Jonathan Martinez '20, a Numen Lumen Scholar, offers incoming first-year students advice about beginning their journeys at ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ.
Three years after experiencing their own Move-In Day, the Class of 2020 is beginning its final year at ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ. This is one in a series of articles in which members of the senior class offer words of advice to ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ’s newest students.Ìý
—
Name: Jonathan Martinez
Hometown: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Major: Exercise Science, Pre-medicine
Campus Involvement: Honors Fellow and Lumen Scholar; assistant to BioLab manager
Advice:ÌýI would like to offer two pieces of advice for incoming first-year students that I failed to recognize but am now starting to see the fruits that they bear. I only wish I had learned them sooner rather than later.
The first thing a first-yearÌýshould be aware ofÌýis that the impossible isÌýpossible. Coming onto to ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ’s campus is very daunting, given the reputation the institution bears. I vividly recall hearing about stellar research students with their publications and international presentations, tech and science students with their prestigious internships at world-renowned companies and organizations, upperclassmen with their unbelievable abroad experiences, and amazing life opportunities that alumni found upon graduation.
How could I accomplish such great endeavors when I could barely get through general chemistry? The answer is to keep trying when it gets hard. The student achievements and accolades that ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ prides itself on are possible because ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ helps make it possible for students. If you discover an opportunity that interests you, work towardÌýit. Even if it sounds so far out of reachÌýbecause the oddsÌýare that it’s in the palm of your hand.
The second thing is accepting change. It will occur whether or not you are ready for it.
Being in college, nobody knows their true purpose or selfÌý(no matter how much we would like to think we do). SoÌýbecome a biology major, then switch to music, then political science, then back to biology; I challenge you.
Embrace what you don’t know and build upon what you do know. Try a club sport, board game clubÌýor service organization. The autonomy college provides gifts you the ability to design who you want to be. The caveat, however, is to change who you are with intent, not absentmindedness. The only way to change the world around you is to experience change yourself.
Carry those two messages with you; everything else in college that follows is second nature.