A Student’s Challenges
A person normally has to go through several mandatory stages in his life, which would prepare him as he goes on to pursue other, larger goals and interests.
One such mandatory stage is going through school to get adequate education that would prepare one in whatever career he is setting his eyes on. Student life is fun, as it is basically a stage with less pressure than professional life. Moreover, the school environment is pervaded by a mixture of competition and friendship, which makes it a perfect learning ground for anyone. However, student life would not be complete without its share of difficult struggles and challenges on the part of the student. This is especially true in cases of college students, since they are required to learn loads of theories.
Being placed in an environment where one is expected to absorb and learn many things, a college student usually has a host of challenges to accomplish, which could give him pressure and stress. Nevertheless, it is believed that these challenges are helpful for the holistic development of a person. Certain examples of challenges would support this position.One specific challenge among college students involves coping and succeeding within the environment of student project teams (Holmer 591). Students in higher levels of education are often left with a group and expected to deliver output. Perhaps due to the level of education of the students, instructors or professors often leave students to themselves, without providing guidelines, support, or instructions (Holmer 590).
This leaves students lost and unable to decide how to go about a certain project. Moreover, the lack of support from instructors, such as feedback conflict management, or dialog (Holmer 590), inhibits students from learning non-theoretical but valuable skills, such as leadership and team performance (Holmer 591). Thus, college students are allowed to work in teams without learning key interpersonal skills. Despite this, individual students get high grades (Holmer 591), since grades are based on the output, and not on the interpersonal skills used and developed within the team. It is thus apparent that students are cultured into thinking that success does not necessarily require interpersonal or leadership skills (Holmer 591).
The challenge in college students, therefore, is to develop key interpersonal and leadership skills through the various activities provided in school, such as team projects. This goal should be accomplished, despite the absence of support mechanisms from instructors or professors. In doing so, a student is allowed to learn valuable lessons from circumstances that are made available in a school setting, helping him acquire skilled competencies that would be indispensable in his future professional life.Another challenge among college students is the maintenance or development of good ethical behavior in both individual and organizational settings in school (Goltz and Hietapelto 230). Most schools recognize the fact that a large population of their students does not meet high ethical standards.
Indeed, the widespread unethical behavior of students is evidenced by various dishonest acts common among college students such as “misrepresentation of authorship, misrepresentation of effort, falsifying information, and accessing nonpermissable material or information (Goltz and Hietapelto 222).”Thus, most schools formulate ethics challenge activities that are designed to promote ethical behavior (Goltz and Hietapelto 222). In this respect, the challenge to students consists in resisting the urge to engage in unethical practices, especially when opportunities for so doing present themselves.Indeed, it is easy to simply ride with the excellence or industry of another person and claim his work as one’s own. This easy way ensures a student that he could pass his course with minimal commitment and work.
However, pursuant to ethics challenge activities in most schools today, college students would be given the opportunity to shed off these unwanted attitudes, which could prove detrimental to their future careers.In sum, it cannot be denied that being in college is a challenging stage in one’s life. However, these challenges should be taken as opportunities for personal growth and development, not only in education-related knowledge, but also for those bordering on interpersonal skills and ethical conduct. College life provides a rich environment for friendly and competitive interaction, which could provide significant skills training for students.
