College Freshmen

     "What's the best way to ensure your first year at college is a success?" This is a question answered by Carol Carter, author of Majoring in the Rest of Your Life: Career Secrets for College Students (1999). In this interview with FOX News, Dallas, she says that the biggest shocker for college freshmen is "that they are accountable to themselves, no one is going to be there to help." 

     This is a fascinating look at freshmen in college and offers great tips for those who graduate and choose to further their education. Many freshmen have to deal with intercultural transitions and the identity development process. They have to learn to be competent. In our textbook, Intercultural Communication in Contexts, Martin and Nakayama asks "Do we have to be motivated to be good at intercultural communication?" (465). Intercultural communication competence utilizes individualism and also contextual. They look at context of motivation, defined, "as an individual component of intercultural communication competence, the desire to make a commitment in relationships, to learn about the self and others and to remain flexible" (465). It is important to become and then remain motivated. It will keep the student set on his or her goal of getting a college education. They may be uncomfortable with the idea of intercultural communication. They need to find their "communication comfort zone" which "often leads to insights into other individuals, groups, and cultures" (466). 

     Other key components of intercultural competence, according to Martin and Nakayama, are knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and skills. Knowledge, specifically self-knowledge, is "knowing how you may be perceived as a communicator and what your strengths and weaknesses are" (468). This is a great skill for college freshmen to have. Attitudes are  "an individual's dispositions or mental sets. As a component of intercultural communication competence, attitudes include tolerance for ambiguity, empathy, and nonjudgmentalism" (469). This is another important skill, because all freshmen are the same. They are all on the same level of other freshmen and learning new things. It's important to remember this about others and it will increase good communication. Behaviors and skills are obviously going to help with communication with other students, professors and friends.

     One can search youtube.com for many "tips for college freshmen" and other helpful videos. A student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln made her own video offering some helpful (and some silly) tips for college freshmen that she wishes she knew before her first year. This video won't load to this blog, but here is the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh9zmKaR6S8&feature=related 

Thanks for reading my blog!

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. Boston, MA:

     McGraw-Hill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RzU6uuqKgo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh9zmKaR6S8&feature=related 

A freshman's new step

Intercultural Learning is a process that moves human beings (minds, hearts and bodies) to a deeper awareness of their own culture (norms, behaviours, relationship and visions) through a qualitative immersion in another culture. The intercultural concept that I have been exploring is the freshman culture. They are new by definition, ready to become part of something bigger. Being a high school or college freshman is the first step into that bigger world. It is the chance students want to "spread their wings", and it's a safe environment (for the most part) for parents  to allow them.


It helps to have a younger brother who, this year, is a freshman at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Aaron Stech was a popular student, an athlete and good student in high school. Aaron talked about the huge step he, like thousands of other young adults, take when they move up to the college ranks. "It was kind of frightening at first but once I got used to it, it was fine. I didn't have a problem with the transition moving from high school to college." Aaron comes from a small town in northeast Nebraska where class sizes are only around 25 students. He hadn't noticed too much bullying while in high school. It was just not done. It was nothing like C.J. Pascoe's experience of studying boys and the term 'Dude, you're a fag.' Aaron hasn't noticed any of this bullying or the fag discourse in college either. Research by Pascoe (2007) states "While the intensity of the fag discourse may decline with age, observations of and discussions with college students indicate that the gendered rituals central to adolescent masculinity do not disappear as youth leave high school and move to college. While college classrooms  are often constructed as non-homophobic and gender equitable spaces and while many colleges have anti-bias policies that cover gay people, students enter the classroom having been steeped in the fag discourse during their former school experiences." It's a good thing for students to not have to deal with such things as this, and one can hope that it continues to diminish.

Milton J. Bennett writes (1998) "The study of intercultural communication has tried to answer the question, 'How do people understand one another when they do not share a common cultural experience?' . . . Today, living in multicultural societies within a global village, we all face the question every day." Communication is important according to Bennett. Aaron says, "I feel that if I work hard and be ambitious I will feel like I'm moving up the ladder rather quickly with large schedules as well as meeting a lot of new people to help me with things I may not understand."


Being a college freshman is a first chance on a level playing field to pick his/her own friends, do what he/she wants to do, have control over his/her life to finally mold him/herself into who he/she wants to be. With this power comes discipline, because with the ability to change his/her life for the good, he/she also has the ability to change it for the bad (ex: dropping out). One of the most important lessons one will learn at college is time management and balance. As much as everyone would love to go out and party all day, they must discipline themselves to get school work done, or else the days at college could be few and numbered.


The psychological health is important to view when studying freshmen. It's all in how the student adapts to the new situations. Some handle the step rather well and are emotionally comfortable in the new cultural context. According to Martin and Nakayama (2010), "Obviously, the newcomer's psychological well-being will depend somewhat on members of  the host society . . . if migrants are made to feel welcome, they will feel more comfortable faster. but if the host society sens messages that migrants don't really belong, psychological adjustment becomes much more difficult." Aaron says that he has felt welcome at the University of Nebraska. He even compared what  being a freshman is like now as a college to what it was like when he first started high school four years ago. "It is similar because of the whole not knowing where classes are and being scared of making it on time or making a fool of myself. All while trying to do my best get good grades and balance my social life and my after school activities."

REFERENCES

Bennett, Milton J. (1998). Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication: Selected Readings. 1.

Pascoe, C.J. (2007). 'Dude, you're a fag' Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/06/28/pascoe

Martin, Judith N., & Nakayama, Thomas K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. 326.

Introduction to Cultural Reporter Project

Taking the next step in life is always tough for most people. Some are eager and excited to try out the new things that lie ahead. Others are anxious and worried about taking that step. One may even feel all types of these feelings. It's my goal to explore the culture that is of those taking the next step. I will specifically compare freshmen.  It will be interesting to see how freshmen entering high school compare to freshmen starting their college careers. I have a brother who is starting his freshman year here at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a cousin (also male) who is beginning his high school career in Osmond, Nebraska. Both students are going to be amazing sources for this project.

Both steps (high school and college) are there to prepare the mind of the individual for a career down the road. I remember both steps in my life, but it has been so long I don't feel I could do the culture proper justice. I know how hard these steps are, and I'm looking to my next step of graduating college in December, finding a job and getting married in May.

There are certainly different types of communication with both of the cultures I plan to study. Verbal and nonverbal clues tell exactly how certain people adapt to the new situation of moving up in school. In this sense, moving up also means moving back down. The freshmen are technically on the bottom (no other way of putting it). This project would be great information for those taking the new step because it will take first-hand experience of those who are freshmen (in both senses) and possibly of those who were at one time. Some students handle the change great and continue on with success. Others have influences or plain can't handle the amount of change in his or her life.

I think the comparison will be dramatically different between the two subjects. Going to college, some won't know anyone in classes whereas a high school freshman may already have friends before moving up. I feel that this is definitely a culture and that there are studies of stuff like this being done by professionals and psychologists.

This project is fluid, and I'm open to hear of any ideas you may have.