I love Iowa State and I have never felt like I went to the wrong school. I feel at home when I am in Ames. The only time I felt a little unsure about my choose was when I decided I wanted to get a nursing degree. Iowa State does not have a nursing program and I discovered, while at college, that nursing was my calling. I worked through my feelings and did some research and found a program to get a bachelors in nursing after I graduate from Iowa State. Going to Iowa State will not be a waist of my time because the program requires a bachelors degree before being admitted into the program. Most of my friends at Iowa State felt the same way as me so, I guess I did not think people dropped out or wanted to leave as often as they do. As a peer mentor, I help the students who may feel that maybe Iowa State isn't the place for them. I realize that Iowa State is not the place for everyone and college in general is not for everyone.
The birthday card activity made me realize the affect positive encouragement had on my ability to make the card. The encouragement made me feel like my card actually looked decent and my ideas were for the card were good. I can use positive encouragement to help my students in the Fall accomplish their goals.
I thought about the affects of external and internal motivation. I have a hard time doing homework when my roommates are sitting together talking or watching TV. I want to join them but I know that I need to get my work done. I need to work on my internal motivation for instances like this but I feel that internal motivation helps me more than external motivation because after I finish my work I feel great. External motivation is always helpful but I feel it only goes so far. I have to motivate myself in order to get something accomplished especially if the task is something I do not really like. The freshmen Hixsons will need external motivation from us, the peer mentors, and others like family and friends.
I definitely agree with you on the strength internal motivation requires when it comes to homework when the external situation might not always be the best for motivating. You also make a fabulous point as to how much external motivation our mentees will need from us in the next year. Even though I run best off of external motivation and you function best off of internal motivation I think that both aspects are still vital to everyone's success no matter which they prefer. :)
ReplyDeleteYour card was beautiful! :)
ReplyDeleteBoth internal and external motivation can play a big role in what a person accomplishes even when they prefer one over the other. I too rely mostly on internal motivation to achieve what I need to, but the external motivation from my friends and family is an extra help when I need it.
Being external motivators for the freshman is definitely an important thing we will be doing in the fall.