CSUF MSW STUDENTS SPEAK ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE STARTING THE MASTER PROGRAM [47:02-51:22]

And I think it comes back to my whole thing like taking a stance of curiosity and openness and learning and too often I hear the stance of. It was just like a chore to do this thing to do and granted is good I feel like this but. I think coming from a learning first standpoint will want to make it more enjoyable get you to participate in what you're learning and you'll probably do better anyway because you'll actually learn more. I think learning the most possible is the same goal is getting a except they feel better or worse depending on your framing so for me just taking ownership and listening to Gavin's nudges and class more often. I definitely feel like I'm one who participates in class because yeah quite a lot and. For me it's like what I've I've always been like that in class like throughout the whole however many years i've been doing this. But for me it's just because a lot of the topics that we've talked about especially in like the five like the five of one through three series or with like diverse populations or like just like some of those classes are things that I've. Taken a lot of classes and undergrad and some even in high school regarding and so like I it's just something that really interests me and like I feel very engaged with so like when I you know like I know the answer like I want to I want to talk about it and so so like for me i've also been very mindful of like sometimes i'm like okay Marjan like let's. Let's let's let's let's compose ourselves and let's let's reign it in because I feel like I would just keep raising my hand and like I don't want to be that person some already that person but we need to. reign it in but with like professors. I think just having conversations with them either like before class or like during office hours or something, especially if I know that it's a professor who's. interested in a subgroup that I'm interested in or like in a different part of like aspects of social work that I might be interested in like just like going in and even if I don't have a question about like an assignment or a class just like. being like can you tell me about like this or what you think of this or like what your experiences are with this because like. You know like they're there are people to and like building those connections because also like you never know when it might help in the future like if like they can help you like networking and things like that so i'm a big proponent of just kind of like getting to know your professors as well. i'm thinking back on that point because I feel like it can be really easy to view professors as like barriers on your way to the grades you want. And I found when you talk to them it's like oh yeah like there are people and they they make decisions based on this reasoning and even if I don't always agree with it like at least it's a reasonable take and. I think it helps humanized experience and it makes it less irritating when you remember that the professors and Dr Bailey seriously nodding along no. So i'll just want to pick it back on that point. And I think for me why try to do because I think in class maybe I am on the quieter side. In the first part of the semester before things get really busy and papers are due is just going to office hours even if I don't necessarily have anything to talk about and just. Introducing myself and almost asking like what do I need in order to be successful in your class this semester and also like read about the professor and then you have a baseline to go off of and you can ask them questions about their interest and that. In a way kind of like breaks down a little bit of that wall between scary professor and grad student and I remember a doctor cat at our orientation said that office hours are sometimes like lonely hours and I was like oh I don't want the professors to be lonely like. So you're not wasting anyone's time and you're not like I don't know being annoying or a burden if that's like something that runs through your mind the professors are there for you.