, SungJin Kim