"If you can dream, beleive,concive you can acheive!"

Yadira Ivette Garcia February 8, 2008

English Composition 101+

Essay

"If you can dream, believe,conceive you can achieve!"

Without the Urban Education Program I would not be the person that I am today. The Urban Education Program helped me develop better social skills, understand what time management is, meet new people, and gave me a better understanding of who I am and where I want to be in the future. Before I even participated in the Urban Education Program I did not know what I wanted to do with my life, but I did know several things that I wanted to pursue. I wanted to, and still want to, major in Fine Arts, learn a couple of languages, become a linguist to translate for people, and travel the world with my best friend. Basically I want to become a renaissance women. Today I know that I still want to pursue the same dream that I had then, plus of helping relate my achievements to younger cousins so that they have better attitudes about school.

While I was participating in the Urban Education Program I was struggling a lot. I was behind in a lot of my work, I couldn't’t comprehend a good deal of the materials and assignments that I was receiving in my class, I had trouble with my time management skills and I really wasn’t great at studying. This occurred because I did not always seek the assistance that I needed at the time that I needed it. In the end, I learned to understand my strengths, my weaknesses and later on worked on strengthening those so called weaknesses. At the time, I did not realize the significance of my . It was not until the end of the program that I truly appreciated my time spent there. The significance of the Urban Education Program was to help us get a feel for college life . Although the program was dreadfully difficult for me, if I had a second chance to do it over I would try as hard as I could to get the grade that I so deeply desired. Related, if I could turn back time I would do everything differently. I would study my head off and attempt to get all A’s. Although I was informed of how difficult and what to expect of the program I still ended up underestimating it, which caused all of my struggle.

The event of attending the Urban Education program was important to me because it was a chance to broaden my horizons with new experiences which I do not do very often. It was a chance to escape the authority of my parents, to learn during the summer, to meet new people and to earn college credits. It helped me understand myself as a woman, because not many people, let alone women in my family, have graduated from college and the program seemed to be a gateway for my breaking that chain of ignorance and lack education.

The Urban Education Program helped me grow intellectually, especially the Critical Thinking class that I had to take as a requirement of the program. The class helped me think critically about any topic by analyzing and evaluating it. Critical thinking is a form of judging anything, and/or anyone, using purposeful and reflective subjects. I believe that the ability to think critically is a tool that we all should have in our lives.

In completing the Urban Education Program, it helped others and myself see myself in a way I never thought possible. I have much more confidence in myself and I believe that I will make a difference in this life. My family even has a better respect for me, because they can see that I am trying to make something of myself. That gives me the sort of encouragement that I need to continue, but at the same time it also feels like I have a heavy load of pressure on my shoulders. I love the fact that my family believes that I am going to make a difference in my life. What I want even more though is for them to see that they could do the same for themselves, because it is never to late to make a change in your life. The Urban Education Program is definitely a experience that I would recommend to anyone who has the will to continue no matter what their situation.