As it draws near to the end of the Spring 2019 semester, I will have officially completed my first academic year at PLNU as a transfer student. Coming to the university as an experienced college student, I thought it would be an easy transition between schools, but really it was a challenge that I had to overcome.
Many of the obstacles I’ve faced include financial stability for tuition, being introduced to classes related to my major, only having two years to complete everything in order to graduate and meeting new people.
When I chose to become a student at PLNU I didn’t think about how my finances would be a problem, since I had a job. This was an on campus job which I had been a part of for two years, and had money saved up for any occasion. Also, I had help from financial aid at my previous college. I was thinking I had enough money, but I was completely wrong because I failed to realize how much I needed to save for tuition. The great thing I learned though was that I could sign up for the tuition installment plan, which helped me a lot and I could pay off my tuition bill as each month went by. With this experience of financial trouble I have learned the importance of scholarships and I have signed up for many scholarships to be able to be ready for the next academic year tuition payments.
At my previous college there weren’t hands on film studies classes, but there were theatre classes, which was the closest I could get to understanding acting and directing. When coming to the university I was already signed up for classes where I would be learning about the film and tv industry. It was exciting to finally be able to figure out what I’d be good at in the film industry, since I never had actual filming experience, just editing. The first semester was tough because learning new information and terminology takes me a moment to understand. As I look back at those challenging times, it makes me happy to know that if I didn’t go through those hard times, then I wouldn’t have been able to narrow down the job I want once I graduate.
Before I considered coming to PLNU I had no clue about the agreement plan set up with my college and I thought I would be free from having to do any general ed classes and could just take my major classes. Since there were some GE classes I didn’t take at my college because the plan I was following had a lesser amount of class requirements, which lead to me needing to take more classes at the university. With this situation it made me question if I would be able to graduate in two years and if it would be possible since I still had my major classes to do which are important. Overall though, the PLNU Records office is amazing when it comes to making sure your on track with your schooling and gave me hope that I will be graduating on time. Also with taking general ed classes at PLNU it has made the learning experience more interesting, because it often relates back to scripture, which is great.
I’m used to having to meet new people because I had to move to different places a lot growing up, so meeting new people again at the university was a different experience, since a lot of other people were new too. With the transition to this new school environment, I was not only meeting new people, but also trying to find the person I truly am. Meeting new people isn’t always easy especially as an introvert, but I know when those good people come along, the friendship is true.
Steve Anderson 
superadmin