Continuing Academic Success
Richard E. Garcia GEN/201 (BSGU1G4422) 4/6/2015 Jeremy NeVille

Continuing Academic Success Academic success begins with knowing what you want to achieve and who you want to become. Going back to school after a long time can be frightening and intimidating however we are all capable of success by utilizing our strengths and being aware of our weaknesses. We have many skills that we can use to aid in learning that we have developed though everyday life. There are methods to learning that if used correctly can greatly increase the chances for success such as making future goals. The ability to think critically is essential to becoming a good student. By having good critical thinking skills you will produce great schoolwork and make better choices. The University of Phoenix has a vast amount of resources to aid in student learning. There are strategies to learning and tools to be explored at the university library and writing center. While everyone has different learning styles, establishing educational goals, exploring university resources, employing academic integrity, and developing excellent critical thinking skills leads to academic success. In order to be successful educational goals must be established. Koch and Nafziger (2011) believed that goals affect people’s perceptions of the future. Having goals keeps you on track and makes it clear what it takes to achieve them. According to Koch and Nafziger (2011), “We show that setting a challenging goal for future performance makes future selves strive harder: they become motivated by the fear of falling short of the goal. An increase in the goal level set today allows an individual to raise his motivation to work hard in the future.” (p. 213). My long-term goals are to get a masters degree in information technology and start a great career in systems networking and maintenance. I know what I want to do in the future and can prepare myself with short-term goals that will assist in getting there. My short-terms goals are to get my bachelor’s degree in information technology by focusing on one class at a time at the University of Phoenix. Obtaining an internship in IT will also help me be more prepared for when I start my career. My long-term goal to start a career in IT keeps me motivated to persist in school until I can achieve it. I will use my own personal learning style of watching and thinking to help me maximize how well I learn during school. The best way I learn is by watching videos, pictures, or graphs. I also learn by thinking about what I’ve just read or seen to help me further understand what is being taught to me. This is my way of learning and everyone has their own unique way. The University of Phoenix has many resources to help students succeed in their classes in order to achieve their goals. The center for writing excellence is a great tool to master the writing process. Most classes as well as most careers require that you can write effectively and properly. The center includes tutorials for avoiding plagiarism and examples of citations. Plagiarism is important because claiming other’s work as your own can lead to failure in the class or expulsion from the university. The writing center helps students avoid such cases in order to be successful in class and in your career. The library is a great source for scholarly articles and extra learning material that supplements the material learned in class and also helps with research. Other sources included a mathematical review with labs to help improve skills. The career section of the online classroom assists with making resumes and looking up possible careers that are relevant to your degree. The University of Phoenix has implemented a wide ranged resource system to help students succeed in their classes. Life is about making choices that affect where and who we want to be. Ethics is very important to making life decisions because values can lead us to making the best possible choices. Values lead to the formation of a basis of culture. A value-based culture is important because it determines what is good and bad, acceptable and not within a society. Such a culture leads to highly moral decision making and great fulfillment. According to Levitt-Rosenthal (2013), “Throughout history, using one's values in personal decision making has implied integrity, ethical behavior, and leadership.”. One thing employers value is integrity. In the workplace we must behave ethically in order to make positive decisions that affect others. Academic integrity is important to avoid plagiarism. Not only is it morally wrong to claim someone else’s work as your own but it is a poor decision that will get you kicked out of school and seriously hurt your chances of accomplishing your career goals. My own personal ethical lens inventory says that I value sensibility and equality. This will greatly help me succeed and make better decisions academically at the University of Phoenix because of all the team assignments and discussions I will have in future classes. Working together with my classmates will yield better group assignments and help make new friends. My career goal in IT requires being on a team to manage computer systems. My ELI will help me in my career to make good decisions so that the team can work efficiently and meet all daily requirements. Critical thinking is one of the most important skills learned in college. Employers value critical thinking more than the major itself. It is also important because life offers a series of problems to solve and decisions to make. Goldsmith (2013) stated, “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.” Life is about solving problems. In order to perform well in IT I will need to be able to think critically to solve any problems that arise and the reasons they occurred in the first place. In the classroom I will need to think critically to excel in my classes and not just do average work. The point of going to school is to get a degree and become a professional. It is to take all that knowledge learned and become exceptionally well in applying it. Life is about productivity, producing great papers, solutions to problems and good decisions. Critical thinking is a skill that I will continue to develop in school to ensure excellent productivity. Academic success is possible when you make a plan for the future and persist in reaching your goals. Establishing academic and career goals is a great way to stay motivated and track your progress. The university has multiple resources to help me reach my goals. The writing center will help me produce outstanding research backed papers and maintain academic integrity. An ethical person will make moral decisions that yield positive results. This will lead me to be successful in school and in my career because it will teach me to value my own work and take pride in its importance. Critical thinking will help me excel in reaching my goals, using resources appropriately and making good ethical decisions all together. It will help me solve any problems in may encounter in life and be able to be happy. Academic success is possible with all these tools that I will learn and use and excel at here at the University of Phoenix.

References Goldsmith, R.E. (2013, December). Encouraging Critical Thinking Skills among College Students. The Exchange, 2(2), 9-19. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/docview/1640459489?accountid=35812 Levitt-Rosenthal, N. (2013). Ethics, values, and decision making. Frontiers of Health Services Management, 30(1), 27-32. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1443260901?accountid=35812 Koch, A. K., & Nafziger, J. (2011). Self-Regulation through Goal Setting. Scandinavian Journal Of Economics, 113(1), 212-227.