My Time at ARCC

My name is Jessica Dai, and this is my third and final year attending Anoka-Ramsey. When I was a high school senior, I was planning on going to Hamline University in hopes of going into their marketing or music program. However, when the time was getting closer to committing to a specific college, I realized I still didn’t really know what career path I wanted to go into, nor if I could even afford to attend Hamline. Knowing that I could go to Anoka-Ramsey to get my generals done, and that it was close to my house, I decided to make a last-minute switch and apply to Anoka-Ramsey. I was glad that I could get my generals done on a lower budget and close to home; however, I never realized how difficult these classes would be.

During my first year at Anoka-Ramsey, I was balancing college and work, as I used to work at a childcare center. As much as I could do both, work caused me to take up most of my time to study, and I didn’t perform well in my first few classes. Although I got lucky and didn’t have to retake any of my classes, I still felt guilty that my full attention wasn’t focused on those classes and wished that my grades would’ve turned out better for my first year. 

When I was about to go into my second year of college, I quit my off-campus job to become involved in work-study. I managed to achieve a position as a desk worker for Anoka-Ramsey’s financial aid department and met people who had differing goals for themselves. Although I did get to learn more about Anoka-Ramsey’s financial aid services, it was a humbling experience to work with people who grasped the basic points of these resources, rather than I did, as I was slowly learning everything. With this position, I met two of my closest friends during my time at financial aid and have hung out outside of work and school. Despite meeting new people and being able to work at school, I still wasn’t doing well in my classes and nearly had to retake one of my classes. However, my second year was also when I decided what career path, I wanted to go into. During my meeting with my advisor, she was aware that I enjoyed writing and creating online content in my free time. Therefore, she suggested I go into communications and figure out what pathway I wanted to take from there.

When I was a few months away from finishing my second year of college, I decided to quit my financial aid position, but I still wanted to work at ARCC. While job searching online for work-study, I found a student activities position and felt like wanting to get involved on campus again. After learning more about the position and realizing how social this job was, I backed away from taking a social role, and my to-be supervisor suggested working at the food pantry. Although this position is physically demanding, I found this job to be my favorite position and would like to find a career similar to giving others a hand in the future. During my third year at Anoka-Ramsey, I also learned more about what I wanted to do with my major, such as becoming involved with the school newspaper. I also took more communication-related classes and am currently taking a public speaking class. Public speaking has pushed me out of my comfort zone numerous times and has taught me how to advocate for myself. Although I am capable of speaking to others, I prefer not to do it.

As I am graduating, I would like to thank my family and friends for supporting me and being there for me when classes get hard. I would also like to show my appreciation to my professors, as even though I didn’t do well in some of their classes, they are passionate about the things they teach and want me to excel in my career. As I’m in work-study, the ARCC staff are friendly and are open to any questions and concerns. Lastly, I wanted to thank Dr. B for allowing me to write for the student newspaper and the student newspaper editor team for proofreading my content (Hi guys :D). This class made me remember how much I love writing and hope to find a career related to writing content. This class is worth taking for those who are willing to share their ideas and want to improve their writing skills.