Short Term Goals Research Paper

1. Describe your short-term (3-5 year) and long-term (8-10 year) goals and how you plan to accomplish them. How does participation in the Weber Honors College relate to these goals? Finally, what does it mean to be successful in life and how is your definition of success similar or different from your parents?

1. My goal for the next three to five years is to graduate from San Diego State within four to five years with no less than a 3.5 GPA. I want to graduate within four to five years because I want to get out as much as I can from my college experience but I also have a strong sense of what I want to do after college which also gives me a sense of urgency. As for the GPA, I am going for the best grades like most other people, but I think not allowing myself to fall below a
3.5 GPA is a reasonable base.
The focus on the GPA is for two main reasons. The first is because I want to be an example to other kids in my community. I can’t tell students to strive for excellence if I have a 3.0 GPA. The second reason is because I know that a high GPA, combined with other things, opens doors. One of those doors might be the chance to continue my education. One of my long-term goals is to get into graduate school. I want to get my master’s degree in education with a concentration on Education Policy and Program Evaluation. Another long-term goal is to start or become part of a movement towards equity through access to higher education for all people. The Honors College will help me reach my goals because of the support that is offered. I want to surround myself with high-achieving and high-performing students that want to engage in conversations that other students might be too afraid to have. There is a fire inside of me that burns for justice and I need to be surrounded by critical thinkers to keep it alive. My mother immigrated to the United States from Mexico where she would do strenuous labor for very
little. To my mother, which I love very much, living a successful life is working a job that doesn’t require you to sacrifice your health and happiness to meet your basic needs. Thank to my mother, my definition of success is much more. My definition is living a life to serve a cause that is greater than one’s self.

2. Leadership Starts Here, SDSU's tagline, is a bold statement of the university's impact and commitment. What is your definition of leadership and provide a specific example of when you demonstrated leadership, including the outcome of your leadership. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this leadership experience?

2. I take SDSU’s tagline to heart. My life revolves around leadership. Leadership is a word I have been seeing since I was in sixth grade. My definition of leadership is mobilizing and empowering a group towards a common goal. The most recent and organic moment where I demonstrated leadership was at a three day retreat put on by SDSU called Aztec Core. A group of twenty, including myself, were given a bag with wooden pieces which we were suppose to use to get a rubber ball from one side of the room to the other into a container. Everyone in the group hardly knew each other but we all listened to one student who was the most vocal. After trying their ideas for about 10 minutes and not succeeding I had an idea. I told my friend my idea hoping he would share it with the group. He encouraged me to share it with the group. I said no, afraid that it would fail and be ridiculed. My friend encouraged me once more jokingly telling me to be a ‘leader’ and share my idea. As soon as he said that I raised my voice and shared it with the group. The group tried the idea out getting us closer to reaching our goal. I was afterwards nominated the team captain. Though we didn’t reach our goal in time, it was definitely still a learning experience. I learned that I take charge of a situation when I see the need. I wait to see if there is already leader so that I can focus on being a good follower. This can be both a strength and weakness because though being in the background may allow me to analyze the situation and the participants, the participants might lose faith in the goal if they see that no one is taking charge. Being a passive or a behind-the-scenes leader might be seen as a weak leader or not a leader at all. This dangerous because one may lose support. I learned that I need to be more present and active as a leader so that those who support me don’t lose faith.

3. Describe a time in which you collaborated or interacted with people whose background, experiences and/or beliefs differed from yours. How did you react and what conclusions did you draw from the experience? Address how you think your reactions and conclusions from this experience will impact your time at SDSU and your participation in the Weber Honors College.

3. In my ARP 205: Exploring Leadership class, the professor talked about an event being put on by the group Students for Justice in Palestine. I attended the event with a friend of mine to learn more about the group. A great majority of the audience was Middle Eastern. The people performing poetry or playing music were wearing different clothes that I had not seen often growing up. Before I walked into the event, just from the name of the group, I gathered that the group wanted some sort of justice in the middle east. I didn’t think it was a big issues the event revolved around, after all I hadn’t heard about it. After a couple of poems I learned that the issue was about people suffering much more than poverty or hunger. There were people in the middle of a war. I felt for the people who had gone through so much suffering. It was through the speakers stories where I remembered how similar we all are. At the end of the event everyone got up, made a circle the size of the auditorium, and danced. Everyone was linked together holding hands, enjoying the present moment. My experience at the Students for Justice in Palestine event made me see how, despite the different cultures, we are all at San Diego State for the same reasons. We have all experienced hardships and challenges, and that we all just want to be live happy fulfilling lives. I will spend four to five years at San Diego State, it is important that I feel a connection to both the campus and the students body. Having an open mind is needed in order to understand different walks of life and I understand that it is a big focus in the Honors College. Through the Honors College I will continue to expand my breadth of knowledge of different backgrounds. We are never done growing.