Week 1

Being a high school student, the college experience was very new and strange. In high school, you're still very controlled. Everything is done for you. You just mindlessly go to classes and do as the teacher says. At the very end, you might get some busywork homework to do after the school day ends. It's structured.

Here at UNO, in the Summer Scholars program, classes are not. Although we technically only have 1 real class to attend, we have another "class" in the morning before it to help us learn about college, how to get into colleges, and study groups for the class that we are enrolled in. This allows us as high school students to experience getting from class to class in a college setting. This, along with the very nature of the class, campus, and student body, really impresses upon me the freedom and loose nature of the environment here.

My class, Autobiographical Writing, contains no busywork like one would find in high school; it's discussion, learning, and then the class is over. No boring worksheets, no little excercises, and for this class in particular, no passive learning; this class is interactive, and discussions really feel free and as though students guide them along with the instructor. Between classes, we can go anywhere on the campus to grab food, to study, to chat, to do whatever we really feel like. It's a great feeling.

After our class is over, it's lunch time, and I got to experience the on campus food court for the first time. I must say, the food is much, much more enjoyable than that given at high schools. There's a large choice, and you feel like you're no longer in the little leagues, with those second-rate imitations of food. There's real pizza, there's real chicken, there's real soda. The price is a bit more, but it's still managable. If you don't want to spend the money there, you can go off campus and eat elsewhere as well. The college is open and free, a great place to learn.

I think it's quite obvious; I've enjoyed my first week.