Tennessee Tech advisors encouraging students to utilize campus resources and practice honest self-reflection as the fall semester reaches its midpoint.
Launchpad Student Success Center Assistant Director and Success Coach Tenika Burgess said some students reach the middle of the semester questioning whether the major they selected is actually right for them. Burgess said students should consider their own interest in the field rather than making a decision based on expectations from friends or family.
“There is that piece of productive struggle that it is okay, you’re going to have to work hard to reach that goal and anything worth having you’ve got to work hard,” Burgess said. “But then again, the student, it’s kind of it’s just they usually have a sense of whether or not they’re really in the right place.”
Burgess said students considering changing majors or withdrawing from a course should consult their academic advisor before the October 30 deadline. Students can also meet with advisors from different departments through Launchpad to learn what another academic path would require.
“They can go to Cookout or Taco Bell at like two in the morning and stay up really late and live that college life and they should, but at the at the risk of really messing up things like their sleep, their motivation, like their studying, and again they a lot of times they don’t even know how to study,” Burgess said. “So again, I think the biggest piece of advice there is to reach out to help to people other peers or professionals or professors that really are more experts on the topics.”
Burgess said students who want to remain in a challenging course can seek help directly from professors or use peer tutoring available in subjects including math, chemistry, physics and English.
“I’m a big believer in telling students to shadow where they can, so either they do their own research by looking at TikToks or YouTube videos or exploring companies and industries that they’re interested in and treating it as a fun process, not something that’s to be avoided or like ‘oh I gotta pick a major that I’m passionate about,’ but to really like look at it as that self-discovery self-discovery time to learn about themselves and know that it’s okay, that it’s very normal to have doubts and to be unsure about yourself and anybody on this campus can tell you the courses that we did not do well when we were in college,” Burgess said.
Burgess said students who feel overwhelmed can begin by acknowledging the problem to someone they trust. Students with learning disabilities or mental health needs can also contact the Accessible Education Center about accommodations available on campus.
“Sleep is so important and it and young people don’t think that it is because it’s so much more fun to spend hours and hours out at night and whether they’re up studying for all hours on end or they’re out with friends,” Burgess said. “Sleep I’ve said it like probably 15 times this week, it is not a bank account, they cannot deposit into it to withdraw from the future, and it’s not something that they can catch up on.”