College's Effects on my life

 

    Although the cost of a college education has risen dramatically, it is still worth the money we spend on it. College has many assistance for students, and available even for students who have low incomes because it’. Higher education was my personal dream since I was a child growing up in Jordan. I immigrated to the United States, and decided to continue studying in college and get a better education. Attending college has positively affected my job skills, interpersonal communication skills, and writing skills.

    Job skills are an important advantage gained in college. Among studying at College, I got a financial aid support and a work-study program, which supported me financially so that I can finish my studying and get a job experience. I am working as a clerical assistant at the same college where I have my work-study. In my job, I learn things every day, such as filing, answering phones, taking messages, doing some calculations, typing, and working on computers. This gives me employment experience and looks good on my resume. This is useful because I am a new resident of the United States and I didn't have past job experience in Jordan. Working at the college has allowed me to improve my job skills. Now, I am familiar with word processing programs and other software like Microsoft Word and Excel, where I am proficient in spread sheet and database programming. Training and working at college helped me to increase these skills dramatically.

    College has increased my interpersonal communication skills. It has increased my communication with others through talking with different people at my job on the phone or in person. This also has improved my English language skills. The first year I came to the United States; I had no friends. When I registered for college, I began to make new relationships and new friends who changed my life. The first year in college, I worked in the Admissions Office in the Foundation Department. Working there helped me communicate with different kinds of educated people. I worked for the president, the president's secretary, and other administrators. This close contact with such people made my job very rewarding. Working at the Education Development and Services Department as a clerk, which is my second job in the college, has increased my communication skills even more. I feel that when I walk about the campus, almost all faces are known to me. I meet new people in a more open setting, which has helped me expand my personal and professional relationships.

    Lastly, college has developed my writing skills. I have improved my writing skills by taking English classes. I feel that now I am much better than before in conversation, and I am using better vocabulary and grammar than when I first came to the United States. After taking these classes, I am now able to write in different styles with different purposes, such as writing business letters, proofreading, preparing reports, and conducting research. This too has helped me with employment skills. Moreover, taking speech classes has helped me to feel comfortable speaking in class with students, and in front of large audiences in English. In addition, speaking with different people at work and answering phones has helped me to improve my English language in communications, and taking classes has improved my English through talking with the students in the class.

As evidenced by all of the above, going to college has helped me a lot to improve my English skills and my language. It has also improved my communication skills with others through my work at the college, which has given me the training skills and job experience to improve my resume. The financial support from college has been additionally important, because without it I couldn't finish studying. For these reasons, I have decided to finish college to improve my skills and get a better job with a higher salary in the future. The journey I am on while at Cuyamaca is just part of the trip through the education I plan to visit. My goal is not as important today as it was as a child, dreaming in Jordan.