Growth Trajectory

Back in August 2015 I entered HPIAM as a student with poor communication skills. I

was very shy and I was that student that hated asking questions in class because I did not want to

seem dumb. I would ask my friends for help and if they did not understand the assignment I

would just stay quiet, and try to figure it out by myself. I had always been that type of student

since elementary. At HPIAM we have to make many presentations and we have to use more

professional language, I did not know how to present and code switch that well. Having all these

presentations such as IDP and having to talk to professionals to help us with information really

helped me work on my code switching. I had to speak to a doctor over the phone for a Medical

Intervention project and all the presentations helped me practice using a more professional

vocabulary. In class I learned that I was not going to do good if I did not start asking questions.

In my math class I was struggling very slightly, but I was still struggling nonetheless. I decided

that in class instead of staying quiet that I was going to start asking for help and ask questions.

Now being a senior in high school I’m not as shy as I used to be and I believe I have good

communication skills, I am more outgoing and it is a little easier to talk to teachers or people in

general. In class now when I don’t understand something I am no longer afraid to ask questions, I

know that asking questions does not make me seem dumb in anyway. The class that this has

really helped me in would be AP Statistics, that is one of the classes I am currently struggling in

right now but I always ask for help when I need it. After four years of being at HPIAM

presenting has gotten easier for me because now I believe I know how to code switch and when

it needs to be done. This is a very important skill to have because because in college I will need

to code switch when presenting and speaking to my professors. This will also help me in college

because I will feel comfortable asking my professor or even my peers for help, when needed.
This will help me beyond college, into the work field, when I am looking for a job or when I am

working with other professionals.

My freshman year I was also lazy, but I don’t mean lazy in the typical way. Lazy in the

way that I had no motivation and I was lost, I did not know what I wanted to do with my life. My

friends at this time would talk about the colleges they were going to apply to once we became

seniors. They knew what school they hoped to get in to and what they wanted to major in. At this

time in my life I did not really care about college, I knew that college was important and that I

should go. I honestly didn’t care if I went to college or not, I would just be happy with

graduating high school. Around my junior year of high school this all changed though. We had

been researching careers in the medical field since freshman year, and this made me start

thinking about my future. I was also taking college courses my junior year which made me think

about maybe getting a career in the medical field. Junior year was the year I decided that I did

want to go to college and I did care if I went or not. Now as a senior I am ambitious, I know that

I want to go to college and major in psychology. I was really hoping to get into CSUF but that

didn’t work out so I went with my backup school CSUN. I know that I want to be successful and

be able to give back to my parents. I know that I have to work extra hard to achieve my goal of

becoming a school counselor. Having this ambitious behavior will help me work hard in college

as well as in my career. It will help me meet my goals in life.

Lastly, my freshman year I was very impatient. I would get frustrated very easily

especially, if I was working on something and it wasn’t going how I wanted it to. We had a

project for biology where we had to create a model representing Darwin’s survival of the fittest

theory. My group and i did not know how we wanted to do our project and I was getting

frustrated and irritated. I was working on this project at home and my mom saw me getting
impatient and frustrated, she told me to just relax and be patient. My mom helped me relax,

focus, and take my time with the project. Once I was patient I finished my project and it came

out how I wanted it to. As a senior if I get assigned a project or an assignment I make sure to be

patient and take my time. I know that if I get frustrated I won’t be able to get my things done.

This will help me in the future because in college and in the work field you have to have patience

in order to finish your task, and you can not get frustrated easily. HPIAM has helped shape me

into the wonderful student I am today.