It takes time for new students at college to learn how to manage their schedules and acquire self-discipline, according to writing skill specialist at the Multicultural Education Center Ann Oliver Lepore.

“As a freshman you come in, and here’s a whole new world, and there’s a lot of temptations,” Lepore said.

Lepore said if people don’t come to college with some knowledge of what the schedule adjustment will be like and how they will have to learn to juggle time, it can be a real challenge for them.

“There’s so many little things they can do, but I think number one, accept that they have a job,” Lepore said. “The student has a job. Their career now is academic. This is their job, and once you accept that, it makes it a lot easier.”

Lepore said when coming to college, it’s important for people to figure out what works for them and with whom they are comfortable.

“They’re alone, and so they don’t have a cohort yet,” Lepore said. “They haven’t made those social connections,” Lepore said. “Some students don’t know where to go, don’t know what to ask.”

Lepore said she sees students who think they would look foolish if they asked questions because it makes them feel vulnerable. However, the students she has worked with overcome that pretty fast after their freshman year.

“I get students who wait,” Lepore said. “Sometimes they wait too long, and you can almost see this visual wave catching up to them, and it’s just going to sweep them under.”

Lepore said her best students come in even before anything has been assigned in a class.

“They’ll realize this might be little tricky for them, especially if they have a busy schedule,” Lepore said.

Lepore said students in college are also trying to learn how to balance the other classes.

“It’s a fine dance that you have to learn, but waiting to get help even if you barely start something, that’s when you need to go find someone,” Lepore said.

Lepore said there are multiple student services on campus, and it is wonderful to see students to take advantage of those.

“There’s things going on all over and it helps socially too,” Lepore said. “You make friends, you feel more confident. It’s a win-win.”

Lepore said one way she’s different from the Writing Center, which helps students the same way Lepore does, is she only works with minority students.

“It’s one-on-one, and usually I develop almost always a rapport with the student,” Lepore said. “They come back, we have a friendship, and I get to know that student’s style of writing and how they think.”

Lepore said she is versatile because she recognizes how people uniquely learn.

“Without sounding like a broken record or their mom or their dad, enjoy yourself while you’re in college, but make it balanced,” Lepore said. “Be self-disciplined. Try as hard as you can and find out your own method for studying.”

Jacob Schaubs, a national merit scholar, said he is attending UW Oshkosh on an academic scholarship because he performed in at least the top 3 percent of the PSAT.
Schaubs said he keeps busy by working in the costume shop, tutoring students and volunteering in the theatre department.

“First of all, the theater work is for an art, work towards [finding] and expressing truth, work for creating something,” Schaubs said.

Schaubs said he accomplishes two tasks when he works as a tutor on campus.

“Tutoring helps me learn,” Schaubs said. “I guess it’s actually a method of study. Yes, I’m getting money for it, but it’s not about that. It’s about helping someone, and it’s about improving my own abilities.”

Schaubs said he stays organized by making sure all of his events are scheduled properly. As long as he checks his schedule, he can do anything.

“The most stressful thing is my hours don’t align with the hours of a lot of other students,” Schaubs said.

Schaubs said he gets up at 6 a.m. for his 8 a.m. classes throughout the week, and his days usually end by 9 p.m.

“Nine hours of sleep is ideal for someone in our age group, and that means that I have to ask people to be quiet all the time, and often they aren’t,” Schaubs said. “It poses a real obstacle to my ability to be well-rested to perform optimally.”

Web project manager at UWO’s Intergrated Marketing Communications Kayde Kemper helped create a video for Facebook outlining the time management hurdles of students.
“We saw a similar video someone had done on your whole life span and how you spend your time, and we wanted to localize it to UW Oshkosh students and their four years that they spend here,” Kempen said.

Kempen said the IMC wanted to have a way to engage with students, and it knew the main way it was reaching students was through its video posts on social media.
Kempen said the idea for the video was to show a breakdown of how an individual could spend his time. A lot is spent in class, studying or working, but there is also a lot of spare time for students too.

Kempen said the main audience of the video has been alumni and parents of UWO students, and a lot of alumni have reminisced and shared the video.
“We are hoping when students see it that it makes them think and they get involved, or change the way they manage their time,” Kempen said.