The 5 Essential Ingredients To Achieve Academic Success
In the song “Kooks” from Hunky Dory, Musician, artist, and philosopher David Bowie sings “And if you ever had to go to school/ remember how it messed up this old fool” (Bowie 1971). Even if school did impair him in some respect, he understands that education is a transformative experience. The metamorphosis of an individual involves learning and experience, and to be successful in academics is a proliferation of questions- What is success? Why am I attending college? How will academics transform me? For my short answer, academic success can be defined in myriad ways, and I have delineated it as five main ingredients.
To this end, my first ingredient to academic success is advocacy. Advocacy is an ingredient to obtain necessary resources, and to act in the interest of others. Advocacy can be demonstrated with involvement in student government and as a student leader. There are also forms of advocacy that are overlooked or unspoken. I find that people are more comfortable discussing my role as a Conflict Resolution Liaison than with the self-advocacy required to obtain accommodations. My main point is that advocacy is diverse, and despite many advances, mental health remains a marginalized topic. I would not petition for extended time if I was not diagnosed with anxiety. Advocacy is often individual, and it encourages us to hold conversations about complicated and difficult topics. As such, scademic success hinges on the advocacy to realize one’s potential and value.
In her essay “The Outsider Within”, sociologist Patricia Hill Collins postulates that African American women have a situated form of knowledge that allows them to better articulate and critically analyze their social oppression (Collins 1986). Insofar as advocacy can be personalized, it can be also collective; thus, a piece of advocacy is to acknowledge social inequalities and act upon them in a variety of contexts. This brings us to my second ingredient for academic success; awareness. Understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses is important for exam day and writing essays. Although there is more at stake with self-awareness than passing tests and maintaining a GPA. It is one matter to acknowledge inequality in classes and discussions, but another to recognize one’s own privilege within an institution. The burden of change is not the responsibility of one group, hence, awareness is valuable in school and the world outisde. People need to listen to minority voices, and to gain an awareness of their social context as they filter through the education system. Academic success is not simply a major and a GPA; it is engaging with thinkers, such as Collins, in order to know the power structures of our society. From this awareness, one is better positioned to facilitate positive changes in their community and to make the most out of their education.
My third ingredient to academic success is finding a community. This can range from chatting with a professor during office hours, joining a club, or making connections in your dormitory. Universities are often marketed as communities in their own right. While this is true in many respects, it is easy to feel isolated on campus. Student organizations are opportunities to form networks, and to find involvement. I am a member of Loyola’s Minorities and Philosophy chapter (MAP), so I am glad to have a community to talk about philosophical issues, and to ask for advice from my mentor. Networking comes in many forms, and you should connect with peers and mentors; you will be more likely to enjoy your student experience, and to connect yourself with on-campus resources. To this point, being in a group makes it possible to advocate for a common cause, thereby raising awareness of social issues within your academic community.
Fourth, I suggest variety as a key ingredient to academic success. I study English, Chinese, and philosophy at Loyola University of Chicago. The study of literature benefits from fields such as philosophy, and Chinese is a valuable language tool. I was born in China and raised in the United States, so my reasons for studying Chinese are also connected with my heritage. My personal experience is not all-encompassing; I love it when I hear that someone studies linguistics and physics, or other topics that are not immediately perceived as complementary. It is important to balance practical reasons for learning with what brings you fulfillment. Since college is a time of exploration, studying a variety of subjects as majors, minors, or extracurriculars will bolster your critical thinking and encourage a diverse skill set. As a result of a diverse array of subjects, you will be better prepared to confront challenges and to unleash your potential after you graduate.
Finally, unpredictability. To embrace and manage unpredictability is a valuable asset in any environment. For students, this is especially pertinent. Imagine typing on a computer, a minute away from the end of a midterm. The essay requires a conclusion, and the fourth body paragraph is not complete. After time, you are forced to submit the unfinished essay for the midterm. That person was me in my freshman honor seminar. Even with preparation, the unexpected occurs. Without the unexpected, life would be meaningless. Chaos is necessary for learning. The idea is to experience setbacks as challenges, and to assess them as points of growth in the future. Preparing for adversity is not the same as experiencing it. Adapting to situations with flexibility and agility is particularly important for the pandemic environment. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge one’s limits and to set personal boundaries. No more studying until the one in the morning. Fostering an openness to change, and the mental toolkit to address the unpredictable is crucial to academic success.
Unpredictability can also be framed as openness to opportunities; my future can be a variety of possibilities. I do not view life as a fixture, or a crystal with perfectly ordered components; life is messy, hazardous, and it can at times, feel meaningless. In his poem, The Wasteland, T.S Eliot writes “I will show you fear in a handful of dust” (Eliot 1992). The poem has shifting narrative perspectives, and the first section has at least four viewpoints. I recall this quote in order to show that the proliferation of ideas can cause people to feel insignificant. My five ingredients are parts of an entire whole, because success does not possess a single recipe. Multiplicity celebrates diversity, and expands academic success to different meanings. In the poem, war and violence trivializes lives; it affects the domestic and private spheres. In any circumstance, fear is a reduction of our meaning, and fear itself can be reduced to dust. The source of my fear might be dust to others, and their fear can be pointless to me. However, our experiences and feelings are not insignificant. Peoples’ experiences are collective, and they matter as their individual grains in the crush of dust. Moments that are unimportant now can mean everything in the future. Education is another point in our lives; it can be as meaningless as fear and dust, but it can also be a catalyst for change.
