As you return from spring break and prepare to sprint for your "A"s at the end of this semester, we would like to remind you of the value of hard work. One of your fellow KIPPsters has taken this opportunity to share her experience on this topic with you.From the pen of Julia Jones:
Early on in life, I was taught that succeeding in life is working hard; you may not see the progress immediately. It takes time, determination, and drive. Hard work pays off in the long run because you have earned the experience of doing the work; and, it also feels great to know that your hard work has yielded something in the end. You can take a shortcut or you can make excuses of why you can’t do it, but, at the end of the day, you are just cheating yourself out of a great opportunity.
If you are focused on your studies instead of trying to have a good time, being a freshman at Norfolk State University is not really difficult. College can and should be the best time of your life, but it won’t be so great if you have to tell your parents you are failing and they have to put extra money out because you wanted to go to a party instead of doing a paper. I had to learn that lesson the hard way.
I didn’t take the first half of my semester at NSU seriously. I thought I could just listen to the lectures in class and take notes and that would be okay because I got away with it in high school. I was surely mistaken. I had to go a step further, and I was my own teacher. I learned that the professors were just there to give us the material and it was up to the student to make sure they understood the material. So, the first half of the semester I was that girl who was always outside, chilling on the Greek walk instead of in my room looking over the next chapter that we were going to go over in class. Instead of writing my 5 page paper, I was at the fraternity party getting my groove on! Instead of going to see my teachers for help during their office hours, I was running around doing unimportant things with my “friends”. I was enjoying the college life until midterms!
Midterms came around and I had to cram for all 3 of my exams in a 4 hour period. I didn’t understand anything. When the grades finally came out, I had two D’s, two C’s, two B’s, and a Fail. I was shocked. I didn’t know how I was going to tell my mother that I was failing my first semester of college. Later on that day, I asked my “friends” what their grades were looking like and surprisingly they were passing with A’s and B’s. That’s when I realized that they had their priorities in order. Even though they were at every campus party and outside chilling all the time, they still were getting their work completed.
From that day forward, Julia Ann Jones had 4 weeks to bring her grades up. For the first time since middle school, I was really doing my work, studying, and asking questions. It was very overwhelming. At first, it was overwhelming because I had to start from scratch, learning the material and doing the work from the beginning of the year just so I could understand what was currently happening in class. . It took determination and a lot of hard work to accomplish what I did in 4 weeks. By the time finals came around, my teachers knew who I was and they saw an improvement in my work and test scores. And, don’t worry: I still had time for my friends and to enjoy the college life! During this semester, I realized that you have to put your priorities first and that you have to know that the only way to succeed in life is through your own hard work.
My years at KIPP DC: KEY Academy taught me a lot about hard work. And, through hard work, you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. I’m not sure that I understood this when I was attending KEY, but, now that I’m a college student, I completely understand. I realize that nothing that’s worth anything is easy in life. You have to work for it. When you head off to college, remember to use your most basic tools:: “No shortcuts. No excuses.”
