Emily Miller, Senior Copy Editor
You don’t have to be the best or the biggest or the most well-known to do great things. This might seem obvious and likely you’ve heard this before, but let me reiterate: perfectionism is not the only way to “be good” or do well.
As someone who cares a lot about making a difference, about helping other people, and about social justice, knowing this was paramount. I’ve spent a lot of my time here at Saint Leo thinking abstractly about these ideas and that simply doesn’t achieve what one would hope.
So, my advice to you is to simply be aware of your surroundings. What things can be done at Saint Leo to improve life for the most people? I encourage you to find people with similar interests and work toward your goals; take advantage of the small, yet tight-knit community Saint Leo provides.
For me, I wish I had worked harder to advocate for recycling on campus, especially given the newer coffee shop which primarily uses plastic cups and straws. This won’t by any means “save the turtles” or solve the climate crisis, but it’s something. I think disregarding any change on the grounds that it is “too small” pushes us further from any positive change at all.
What you want doesn’t have to be recycling on campus, but the point still stands for any positive change you want to see in the world: that change can be applied on a smaller scale. Activism doesn’t have to be grand. And I hope you take this advice with you in any place you live.
Christian Silva, Creative Director
Something I would highly recommend is to get to know your Program Evaluation well: it can be found under Academic Profile in your eLion Portal page. As someone who completed the Honors Program, it is important to know that, if you are in Honors, the classes you take within the program will replace some of the University Exploration classes. During my freshman semester, my Student Success coach registered me for the two required Human Adventure classes so I could complete that requirement early. While they may have thought they were helping me, they did not understand the ramifications of this decision.
What my Success Coach did not know is that eventually one of my Honors classes would have replaced and covered one of the Human Adventure classes I had been enrolled in. This led to my scholarships being used for an unnecessary extra class that would have been covered by the Honors Program to begin with. I was left with paying for an extra class that could have saved me a couple thousand dollars–all due to my student success coach not understanding and knowing that being in the Honors Program would have taken care of some required classes.
This is why I think you should quickly learn to take control and know your academic course path if you already know what major you want, whether you are in the Honors Program or not. While I did not have the best student success coach and academic advisor relationship, every student may have a different experience and this should not shy you away from checking with them. My only advice is that, while you may get help from your student success coach or academic advisor, knowing all the classes you need to take and the fine print will definitely help you in the long-term.
Another important thing I want you to know is that if you have scholarships, look into how they will cover tuition. I decided to get a minor along with my major, but I did not know that certain scholarships, like Bright Futures, only covered up to a certain number of credits and not necessarily four years of college. I thought that my Bright Futures scholarship would generally cover my four years, but the scholarship details actually stated it would only cover up to 120 credit hours, which for just cover a fully declared major. This caused me to lose out on a refund during my last semester of college, as I was finishing my Multimedia Management minor for a total of 132 credits.
Lastly, I would also advise students to take advantage of the scholarships provided at saintleo.academicworks.com. Not many students know about this site with its scholarship opportunities, but I was lucky enough to hear about it during my freshman year to apply and was gratefully awarded a couple during my four years at Saint Leo.
While I had a some unfortunate steps along the way, I was able to patch them up by taking control and knowing my own path better than any classmate, professor, student success coach, or academic advisor. Don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions and to question what you are told, as everyone’s situation is different. Best of luck, Lions!
Gracie Swind, Managing Editor
Take an active role in your education and time here, and I don’t mean this in the contrived way that’s it’s usually said. I don’t mean that you should make friends in class, go to campus functions, or study at the CAVE (not that you shouldn’t do those things, you absolutely should).
What I mean is that, often times, we as students allow ourselves to idle, to let serendipity take the reins while we take the backseat. This could be blindly accepting your class schedule, staying in a major you’ve realized you don’t like, or keeping to the usual four-year plan when all you want to do is be done.
It’s very easy to just let go and do whatever the university puts in front of you each year, but this is quite possibly one of the worst things you could do for your academic journey. It is only when you take an active role in steering the course of your college experience, when you don’t shy away from taking the hard road you know to be right, that you make your time and effort here worth it.
Trust your instincts and do your own research; if something about your schedule or your program evaluation seems off, look into and take active steps towards fixing it. Keep your own best interests in mind and don’t rely on student success coaches or advisors to do all the heavy-lifting for you. Nobody’s perfect and mistakes happen, but it’s up to you to catch those mistakes before they do serious damage.
If you’re unhappy with your major, change it. Change it more than once. Pick up a double major, a minor, join the Honors program a year late if you want to. Yes, there’s a point where it’s too late for some of those things, but you only get to that point by ignoring the signs that you wanted a change for too long. Take time to reflect on what you want, from life and from your degree, and take actionable steps to reach that goal.
Finally, the most charted course is not necessarily the one you’re meant to follow. Four years, five classes per semester, is the default path most students are set upon when they begin at Saint Leo. Don’t let this trap you if it doesn’t work you for. If you want to graduate in three years, go for it. Even if you don’t have AP or community college transfer credits, there are ways to speed up your education without breaking the bank.
Most students don’t realize this, but our default tuition covers six classes, not five; plus, all credits taken after the 18 that are covered by the usual tuition are half the normal price. If you can handle it, overloading your schedule allows you to cut a semester or even a year from your time here without needing any additional credits to start off with.
As a student, you have a responsibility to take care of yourself – mentally, physically, emotionally, academically, financially – while you’re here. Do what’s best for you, speak up and give yourself a voice, make waves and take action, but most of all, don’t ever settle.
